PEWTER AND THE REVIVAL OF ITS USE. 703 



while the double '' f " was a penal mark sometimes affixed to the 

 work of a member who had been found guilty of malpractices, and 

 signifying, as it did, false, the result commonly was his being obliged 

 to join the ranks of the journeymen of the craft. 



ALLOYS. 



And now I must refer to the alloys and the process of actual manu- 

 facture. It is still questionable, I believe, what were the precise alloys 

 and the relative proportions used in the manufacture of ancient pew- 

 ter ; and, indeed, down to our own day the word " pewter " has an elas- 

 tic meaning. I gather, however, that some among the old examples 

 show a large admixture of lead, as, for instance, a vase handle of the 

 fourth century of our era, dug up in Rome, which, according to 

 Bapst. was assayed in France early in the last century and found to 

 contain about three-sevenths lead, without any trace of copper. This 

 must, therefore, be considered as of very inferior quality. By way 

 of explanation it has been suggested, indeed, that tin procured with 

 difficulty from a remote and liarl)arous region was almost as dear as 

 silver, and that this may account for the low grade of pewter being 

 in use in Rome. On the other hand, however, Mr. Gowland's analy- 

 sis of varying examples of Roman pewter show that the question of 

 cost was by no means invariably considered. His results give for 

 Avhat he terms "typical" Roman pewter: 72.?A\ tin to 2<>.00 lead, 

 and 70.58 tin to 2T.()2 lead; that is, to put it roughly, three parts tin 

 and one part lead. 



According to Mr. AYelch, in the ordinances of the old English craft 

 of pewterers two qualities of pewter are described, the first of tin 

 Avith a small admixture (supposed to be about 5 per cent) of what is 

 called " kettle brass,'" otherwise known as " peak " metal, the peak 

 metal being a compound of copper with some other metal not defi- 

 nitely ascertained, and probably always kept a mystery of the guild. 

 The second quality was originally called " vessel of tin," being a com- 

 pound of tin and lead in the proportion of 1 hundredweight of tin 

 to not exceeding 20 pounds of lead. This alloy was afterwards 

 known as " lay," or lead, metal. 



Some old pieces of the Elizabethan and Stuart periods were 

 assayed two years ago by my friend, Mr. Haselcr, when conducting 

 some experiments on behalf of Liberty & Co., and besides tin he 

 found them to consist of small quantities of copper, Avith traces of 

 antimony, the latter probably being added for the hardening and 

 cleansing of the other metals. These pieces were of what is known 

 as the old first quality of pewter. We have seen that the craft 

 always guarded most jealously the good reputation which the Eng- 

 lish pewter held, and that it included the keeping up of the requisite 

 standard of purity in the metal. It was for this purpose, indeed, 



