February, 1916 
33 
will lend zest to collecting, the reader must 
remember that much imitation old pewter 
has been fabricated with intent to defraud. 
However, such “fakes” (many of them 
are very attractive!) usually unblushingly 
bear upon them the ear-marks of their 
spurious nature, and the collector soon 
comes to have command of the knowledge 
necessary to detect such reproductions. 
The material of old pewter is variously 
compounded. Old fine pewter consisted 
of 112 pounds of tin to 26 pounds of 
copper, or—in place of the copper—of 
brass. Again, a fine, hard resonant mettle 
was made of 100 parts of tin to 17 of anti¬ 
mony. Distinguished from the fine pew¬ 
ter was common pewter—or “trifle” pew¬ 
ter, as it was called. This was made of 
83 parts of tin to 17 parts of antimony, 
or with slight variations of 82 parts of tin 
to 18 parts of antimony. These various 
alloys are susceptible of a high polish 
and of retaining it well under ordinary 
circumstances for a usual period. This 
pewter, too, has a good measure of hard¬ 
ness and possesses durability. 
Britannia metal must not be confused, 
as often it is, with the real pewter. It 
is a late 18th Century invention of tin, 
antimony, copper and zinc. Masse says 
of Britannia ware: “As it was found that 
Britannia metal could be fashioned on the 
lathe by the process called ‘spinning’ more 
readily than could pewter, the new alloy began at once to oust 
the other, and the ousting became more complete when, later 
on, it was found that Britannia metal could be electroplated.” 
However, the general use to which pottery and porcelain, 
tinware and enamel attained had come to have much, too, to do 
with banishing pewter from general use, though it remained 
longer in favor in Scotland than in England. “A whole gar¬ 
nish of peutre,” such as a lady of 1487 bequeathed to one of 
her heirs, no longer came to be deemed fashionable. The 
master pewterers suffered and found themselves forced out 
of their trade, as time went on. 
The Inroads of Pottery 
With the waning of pewter vast quantities of it were 
melted up for solder and for other purposes, which accounts 
for the scarcity of really fine old pieces. Indeed, such articles 
as pewter spoons are exceptionally rare, not, as some suppose, 
because they were so small, but because they were especially 
serviceable to the traveling tinkers, who could convert them 
into, solder. The English pewter spoon was seldom a small 
affair, if ever it de¬ 
scended in scale to 
the size of a dessert 
spoon. In passing it 
is well to call the col¬ 
lector’s attention to 
the fact that pewter 
spoons are imitated 
and often placed be¬ 
fore buyers as an¬ 
tiques. One needs es¬ 
pecially to familiarize 
himself with the 
shapes of the bowls 
and of the handles of 
the English ones and 
other minutse in order 
to determine intelli¬ 
gently the authenticity 
of a piece of pewter 
of this sort. Other ob¬ 
jects are much more 
common, and ten gen¬ 
uine English pewter 
spoons would form a 
goodly collection, con¬ 
sidering their excep¬ 
tional rarity. 
Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art 
A d rawer-and-chest cabinet, em¬ 
bellished with Wedgwood Jasper 
Whatever one 
period and of any 
The best English pewter is of simple design. Here are plates with touch- 
marks, and several sizes of baluster measures 
The London pewterers guarded their 
trade secrets jealously. They permitted 
no outsiders to loiter and to watch them 
at work. As the various molds for pew¬ 
ter objects were made at great expense, 
it was the custom for the guilds of the 
Pewterers’ Company to own these and 
to let them out. This accounts for the 
various standard shapes of articles made 
by quite different pewterers. Lists of 
such molds, dating as far back as 1425, 
have survived the vicissitudes of time and 
throw much interesting light on the sub¬ 
ject. Let the pewter collector remember 
that pewter objects appear to have come 
into vogue as a substitute for silver, and 
that pieces of old pewter usually follow 
in form the shapes of the contemporary 
silver objects of like use. Indeed, a study 
of old English silver will prove of great 
help to the pewter collector in solving 
problems of chronology. 
Collecting Costs 
One may not attempt to collect a whole 
garnish of pewter of a single period—a 
complete garnish consisting of twelve 
platters, twelve dishes and twelve saucers 
.-—but it is quite possible without an ap¬ 
palling outlay. On the other hand, un¬ 
less it is a “find,” one may have to pay 
$40 or $50 for a fine and authentic early 
English pewter spoon, 
collects in the way of old pewter of any 
country, it should be displayed by itself and 
not mixed with silver, glass and with other objects. As to 
what dealers sometimes call “silver pewter,” let not the unwary 
collector suppose that it is more than pewter of a fine quality 
(if the object proves to be that!). Silver cannot enter into 
the composition of true pewter, as it takes 950° C. to melt it— 
while the tin, melting at 230° C., would volatilize too greatly 
to combine with the precious metal before the silver even 
reached the melting-point. Perhaps because the finest pewter 
takes a silver-like polish it was originally called “silver” pewter, 
without intent to mislead. 
Another point worth remembering is that, although all sorts 
of objects have been fashioned of pewter (even a copy of the 
Portland Vase has been fashioned in this metal), the collector 
will find very few old English pewter teapots. Fully 85 per 
cent of the teapots passing as pewter are, I should say, either 
Britannia or Ashberry metal. Very early ecclesiastical pieces 
of English make are rare, too. As early as 1175 the Council 
of Westminster forbade the fashioning of church vessels of 
pewter, as it was 
thought not sufficient¬ 
ly precious to be dedi¬ 
cated to such use. But 
in poorer communi¬ 
ties exceptions must 
have been made, as 
we know of its use in 
churches in 1194. The 
Council of N i m e s 
(1252) and the Coun¬ 
cil of Albi (1254) in 
France had later to 
take up a like matter, 
then permitting pew¬ 
ter in the manufacture 
of objects for church 
use under certain re¬ 
strictions. 
Not only in early 
times — by the year 
1290 Edward the 
First had accumu¬ 
lated 300 pieces of 
pewter of fine quality 
—but as late as 1820, 
when George the 
( Cont’d on page 70) 
