PEWTER AND THE REVIVAL OF TTS USE. 701 



Tt was a cusloni cooxistciit with llic conipany for members to be 

 enrolled Avho wimv not pcwterers. An instance that may be given 

 is that of one Isaac Tucker, who, in the year 1. ■),")(;, was admitted 

 on the reconnnendation of '' Sir Water Rawghley " (^ie) on pay- 

 ment of £10, half of the usual fee ptwable by such members. It is 

 expressly stated that this was done out of respect to " Sir AVater," 

 and for no other reason. 



No journeyman was allowed to trade on his own account, but must 

 obtain the permit of the company and register his mark or "' touch," 

 as it was technically called, and if a tradesman left London and 

 afterwards returned he had to pay his dues for permission to start 

 a second time. No tin was to be exported, except after having 

 passed through the pewterer's hands — that is, in bars or made into 

 pewter ingots. 



In the last year of Elizabeth's reign it was forbidden to allow 

 country pewterers and others to enter shops where London men were 

 at work, " whereby they come to great light of further knowledge ; '' 

 in other words, were finding out trade secrets. The monopolies 

 granted by James 1 to the farmers of tin had a very prejudicial ef- 

 fect on the industry, and the company accordingly petitioned several 

 times against the practice, which, after a time, was modified by the 

 King. The sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth century 

 must have been the palmy days of the pewter trade. The pros- 

 perity of the middle class brought substantial comfort into the homes 

 of the artisan and the laborer, and every fairly well-to-do citizen, 

 among other belongings, seems to have made a point of jjossessing 

 his " garnish " of pewter, while even the thrifty Avorkman and peas- 

 ant had a modest quantity. A " garnish," I may here recall, con- 

 sisted of 12 plates, 12 smaller platters, and 12 dishes. At this 

 period, also, large quantities of pewter Avere kept in stock by mem- 

 bers of the trade for hire to the nobility and gentry as well as to 

 public bodies for banquets, and other festivities, the pewterers often 

 helping one another with loans when a great demand was made on 

 their resources. 



DECLINE OF THE INDUSTRY. 



The causes of the decline of the pewter manufacture in England, 

 as on the Continent, were mainly, as before stated, the competition of 

 cheap earthenware for table and other domestic use, followed by 

 deterioration of quality and design, and conse(iuent loss of influence 

 on the part of the P^nglish Pewterers' Company. The guild had for 

 centuries maintained, by rigid enactments, the high quality of English 

 pewter, both for home consumption and for export, and these enact- 

 ments were enormously aided in their enforcements by the company's 

 right of search. During the troubles of the great civil war, however, 



