A TALK ON PEWTER 
With illustrations from Mr. Walter Churcher s Collection 
By Ernest Radford 
T here is probably in America at 
least as much of the ware which our 
English ancestors used as can be found to¬ 
day in the old country ; and the 
revival of interest in it should 
be as lasting here as there. The 
use of pewter in England from 
almost the earliest days of that 
country’s history until its partial 
supersession by earthenware, 
china, silver and silver-plate was 
so general that nothing but the 
neglect which is the usual fate 
of things discarded by fashion 
can account for its having be¬ 
come at all rare. If the change 
when it came was welcomed, it 
was chiefly because pewter, un¬ 
less it is properly cared for, is 
undoubtedly quite the shabbiest 
stuff that has ever been largely 
used. Its habit of communi¬ 
cating so much of the blackness 
of its own nature to other things does not 
recommend it to us, and though vessels 
of china and earthenware are by comparison 
frail, there is not that to be said against 
them. Fragility, moreover, since it involves 
replenishing, is accounted a virtue by the 
vendor, and the durability of pewter would 
be its weakness from his point of view. 
In competition with metal-ware, although 
cheaper than silver, or plate of 
respectable quality, it has faults 
of its own which they lack. It 
has a way of blackening things, 
as I have said, and is more 
easily knocked out of shape 
than harder ware. 
So obtain we a picture ot 
table services blackened and bat¬ 
tered, which if not chucked by 
the kitchen maids into the moat 
(that much overpraised recep¬ 
tacle of the filth of our “ stately 
homes”), would pass for a few 
pence of that date into the hands 
of the traveling tinker. The 
fact that pewter itself makes good 
solder accounts for whole sets of 
it having passed out of sight 
for that purpose. It would be 
SWISS DISHES OF PEWTER 
SCOTCH CHURCH FLAGONS AND ALMS DISH 
256 
