SOLDER. PEWTER. 491 



not that used in the time before me : it must, it seems, have 

 been the more costly alloy, and in the case of corporations 

 which had extensive lead roofs was a considerable annual 

 charge. I have found no evidence of any use of solder for 

 uniting copper surfaces. 



PEWTER. Plates and dishes of this material are very exten- 

 sively used, and large purchases are made. Hardly a year 

 passes in any considerable establishment in which pewter 

 dishes and vessels do not figure, though very often the record 

 is rendered valueless for my purposes by the fact that the 

 account gives only the difference of price in the exchange of 

 old for new. Sometimes too the cost is given without any 

 indication of the weight purchased. 



Pewter vessels, plates and dishes are dearer by weight than 

 solder, and as dear as tin. The price too rises during the first 

 ninety years, being nearly doubled during this part of the 

 period, and sensibly declines towards the conclusion, the dearest 

 decade being 1653-62. The price is undoubtedly affected in 

 individual years by the character of the articles bought, for 

 pewter flagons are dearer than pewter dishes. 



Pewter, it is said, was formerly composed of tin, antimony, 

 and copper, the proportion of the former having been by far 

 the largest. In the time before me, it was probably tin and 

 lead, in proportions which I have no means of defining. It 

 seems to me however, to judge from the difference between the 

 price at which pewter vessels were bought and old pewter was 

 sold, that the quantity of lead in it was considerable, and that the 

 value which it bore was due to the skill employed in fashioning 

 it. Thus in 161 1 All Souls College buys new pewter at is. $d* 

 the pound, and sells old metal at i\d. In 1620 the prices of 

 new and old are i id. and $d. ; in 1660 they are is. qd. and 

 $d. But towards the end of the period the price of old pewter 

 rises considerably, and the difference is not nearly so marked. 

 There must have been therefore, I conclude, some new process 

 of manufacture devised from which worn metal could be 

 cheaply and readily cast or worked into new vessels or dishes. 



