Old Pewter 
ing hall-marks and private devices of their 
makers. 
About the beginning of the second quar¬ 
ter of the nineteenth century, Britannia ware 
began to take the place of pewter as a mate¬ 
rial for table use. This was a harder com¬ 
position, containing small parts of antimony, 
bismuth and copper to too parts of tin. 
Among the most extensive manufacturers 
were James Dixon & Son, of Sheffield, Eng¬ 
land, who sent large cargoes of Britannia 
ware to their established agencies in the 
United States. One of their characteristic 
tea services, of about 1830, is shown in an 
illustration on page 
107, with a large pew¬ 
ter trencher or platter 
in the background, 
made by Richard 
King, of London, 
about 1780. 
In America, the art 
o f pewter making 
seems to have flour¬ 
ished as early as the 
first part of the seven¬ 
teenth century. In 
New England were 
numerous pewterers, 
whose operations ex¬ 
tended from a period 
previous to 1640 
down to the beginning 
of the nineteenth 
century. 
It is recorded by 
John F. Watson in 
his “Annals of Phila¬ 
delphia and Pennsyl¬ 
vania,” that Barthol¬ 
omew Longstreth, a 
resident of Bucks 
County, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, made, for the 
use of his own family, 
pewter spoons, which 
he cast in a bell-metal 
mould as early as the 
year 1717. This 
custom of manufac¬ 
turing spoons and 
other small house¬ 
hold utensils as they 
108 
were needed seems to have been general 
among the early settlers in various parts of 
the American Colonies. Home-made ware 
of this character was seldom, if ever, marked. 
As the pieces became worn they were re¬ 
melted and made over. A small collection 
of pewter spoon moulds of several types is 
illustrated here. 
A quaint little sugar bowl, in the Penn¬ 
sylvania Museum, probably of American 
workmanship, bears incised decorations rep¬ 
resenting foliage and birds, with the mono¬ 
gram “R. T.” and “N. T.” While this 
piece bears no mark, its history can be traced 
back to the middle of 
the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury. It is supposed 
to have been made 
in Bucks County, 
Pennsylvania, where 
it was in use for 150 
years. The decora¬ 
tions, evidently pro¬ 
duced with a notched 
wheel, were, according 
to family tradition, 
added at a later date 
by a traveling peddler. 
(See illustration, page 
109.) 
'There were a num¬ 
ber of pewter workers 
in Philadelphia in 
Colonial times, but 
little is known regard¬ 
ing them. 'Thomas 
Danforth was one of 
the most prominent 
about the beginning 
of the nineteenth 
century, and many 
plates and other 
pieces made by him 
have been preserved. 
His establishment 
was situated at the 
corner of High (now 
Market) and Thir¬ 
teenth Streets, accord- 
ingtothe Philadelphia 
directories from 1807 
to 1813. Danforth’s 
pieces were usually 
A LARGE PEWTER CANISTER 
bearing incised decoration , probably made by Germans in America about 1848 
In the Collection of the Penna. Museum 
