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OLD PEWTER

NEWNES' LIBRARY OF

THE APPLIED ARTS

OLD PEWTER

BY MALCOLM BELL

LONDON

GEORGE NEWNES LIMITED

SOUTHAMPTON ST. STRAND W.C
NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS

FRONTISPIECE

H. 13"

COMMUNION FLAGON, English. From Midhurst Church,

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ..... vii

PREFACE ........ xix

I. INTRODUCTORY ....... i

II. WHAT PEWTER is ...... 7

III. How PEWTER WAS WROUGHT . . . .24

IV. PEWTER BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY . 44
V. PEWTER IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY . . 63

VI. PEWTER IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY . . 72
VII. PEWTER IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY . . 93

VIII. THE END OF THE STORY 109

IX. COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING PEWTER . . 120

X. SOME NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS . . .147

A LIST OF USEFUL BOOKS OF REFERENCE . .164

INDEX 165

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

NOTE. — The initials in this list, following the numbers of the plates, denote the
ownership of the objects illustrated and are to be read as follows :

A.G.B. — A. G. Bell, Esq. M.— Robert Meldrum, Esq.

B.M.— British Museum R.M. — Mrs. Ralston Mitchell

B.— Miss Burrell H.M.— H. Murray, Esq.

W.B. — Baillie William Burrell F.H.N. — F. H. Newbery, Esq.

L.c. — Lewis Clapperton, Esq. K.R. — Kennerley Rumford, Esq.

F. & s. — Messrs. Fenton & Sons S.K.M. — South Kensington Museum

G.C. — Glasgow Corporation w. — Mrs. Warren

B.J.— Mrs. Borough Johnson F.C.Y.— F. C. Yardley, Esq.

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PLATE PAGE

(S.K.M.) Communion Flagon, English, from Midhurst
Church, Sussex Frontispiece

1. (B.M.) Dishes from a hoard of pewter found by Rev.

C. H. Engleheart near Roman buildings at Apple-
shaw, near Andover, Hants, 1897 . . . i

2. (B.M.) Dishes from a hoard of pewter found by Rev.

C. H. Engleheart near Roman buildings at Apple-
shaw, near Andover, Hants, 1897 . . . 2

3. (B.M.) Vessels and Dish from a hoard of pewter

found by Rev. C. H. Engleheart near Roman
buildings at Appleshaw, near Andover, Hants,
1897 4

4. (S.K.M.) The Gloucester Candlestick, xn century . 5

5. (M.) Benitier, probably Flemish. No marks . . 6

6. 1-2. (F. & s.) Benetiers, Flemish, xvm century ;

3-4. (F.C.Y.) Benetiers, Flemish, xvm century . . 8

7. (B.) Measure, Pepper-box, Buttons, and Mustard-pot 10

1. Measure, German, 4!" high.

2. Pepper-box, 5^" high.

3. Two Buttons, 2^" diam.

4. Mustard-pot, 4" high.

b vii

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8. (w.i.) Pepper-boxes, Sugar-castor, Mustard-pots, and

Salt-cellars . . . . . . .10

1, 3, 4. Pepper-boxes, 4^" to .«;" high.

2. Sugar-castor, marked with Cupid holding trumpet to mouth

with left hand, branch in right, HK, 5§" high.
5, 6, 7. Mustard-pots, 3$" to 5*^ high.
8, 9, 10, ii, 12. Salt-cellars, 10 , marked with crowned X.
Nos. 3, 7, 9 are a set.

9. (S.K.M.) Measure, Dish, and Tankard . . .12

1. Measure, English. Early XVIII century.

2. Dish, English. Middle of XVIII century.

3. Tankard, English. XVIII century.

10. (F.C.Y.) Tankards and Tappit Hen . . .13

1. Tankard, Flemish. XVII century.

2. Tappit Hen, Scotch. XVIII century.

3. Tankard, French. XVIII century.

11. (w.) Toddy Ladles, Soup Ladles, Table-spoons,

Fork, and Tea-spoon . . . . .14

1. Toddy Ladles, marked John Yates. VR crowned.

2. Small fork, no mark. Length 7".

3. Soup ladle, marked | JO | | HN | | YA | |TES|

4. Soup ladle, marked JASKJ |BER| |"RY|

W. crown R.

BEST METAL

WARRANTED

FOR USE

5. Three table-spoons, marked

\Jo] |HN| [YA| |TES| VR crowned.

6. Tea-spoon, marked Ai

Crowned head
PURE

12. (H.M.) Eight Spoons 16

1. Laton spoon, 5" long, found in the Thames at Westminster ;

an engraved line runs along lower surface of stem. XIV
century.

2. Bronze spoon, 6f " long, found in the City of London. XIV

century. Probably French.

3. Laton spoon, 6" long, French. XIV century.

4. Laton spoon, 6f" long, found in the Thames in London, stem

of diamond section. Early XV century.

5. Laton spoon, 7" long, found in London. Early XV century.

Probably French.

6. Bronze spoon, 5!" long, found in London. XV century.

viii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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7. Bronze spoon, 6" long, stem of diamond section, found in

London. XV century.

8. Bronze spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XV century.

Mark same as No. 2.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CIV, facing p. 148.

13. (H.M.) Eight Slip-top Spoons ... .18

1. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6^" long, found at Bermondsey, stem of

hexagonal section. XVI century.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVI

century.

3. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6f" long. XVI century.

4. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long. XVII century.

5. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6|" long, found in London. XVI

century.

6. Pewter slip- top spoon, 6" long, found in York Road, West-

minster. XVI century.

7. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVI

century.

8. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVII

century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CIV ', facing p. 148.

14. (H.M.) Eight Spoons ...... 20

1. Pewter spoon, 6A" long, found in London. XVI century.

2. Pewter spoon, 6±" long. XVII century.

3. Laton spoon, 6$" long, found in London, stem of hexagonal

section. XVII century.

4. Laton spoon, with Apostle top, 6J" long. XVII century.

5. Pewter spoon, seal headed, hexagonal, 6J" long, found at

Bermondsey. XVI century.

6. Pewter sacramental spoon, with Maidenhead top, 7^" long,

found in London. XVI century.

7. Pewter spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVII century.

8. Pewter spoon, with Apostle top, 6f" long, found in London.

XVI century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CIV, facing p. 148.

15. (H.M.) Eight Slip-top Spoons 21

1. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6" long, found in York Road, West-

minster. XVI century. Same mark as Plate XIII., Fig. 6.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6" long, found in London. XVI

century. Same mark as Plate XIII., Fig. 6.

3. The same as Fig. 2.

4. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVI

century.

5. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6£" long. XVI century.

6. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6^" long, found in London. XVI

century. Same mark as Fig. 2.

7. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6|" long. XVI century.

8. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6|" long, found in Bermondsey. XVI

century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CV, facing p. 150.

OLD PEWTER

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1 6. (H.M.) Nine Slip-top Spoons 22

1. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6|" long, found at Bermondsey. XVI

century.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 7^" long, found in London. XVI

century.

3. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6f " long, found at Bermondsey. XVI

century.

4. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6}" long, found at Bermondsey. XVI

century.

5. Laton slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found at Bermondsey, has

remains of tin plating. XVII century.

6. Laton slip-top spoon, 7" long, found at Bermondsey. XVII

century.

7. Laton slip-top spoon, 6^" long, found in London, has remains

of tin plating. XVII century.

8. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XVI

century.

9. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6f" long, found in London. XVI

century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CV, facing p. 150.

17. (H.M.) Eight Seal-top Spoons . .... 24

x. Laton seal-top spoon, sf" long, found in London. XVII
century.

2. Laton seal-top spoon, 6i" long. XVII century.

3. Laton seal-top spoon, 6|" long. XVII century.

4. Laton seal-top spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XVII

century .

5. Laton seal-top spoon, 6^" long, found in London. XVII

century.

6. Laton seal-top spoon, 6^" long, found in London. XVII

century.

7. Laton seal-top spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XVII

century.

8. Laton seal-top spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XVII

century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CV, facing p. 150.

1 8. (H.M.) Eight Spoons . . . . . .26

1. Laton slip-top spoon, 7!" long, plated with tin, found in

London. XVII century.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 7" long, found at Bermondsey. XVII

century.

3. Laton slip-top spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XVII

century.

4. Laton spoon, 7^" long, plated with tin. XVII century.

5. Laton spoon, sf" long, with remains of tin plating. XVII

century.

6. Laton spoon, 7j"long, plated with tin. Handle " Pied de

Biche." Mark same as Fig. 5.

7. Laton spoon, 7^" long, with remains of tin plating. Handle

" Pied de Biche." XVII century.

8. Laton rat-tailed spoon, 7^" long, found in York Road, West-

minster. Handle " Pied de Biche." XVII century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CVI, facing p. 152.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

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19. (H.M.) Nine Rat-tailed Spoons 28

1. Laton rat-tailed spoon, 8" long, plated with tin. Handle "Pied

de Biche." XVII century.

2. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, 7^" long, found in Newgate Street.

Handle " Pied de Biche." XVII century.

3. Laton rat-tailed spoon, 7" long, found in York Road, West-

minster, plated with tin. XVII century.

4. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, 7^ " long, found in Bermondsey. XVII

century.

5. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, 7f" long, found in Bermondsey.

XVII century.

6. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, 7" long. XVII century.

7. Laton spoon, 5^" long, plated with pewter, found in London.

Late XVII century.

8. Bronze rat-tailed spoon, 5f" long. XVII century.

9. Rat-tailed pewter chocolate spoon, 4" long, found in the

Wandle at Wandsworth. XVII century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CVI, facing p. 152.

20. (H.M.) Eight Spoons and Ladles .... 29

1. Pewter spoon, 8^" long, found in London. Late XVIII

century.

2. Laton dog-nose gravy spoon, lof" long, plated with tin.

XVII century.

3. Pewter spoon, 7^ " long, found in Bermondsey. Late XVIII

century .

4. Laton slip-top ladle, 8f" long, the handle of hexagonal

section. XVII century.

5. Laton slip-top ladle, 8" long, found in the City of London, has

remains of tin plating. XVII century.

6. Laton slip-top ladle, 7^" long, found in Suffolk. XVII

century.

7. Laton slip-top ladle, 6J" long, found in London. XVII

century.

8. Laton spoon, seal-headed, 6|" long, has remains of tin

plating, found at Norwich. XVII century.
For marks on these spoons see Plate CVI, facing p. 152.

21. (S.K.M.) Pyx, Communion Flagon, Chalice and Paten 30

1. Hexagonal Pyx, English. XIV century,

2. Communion Flagon, English. From Midhurst Church, Sussex.

1677.

3. Chalice and Paten. From Kriswick.

22. (S.K.M.) Communion Flagon, Alms Dish, and Patens 32

1. Communion Flagon, English. XVII century.

2. Alms Dish, Scotch. XVIII century. Marked AS. IK.

3. Patens from a Church in Yorkshire, English. XV century.

23. (w.) Communion Jug and Two Chalices . . 34

1. Chalice, Italian.

2. Earthenware Communion Jug mounted in pewter.

3. Chalice, Scotch.

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24. (F.C.Y.) Alms Dish, Chalice, and Laver ... 36

1. Alms Dish, English. XVIII century.

2. Chalice, English. XVIII century.

3. Laver, Scotch. Late XVIII century.

25. (B.) Church Flagon, Scotch, early xvui century type 37

26. (K.R.) Two Chalices and Church Flagon, English . 38

27. (F. & s.) Three Chalices, English, xvm century . 40

28. (L.C.) Loving Cup, Communion Cup, and Porringer . 42

1. Loving Cup, English.

2. Communion Cup, Scotch.

3. Porringer, French. Probably XVII century.

29. (G.C.) Communion Cup, Spice-box, and Candlestick . 44

1. Communion Cup. 1804.

2. Spice-box, French. XVIII century.

3. Candlestick, French. XVIII century.

30. Pocket Communion Service, Sacramental Cruets, and

Measure ........ 45

1. (L.C.) Pocket Communion Service in wooden case, bought in

Iceland. Probably Danish or Scotch.

2. (F. & s.) Sacramental Cruet, Aqua. French or Flemish.

3. (F. & s.) Measure, temp. Charles II. Found in Parliament

Street, Westminster.

4. (F. & s.) Sacramental Cruet, Vinum. French or Flemish.

31. (w.) Sacramental Cruet and Five Measures . . 46

1. Cruet, Vinum.

2. Gill Measure, modern.

3. Half Mutchkin Measure.

4. Old Half-glass Measure.

5. Half-gill Measure.

6. Gill Measure.

32. (B.) Altar Candlesticks and Guild Cup ... 48

1, 3. Two Altar Candlesticks. XVII century.

2. German Guild Cup.

33. (F. & s.) Two Altar Candlesticks, Flemish, xvn cen-

tury ... .50

34. (R.M.) Candelabrum, Flemish, xvm century . . 52

35. (W.B.) Alms Dish, German, early xvm century. . 53

36. (w.) Candlesticks 54

1. A pair of Pillar Candlesticks, Scotch. XVIII century.

2. Flat Candlestick, Scotch. XIX century.

3. A pair of Pillar Candlesticks, Dutch. XVIII century.

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37. (F. & s.) Oil Lamps, Taper Holder, and Candlestick . 56

1. 4, 5. Oil Lamps, German. XVIII century.

2. Taper Holder, Flemish.

3. Pillar Candlestick, French.

38. Lamp Time-keepers . . .58

1. (A.G.B.) Lamp Time-keeper. XVII century.

2. (F.C.Y.) Lamp Time-keeper. XVII century.

3. 4, 5. (B.) Lamp Time-keepers. XVII century.

39. (F.C.Y.) Three Pillar Candlesticks . . • 60

40. (R.M.) Pillar Candlesticks, Tray, and Inkstand . . 60

1. 4. A pair of Pillar Candlesticks. XVIII century.

2. Tray. XVIII century.

3. Inkstand.

41. (w.) Drinking Cups . . . . . .61

1. Cup, Scotch. XVIII century.

2. Loving Cup. XVIII century.

3. A pair of Wine Cups. XVIII century.

42. (M.) Three German Guild Cups . . . .62

1. Cup, on lid 1721, three shields, right and left a tankard, above

I.W.L., below 1713, centre one a church with spire.

2. Flagon, on front IMS 1706, Nuremberg rose on bottom inside,

on the handle a shield, IMK, a wall and two turrets.

3. Cup, inscribed Johannes George Reichel Johannes Battzer

Rellurg, Anno 1693, Christope Stutz.

43. (R.M.) Flagons and Beaker . . . . .62

1. Flagon, German. XVIII century.

2. Beaker, Scotch. XVIII century.

3. Flagon, German. XVIII century.

44. (F. & s.) Tankard, Measures, and Beaker . . 64

1. Tankard, Scotch. XVIII century.

2, 3. Measures, English. Early XVIII century.

i. Tankard, Scotch. XVIII century,
ly XVII
4. Beaker, engraved. Early XVIII century. "Mark, a crowned

45. (W.B.) Three Tankards, German, xvn and xvm

centuries . . . . . . . .66

46. (W.B.) Four Tankards, German, xvn century . . 68

47. (R.M.) Dishes and Tankard 69

1. Dish, English. XVII century.

2. Tankard, German. XVIII century.

3. Deep Dish, Scotch. XVI century.

xiii

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48. (S.K.M.) Tankards and Jug 70

1. Peg Tankard, Danish. With engraved decoration.

2. Jug, English. XVIII century.

3. Tankard, Swedish. 1844.

49. (S.K.M.) Ewer, Cruet Stand, and Guild Tankard . 72

1. Ewer and Cover. German.

2. Cruet Stand, German. Middle of XVIII century.

3. Guild Tankard, German. Dated 1645.

50. (F. & s.) Cream-jugs, Salt-cellar, Measure, and Egg

Cup . . . .74

1. 5. Two Cream-jugs.

2. Salt-cellar.

3. Measure.

4. Egg Cup. All English. XVIII century.

51. (W.B.) A Pair of Covered Tankards, German, xvm

century ........ 74

52. (W.B.) Three German Guild Tankards . . .76

53. (W.B.) Three German Guild Tankards, xvn to xvm

century ........ 77

54. (S.K.M.) Measure or Tankard, German, late xvn

century ........ 78

55. (G.C.) Four Measures, Scotch, xvm century . . 78

56. (G.C.) Five Measures . . . . . .78

57. (S.K.M.) Wine Taster and Measures ... 80

1. Wine Taster, English. XVII century. Dug up in Tottenham

Court Road.

2, 3. Wine Measures, German. XVIII century.

58. (F.C.Y.) Bowl, Water-jug, Rice Boiler, Plate, and

Measure ........ 82

1. Two-handled Bowl.

2. Water-jug, English. XVIII century.

3. Rice Boiler, French. XVIII century.

4. Plate, English. XVIII century. One of a set of six.

5. Measure, English. XVIII century.

59. (w.) Three Tappit Hens 84

60. (R.M.) Tappit Hen, xvm century .... 85

61. (F. &s.) Set of eight French Measures, xvm century . 86

62. (F. c. Y.) Jug, English, xvn century ... 88

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63. (W.B.) Flagons 90

1. Flagon, probably Scotch. XVIII century.

2. Imitation Chinese Flagon, Dutch. XVII century.

3. Flagon, German. XVII century.

64. (G.C.) Jugs and Flagon ...... 92

1. Covered Jug. Archangel mark.

2. Flagon.

3. Cream-jug.

65. (F.C.Y.) Mustard-pot, Jug, and Measure ... 94

1. Mustard-pot, English. XVII century.

2. Hot-water Jug, Dutch. Early XVIII century.

3. Measure, English. Early XVIII century.

66. (w.) Jugs . 94

1. Jug, French. XVIII century.

2. Jug, English. XVIII century.

3. Beer-jug, English. XVIII century.

67. (F.C.Y.) Jugs and Coffee-pot 96

1. Jug, Dutch. Marked crossed rose.

2. Coffee-pot, Dutch. No marks.

3. Jug, Dutch. Mark, a rose within a circle of illegible lettering.

68. (B.J.) Jug, George IV 98

69. (F.C.Y.) Bowls ....... 100

1. Barber's Bowl, English. XVIII century.

2. Two-handled Bowl, Dutch. XVIII century.

70. (F.C.Y.) Three Porringers . . . . .100

71. (w.) Bowls and Casket . . . . . . 101

1. Two-handled Bowl, Scotch.

2. Casket, French. XVI century.

3. Two-handled Bowl.

72. (F.C.Y.) Bowls, Dish, and Plate .... 103

1. and 4. A Pair of Two-handled bowls.

2. Dish, English. Dated 1689.

3. Plate, English. XVIII century. One of six.

73. (F.C.Y.) Salver, Jugs, Dish, and Plate . . .104

1. Wavy-edged Salver, with feet, Dutch. Late XVIII century.

2. Student's Beer-jug, German. XVII century.

3. Dish, English. XVIII century.

4. Water-jug, English. Late XVIII century.

5. Wavy-edged Plate, English. Late XVIII century. One of a

set of six.

C XV

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74. (F.C.Y.) Tankards, Dish, Mug, Measure, and Tobacco-

box . . . . . . . . .106

1. Tankard, English. Early XVIII century.

2. Dish, Scotch, stamped with Initials A. D. V. and A. W. XVI

century.

3. Mug with handle, English. Early XVIII century.

4. Measure, English. XVII century.

5. Tankard, English. XVIII century.

6. Tobacco-box, English. XVIII century.

75. (G.C.) Soup Tureen, Russian. Archangel mark . 108

76. (F.C.Y.) Vegetable Dish, Tray, and Jugs . . .109

1. Vegetable Dish, English. Late XVIII century.

2. Tray or Salver, Dutch.

3. Milk-jug, English. Late XVIII century.

4. Water-jug, English. XVIII century.

77. (R.M.) Ewer and Basin . . . . . .in

78. (F.C.Y.) Bowl and Jug 112

1. Bowl, Flemish. XVII century.

2. Jug, Dutch. Early XVIII century.

79. (B.J.) Mustard-pots, Salt-cellar, Pepper-box, and

Measure . 114

1. and 3. Mustard-pots. XVIII century.

2. Salt-cellar. XVIII century.

4. Pepper-box. XVIII century.

5. Measure. XVIII century.

80. (F. & s.) 1-6. Mustard-pots, xvii and xvni centuries . 114

81. (F. & s.) i-6. Pepper-pots, xvn and xvni centuries . 114

82. (L.C.) Cream-jug, Salt-cellars, Measure, and Spoons . 116

1. Cream-jug, Scotch.

3. 5, 7. Three Salt-cellars, English.

9. Quarter-gill Measure. Glasgow mark.

2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Five Spoons, Dutch.

83. (R.M.) Measure, Salt-cellar, Sugar-castor, Cruet, and

Inkstand . . . . . . . .117

1. Measure.

2. Salt-cellar.

3. Sugar-castor.

4. Vinegar Cruet.

5. Inkstand.

84. (F.C.Y.) Five Salt-cellars 117

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85. (F.H.N.) Sugar-sifters, Cruets, and Spirit Lamp . .118

i, 2. Sugar-sifters. XVIII century.

3, 4, 5. Set of Cruets, Scotch. XVIII century.

6. Spirit Lamp.

86. (w.) Cream-jugs, Herb Cannisters, and Box . .118

1. Cream-jug, Scotch.

2. Herb Cannister, Dutch. XVII century.

3. Box.

4. Herb Cannister, Dutch. Marked 1766.

5. Cream-jug.

87. (F. & s.) Urns ....... 121

1. Dutch Urn.

2. French Urn. XVIII century.

3. Dutch Urn.

88. (B.J.) Tea-pot, Cream-jug, and Coffee-pot . . 122

1. Tea-pot. Early XIX century.

2. Cream-jug. Early XIX century.

3. Coffe-pot. XVIII century.

89. (B.) Tea-pots and Coffee-pot . . . . .124

1. Tea-pot, Dutch. XVIII century.

2. Coffee-pot, French. XVIII century.

3. Tea-pot, Flemish. XVIII century.

90. (S.K.M.) Coffee-pot, Sugar-box, and Mustard-pot . 125

1. Coffee-pot, Louis XIV. style, German. First half XVIII

century.

2. Sugar-box and Cover, Dutch. Dated 1751.

3. Mustard-pot.

91. (w.) Egg Cups 126

i, 2, 3. Egg Cups. No marks.

4. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Set of Six Egg Cups, Scotch. No marks.

92. (F.C.Y.) Milk-jug, Sugar-basin, and Tea-pot . . 126

1. Milk-jug, English. Early XIX century.

2. Sugar-basin, English. Early XIX century.

3. Tea-pot, English. Early XIX century.

93. (K.R.) Tea-pot and Tankard 128

1. Tea-pot. Early XIX century.

2. Tankard, English. XVIII century.

94. (B.J.) Tea-pots and Tobacco-box . . . .130

1. Tea-pot. Early XIX century.

2. Tea-pot. XVIII century.

3. Tobacco-box. XVIII century.

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95. (K.R.) Coffee-pot, Inkstand, and Tobacco-box . .132

1. Coffee-pot, Flemish. XVIII century

2. Inkstand, French. XVIII century.

3. Tobacco-box, French. XVI II century.

96. (w.) Snuff-boxes and Shoe-buckles . . . 133

1. 3, 5. Three Snuff-boxes.

2. 4. A Pair of Shoe-buckles, the forks of hand-cut steel.

97. (F.C.Y.) Pepper-pots, Mustard-pot, Snuff-box, and Egg

Cup . .133

i, 2. Two Pepper-pots.

3. Mustard-pot, English. Early XVIII century.

4. Snuff-box, English. Middle XVIII century.

5. Egg Cup, with Bead Pattern, English. XVIII century.

98. (w.) Ink-pot, Inkstand, and Tobacco-box . .133

1. Ink-pot, Scotch.

2. Inkstand, Italian.

3. Tobacco-box.

99. (F.H.N.) Flagons and Inkstand . . . .134

1. Flagon. XVII century.

2. Inkstand. Late XVIII century.

3. Flagon. XVII century.

100. (w.) Oriental Dagger. Handle of Pewter and Bone.

Top and bottom of sheath bound with pewter . 136

101. (W.B.) Food Bottles and Salt-box . . . .138

1, 3. Food Bottles.

2. Salt-box.

102. (A.G.B.) Shaving-pot, Sugar-sprinklers, Jug, and

Sugar-basin . . . . . . .140

1. Shaving-pot, English.

2. 4. A Pair of Sugar-sprinklers, Belgian.

3. Cider-jug, Norman.
5. Sugar-basin, Belgian.

103. (B.J.) Mugs, Flagon, and Tankard . . . .142

1. MUST, William IV.

2. Flagon. XVIII century -

3. Tankard. Late XVIII century.

4. Mug. Early XIX century.

104. (H.M.) Marks on Spoons I48

105. (H.M.) Marks on Spoons 150

1 06. (H.M.) Marks on Spoons I52

xviii

PREFACE

N compiling the present volume
I have not attempted to disguise
from myself the fact that, how-
ever keen my own interest in
the subject may be, it is destined to appeal
to the public far more by its numerous and
carefully chosen illustrations than by anything
I may have to say. I make no pretence of
laying before the reader any entirely novel
discoveries concerning pewter. To Mr.
Starkie Gardner's paper in the " Journal of
the Society of Arts," to Mr. Welch's " History
of the Pewterers' Company," to Mr. Massd's
" Pewter Plate," especially to the extremely
useful Bibliography contained in it, and to
Mr. I ngleby Wood's " Scottish Pewter-ware
and Pewterers," I freely and gratefully ac-
knowledge my indebtedness for the main
portion of the facts herein set forth; and I

xix

OLD PEWTER

cannot too strongly recommend those whom
the present volume may haply attract for the
first time to a care for pewter and its history
to seek fuller instruction in their pages. I
have merely endeavoured to gather here such
information as may enable the inexperienced
to study the pictures with eyes not altogether
unopened to their meaning, in the hope that
a first taste of this particular well of know-
ledge, however ill served, may tempt them to
fuller and deeper draughts elsewhere ; and if
I succeed in this much I shall not deem my-
self to have altogether failed.

In conclusion there only remains to me the
pleasant task of thanking most heartily on my
own behalf, as well, I trust, as on behalf of
any readers I may have, those ladies and
gentlemen who have so generously allowed
their treasures to be photographed and re-
produced, namely Mrs. Warren, Mrs. Ralston
Mitchell, Mrs. Borough Johnson, Miss Burrell,
Mr. Arthur G. Bell, Mr. William Burrell, Mr.
Lewis Clapperton, Messrs. Fenton and Sons,
Mr. Robert Meldrum, Mr. H. Murray, Mr.
xx

PREFACE

F. H. Newbery, Mr. Kennerley Rumford,
Mr. Frank C. Yardley, and the authorities of
the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert
Museum, and the Glasgow Corporation
Museum. I have also to express my grateful
thanks to Mr. Yardley for cordial and invalu-
able assistance in the preparation of this
work, particularly in the selection and dating
of objects for reproduction, and to Mr. Hugh
P. Bell for the information concerning the
chemical analysis of pewter.

MALCOLM BELL.

XXI

ERRATA

Page 157, four lines from the bottom, read Plate XLIX
Page 159, four lines from the bottom, read LVII. i
Plate XXXII, should read Altar Candlesticks and German
Guild Cup XVII Century

XX11

OLD PEWTER

THE FIRST CHAPTER

INTRODUCTORY

OOKED at rightly the rapid
growth of the quite modern taste
for collecting the many various
objects formerly fashioned of
pewter must be regarded as
among the healthiest symptoms of the later
art development in Europe. It is, in the
first place, a genuine unaffected taste, not a
mere fashionable craze; nor, if one may ven-
ture to formulate a prophecy concerning
matters so independent of any rational
foundation as the freaks of popular fancy are
apt to be, is it ever likely to become so. The
key-note of the fascination of pewter at its
best is its simplicity. It appeals to the eye by
delicate and subtle balances of line and pro-
portion and has nothing in it of the obvious
and sensational. It does not, like gold and
silver plate, hint in any way at large intrinsic

A I

OLD PEWTER

values, nor has it their aggressive sparkle and
glitter clamouring decoratively for attention.
Neither does it lend itself sympathetically
to that elaborate manipulation by dexterous
craft which attracts by its sheer elaboration
and ingenuity the unreasoned approbation of
the vulgar; its high lights are too subdued, its
shadows too mellowed, to repay by brilliancy
of effect for excessive labour, while the soft-
ness of the material is such that where this
has been bestowed mistakenly the necessarily
constant polishing soon wears away the sharp-
ness. It depends upon its construction, not
on its added ornamentation ; and, as too much
modern architecture makes evident, a refined
sense of proportion, an appreciation of the
importance of restful spaces, are, for some
reason, yearly becoming more rare among us,
though for them no superabundance of lavish
decoration, however good in itself, can com-
pensate. It has not, again, the fascinating
fragility of china, glass, and earthenware,
which makes the joy of possessing them, to
quote Mr. Gilbert, " a pleasure that's almost
pain." Lastly, in the history of pewter there
are no great names or conspicuous schools for
the speculative dealer to boom into fictitious

INTRODUCTORY

and precarious popularity which serves only
in the end to unjustifiably inflate prices. The
works of Briot and Enderlein and some few
other makers may perhaps be brought forward
in exception to this statement, but for reasons
more fully entered into later these will be ac-
corded but brief notice in these pages. An
understanding of the finest work done in
pewter implies an approbation of good work
honestly applied, of sound design based on
actual needs, of unassuming worth, not pre-
tentious value, and these are not qualities
commonly held in estimation by the bearers
of the longest purses in the auction-rooms.

Fifty years ago, or even less, had any one
been at the painsof giving the matter a thought,
the utter disappearance of all old domestic
pewter, except from a few houses where the
former plenishings were preserved more out of
habit or curiosity than from any real knowledge
of their beauty, might have seemed to be within
measurable distance, while far more recently
fine church pewter has been melted down or
thoughtlessly allowed to vanish in favour of
modern white metal or plated abominations.
Who first revived an interest in these fast
diminishing relics of the past may already be

OLD PEWTER

past discovery, but of late the number of his
followers has increased annually, and pewter
is now firmly established as one of the subjects
fully deserving a literature to itself.

Much has already been elicited by patient
research and not a little written, and the time
is drawing near, if indeed it has not arrived,
when any new volume on the matter may be
asked to show justification for its existence.

In the present instance the number of re-
productions of carefully selected and well-
authenticated typical examples must be placed
in the first line of defence. To the beginner
in the study of any branch of art production the
opportunity of examining specimens of gene-
rally recognised merit is all-essential, yet in few
is this so difficult of attainment as in the case
of pewter. Indeed, unless the novice is fortu-
nate enough to be acquainted with the owner
of a good collection, it may be said to be practi-
cally impossible. In our museums attention
has been almost exclusively confined to articles
showing more or less laborious ornamentation,
which are beside our purpose, while the plainer
articles of every-day use have been well-nigh
ignored. It is hoped that our illustrations
will to some extent remedy this defect. That
4

PLATE IV

H. 22!

THE GLOUCESTER CANDLESTICK.
XII century.

INTRODUCTORY

no object shall be brought under the collector's
notice to which a fairly close parallel for com-
parison cannot be found in these pages is too
much to expect, but every effort has been
made to render the variety of forms and periods
as catholic and extensive as possible. With
regard to the letterpress, an attempt, however
inadequate, has been made to compress into a
volume of convenient size all the more im-
portant of the facts that are known, and these
have been at times supplemented by earnestly
weighed, though maybe erroneous, conjectures.
We begin, in our second chapter, with a
consideration of what pewter is, indicating the
chief divergences in the alloys, and pointing
out various methods of estimating the nature
of the one present in any given object, either
roughly for general use, or more precisely
by chemical analysis for the scientifically
minded inquirer. In the next chapter the
different ways in which the metal was wrought
into shape, and the conditions under which
this was usually done, are briefly described
without dwelling with unnecessary prolixity
on technical details. In the five succeeding
chapters some of the most striking features in
the history of pewter and pewterers, as far as

OLD PEWTER

known, are sketched, while the ninth chapter
is devoted to such suggestions as it is practi-
cable to offer — far too few and insufficient,
unfortunately — which may serve to smooth to
some extent the path of the beginner in col-
lecting and effectively displaying his pewter.
The tenth and final chapter is devoted to a
brief indication of the leading features in the
illustrations. If this work, despite its too
probable errors and omissions, should succeed
in arousing in but a few hitherto indifferent
minds an intelligent interest in the rare
aesthetic qualities of old domestic or ecclesi-
astical pewter-ware, the author will be amply
rewarded.

PLATE V

H. 7"

BENITIER, Probably Flemish.
No marks.

THE SECOND CHAPTER

WHAT PEWTER IS

EWTER— the word which, with
the pleasing independence of rigid
orthographic rules that charac-
terises all mediaeval English
documents, whether lay, legal, or
clerical, appears under the widely varying but
always recognisable guises of pewtre, peautre,
pewtir, peutre, peuther, and even pewder and
pewdre — is confidently asserted by Doctor
Johnson to owe its derivation to the Dutch
peauter. Professor Skeat, on the other hand,
the weight of whose opinion cannot well be
over-estimated, suggests in his Etymological
Dictionary as, at any rate, a strong prob-
ability, that the fact is the exact contrary, and
that the Dutch word, together with the old
French peutre, peautre or piautre, the Italian
peltro and the Spanish peltre, are all borrowed
from the English word, which is itself an
adaptation of spelter ; nor is the question
without a certain importance, since in the
case of a purely artificial compound of this
description a not unreasonable presumption

OLD PEWTER

is that the place of its origin, at all events
as far as Western civilisation is concerned,
coincides with the land which first gave it a
name.

The word, however, as applied to the
material, can only be regarded as generic, not
specific. It signifies always an alloy of two
or more metals in which tin forms the pre-
ponderating element, but the added com-
ponents are so varied in their nature and so
diverse in their proportions, while the result-
ing compounds are so different in qualities
and appearance, that Mr. Starkie Gardner,
attempting in an admirable paper read before
the Society of Arts on May 8, 1894, to
decide to what exactly the name pewter
should be applied, could only say " the pro-
portions are so variable that it is scarcely
possible to exclude any in which tin forms the
bulk, where the result is a darkish silvery,
soft metal, fusible at a low temperature,
inexpensive, and eminently adapted to a
variety of household and artistic purposes " ;
a definition which cannot be said to err on the
side of narrowness. Yet any endeavour to
further restrict it leads straightway to con-
tradiction. A passage in Mr. Masses instruc-
8

WHAT PEWTER IS

tive volume on Pewter Plate (p. 20) implies
that from his point of view " pewter of good
quality . . . should contain no lead," while
according to Mr. Starkie Gardner, strictly
speaking, lead alone should be added, and his
recipe has at least the support of antiquity,
for of this nature was all the old Roman
pewter analysed by Mr. Gowland and others.
In an important appendix to a paper, printed
in Archczologia in 1898, describing the
remains of a Roman villa and a number of
contemporary pewter vessels unearthed at
Appleshaw, to which further reference will be
made later on, he discussed and tabulated all
the analyses of Roman pewter that were avail-
able. The results show on the surface an
extraordinary divergency, the fifteen samples
tested ranging with considerable regularity
from a mixture of 99.18 of tin with .14 of
lead, or practically pure tin, and a probably
accidental trace of iron, down to a blend of
45.74 of tin and 53.34 of lead with traces of
iron and copper, but Mr. Gowland in his
luminous comment makes it clear "that this
irregularity is more apparent than real." " If
we now examine the analyses in the table," he
argues, " we will find that the greater number

B 9

OLD PEWTER

of the specimens may be placed in one or
other of the two following groups, A and B,
each characterised by a special percentage of
tin — Group A having an average composition
of: tin 71.5, lead 27.8; Group B with an
average composition of: tin 78.2, lead 21.7
and he further points out that, as far as the
small number of analyses permitted us to
judge, " the first was most generally employed
by the Romans during their occupation of
Britain," a deduction which remarkably agrees
with the analysis of some dating from the
fourth century found at Aquae Neriae, which,
according to Bapst, contains tin and lead in
the proportions of about 7 to 3. In conclusion
Mr. Gowland remarks : " It is worthy of note
that the most tenacious alloy of tin and lead
closely approaches these Roman pewters in
composition, a fact which bears important
testimony to the knowledge of the properties
of metals possessed by the Romans. In the
preparation of these two pewters the Romans
seem to have followed the practice, which still
survives in some foundries, of taking i pound
(libra) of the chief metal and allotting the
quantity of the other metal to be mixed with
it in the sub-divisions of a pound (unciae).
10

PLATE VII

PLATE VIII

For Descriptions, sec back of rial e.

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE VII.

1. Measure, German, 4^" high.

2. Pepper box, 5^" high.

3 Two buttons, 2^" diam.
4. Mustard pot, 4" high.

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE VI 1 1.

1, 3, 4. Pepper boxes, 4^" to 5" high.

2. Sugar castor, marked wiih Cupid holding trumpet to mouth

with left hand, branch in right, HK, 5!" high.
5, 6, 7. Mustard pots, 3!" to 5^" hi^h.
8, 9, 10, n, 12. Salt cellars, 10", m irked with crowned X
Nos. 3, 7, 9 are a set.

WHAT PEWTER IS

Thus the pewter of Group A was evidently
made by melting together i libra of tin with
4^ unciae of lead, which, with due allow-
ance for the oxidation of part of the tin,
would yield an alloy of that composition.
Pewter B was similarly the result of melting

1 libra of tin with 3 unciae of lead " ; and he
finally calls attention to the fact that of two
cakes of unwrought metal of Roman make
found in the Thames at Battersea, one agrees
in composition with Group A, the other with
Group B, which circumstance can only be
regarded as convincing evidence that his
reasoning is sound.

In later days, however, other metals were
very generally employed in place of, or in
addition to, the lead, as is shown by other
analyses also carried out by Mr. Gowland.
Thus the English " fine pewter " contains 1 12
parts of tin to 26 of copper and no lead at all ;
" better pewter" of the first quality 84 of tin,
7 of antimony, and 4 of copper ; of third
quality 56 of tin, 8 of lead, 6 of copper, and

2 of zinc ; " plate pewter " of the second
quality contains only tin and antimony in the
proportion of 1 12 to 6 or 7 ; while that of the
third quality consisted of 90 parts of tin, 7 of

OLD PEWTER

antimony, 2 of copper, and 2 of bismuth. The
use of brass or copper was actually enf
for certain purposes, by the ordinances drawn
up for the guidance of pewterers in 1348,
wherein the " fine pewter " referred to
is described as tin mixed with copper (or bras )
" as much as of its own nature it will tal
i.e., about I part to 4, and at the same time
the articles to be made of this alloy, chiefly
those that were made square or ribbed, are
definitely pres< jibed, while, writing more than
two hundred years latei .1

"Description of I '.upland in Shakespeare's
Youth," when eulogising English pewterers
and pewter, says : "J have also been informed
that it consisteth of a coi on which

hath ;»> Ibs. of kettle brass to iooolbs. of tin,
whereunto they add 3 or 4 Ibs. of tin-gloss (in
modern pailanee, bismuth); but as too much
of this doth make the stuff brickie, so the

more tin brass be Hie better is the pewter, and
more pioiitable unto him that doth buy and

purchase the same."

'1 hrproporlionof lead 1< ::.,|j ,, <| bythesame
Ordiu-iiiMs fa lh<- blending of what we may
with Mr. ( *aidii( i's suj)])ojl bealhjwed j>erh;ij>s
to entitle true pewter, which was to be used
12

:- a

:T-

: :

= '-c :

- -

- ~ - X

" ~

- s - -
-

Z HH

ffi W
w *

WHAT PEWTER^ IS

for making "pots rounded, cruets rounded,
candlesticks and other rounded vessels," was
22 pounds according to one account, 26 accord-
ing to another, for each hundredweight of tin,
though there would seem to have been some
laxity in carrying out this regulation, since
only two years later, in 1350, certain proceed-
ings at the Guildhall indicate that the then
customary blend was only 16 pounds of
lead to 112 of tin. Small variations, in fact,
within reasonable limits were evidently not
considered of great importance, and every
centre of the industry was a law unto itself.
The Montpelier pewterers, for example, in
1437 used a mixture of 96 parts of tin to
4 of lead for dishes and porringers, 90 of tin
and 10 of lead for ewers and salts, while the
Limoges pewterers mixed 100 parts of tin with
only 4 of lead ; the Nuremberg pewterers were
required in 1576 to use 10 pounds of tin to
every i of lead ; finally, in France, during the
eighteenth century 100 parts of tin were mixed
either with 5 parts of copper, or with 3 of
copper and i of bismuth, or with 15 parts of
lead, though at the present day a percentage of
16.5 of lead with a narrow margin for error is
alone authorised as safe for the storage of wine.

OLD PEWTER

The object of these regulations in every
case was, in the first place, to • ensure suffi-
cient wearing power in the article, and in the
second, to protect the customer from adultera-
tion and consequent deterioration of the alloy
by an excessive amount of lead, the cheaper
component, and so long as the quantity of this
used was kept within limits, the addition
of other materials would seem to have been
left to a considerable extent to the fancy of
the individual worker, who varied his compo-
sition according to the purpose to which it
was to be applied, a liberty which was probably
further secured to him in early days by the
imperfection of chemical science, and its in-
ability to segregate minute percentages from
samples of small weight.

Even in these days of prodigiously im-
proved methods the true ingredients of any
given example cannot be regarded as ascer-
tained with any very near approach to accuracy
byan analysis of single scrapings or other com-
paratively infinitesimally small proportions
of the whole bulk. In the course of the dis-
cussion which followed the reading of the
paper by Mr. Starkie Gardner, quoted above,
Mr. Gowland stated that in analysing two

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XI.

1. Toddy Ladles, marked John Yates. VR crowned.

2. Small fork, no mark. Length 7".

3. Soup ladle, marked |jO I | HN | YA

TES

4. Soup ladle, marked | ASK | | BER | |~RY

W. crown. R.

BEST METAL

WARRANTED

FOR USE

5. Three table spoons, marked

. |7o~l | HN | YAJ I TES j VR crowned.

6. Tea spoon, marked Ai

Crowned head
PURE

WHAT PEWTER IS

distinct fragments of the lid of a tea-pot of
eighteenth-century Japanese pewter he found
that one portion contained 80.48 per cent, of
tin to 20.02 of lead, while the other showed
77.64 per cent, of tin and 22.5 of lead, though
there was no reason to suppose that the
material was not originally, when in a state
of fusion, perfectly homogeneous. The cause
of this curious inconsistency in the results
was fully explained at the same time. " Pro-
fessor Brown-Austen," to quote the Abstract
of the discussion given in the Journal of the
Society, " had shown by means of the thermo-
electric pyrometer, that when an alloy was in
the act of cooling, several definite alloys, in
which the molecules of the metals were dif-
ferently grouped from those of the mass, fell
out at definite temperatures, so that the solidi-
fied metal did not consist really of one alloy,
but was a mixture of several, more or less
regularly diffused throughout the mass," the
margin of possible error from this cause, ac-
cording to Mr. Gowland, averaging about
2 per cent, for small vessels which would cool
quickly and fairly uniformly, and as much as
4 per cent, in larger vessels.

It follows from this that since no collector

OLD PEWTER

is likely to sacrifice an entire object for the
purpose of ascertaining its composition with
scientific precision, the quality of any given
specimen of pewter can only be arrived at in a
rough and ready fashion. Excess of lead is re-
vealed by the weight and the dark colour of the
surface, and the proportion may be discovered
approximately, according to Mr. Massd, by
the degree to which it is possible to make a
mark on paper with the metal. Pure lead
leaves a dark mark like a pencil, pure tin
makes none, nor does an alloy which contains
more than three parts of tin to one of lead.
This combination just leaves a faint trace, and
the darker the mark appears the more lead
and the less tin has been used in the alloy.
Pure tin again, owing to its peculiar crystalline
structure, gives out a characteristic sound
when scratched with a knife, and an equally
remarkable and unmistakable crackle or
" cri " when bent, while lead gives no such
response. The nature of the sound produced
may therefore serve as a vague criterion of
the goodness of the pewter, but this test,
Mr. Massd observes, is only trustworthy to a
very limited extent, since the addition of a
very small amount of zinc to the purest tin
16

CLX

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XII.

THE MAKERS' MARKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE
SHOWN ON PLATE CIV., FACING PAGE 148.

1. Laton spoon, 5" long, found in the Thames at Westminster ;

an engraved line runs along lower surface of stem. XIV
century.

2. Bronze spoon, 6J" long, found in the City of London. XIV

century. Probably French.

3. Laton spoon, 6" long, French. XIV century.

4. Laton spoon, 6^" long, found in the Thames in London, stem

of diamond section. Early XV century.

5. Laton spoon, 7" long, found in London. Early XV century.

Probably French.

6. Bronze spoon, 5^" long, found in London. XV century.

7. Bronze spoon, 6" long, stem of diamond section, found in

London. XV century.

8. Bronze spoon, 6|" long, found in London. XV century.

Mark same as No. 2.

WHAT PEWTER IS

at once destroys the tendency to emit the
" crackle." Lastly, a rule of thumb test em-
ployed in former days by French pewterers
consisted in touching the metal with a hot
iron and judging the quality by the whiteness
of the scar which resulted on good pewter, or
the increasing depth of the brown observable
as the stuff deteriorated.

The question, after all, is for the collector
mainly an academic one of little practical
importance. When the purchaser was buy-
ing for domestic use, and in especial when he
proposed to store in it wine, vinegar, or any
other liquid of which the natural acidity
might act on any excess of lead, giving rise
to actively poisonous chemical compounds, it
was a matter of great moment, but such a
preponderance in no way affects the artistic
or historical value of the specimen, and as
none of the metals that may be present has,
speaking broadly, much intrinsic worth, its
money value is in no way dependent upon
the character of the material.

In case, however, any owner of pewter
should be desirous of ascertaining with some
degree of certainty the composition of any
article in his possession, a fairly simple method

c 17

OLD PEWTER

of procedure is here appended. Scrape from
some inconspicuous portion of the vessel
sufficient material, taking due care that the
instrument used is scrupulously clean, as,
indeed, must be the case with all the apparatus
employed, and endeavouring, if convenient,
for the reason given above, to secure a number
of small fragments from different parts of the
surface rather than a larger scraping from
one only. If the subsequent operations are
conducted with great care and a delicate
balance is used, from three to four grams
weight, or about an eighth of an ounce,
should be enough, though it is needless to
say that every increase in the portion experi-
mented upon will diminish the liability to
error by facilitating the task of weighing the
constituents later on. Weigh the scraps of
metals so obtained carefully in an accurate
balance, place them in a glass flask or other
convenient vessel, and pour upon them a
mixture of strong nitric acid diluted with
half its volume of water. The action of the
acid on the metal will be at once observable
by a brisk effervescence, and as soon as this
appears to be slackening gently warm the
flask. When it is finished a fine white
18

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XIII.

THE MAKERS' MARKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARK
SHOWN ON PLATE CIV., FACING PAGE 148.

1. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6i" long, found at Bei mondsey, stem of

hexagonal section. XVI century.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6i" long, found in London. XVI

century.

3. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long. XVI century.

4. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6A" long. XVII century.

5. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVI

century.

6. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6" long, found in York Road, West-

minster. XVI century.

7. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6\" long, found in London. XVI

century.

8. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6^" long, found in London. XVII

century.

WHAT PEWTER IS

powder or precipitate will be visible sus-
pended in the otherwise clear liquid. That
is all the tin present, now in the form of
oxide. Next dilute the liquid in the flask
with about three times its volume of water
and heat it, keeping it meanwhile in a con-
stant state of agitation. Then leave the pre-
cipitate to settle, and when that is done pour
off the liquid carefully into another vessel,
taking care that all the oxide remains behind.
Preserve the liquid poured off, as that still
holds in solution the remaining constituents
of the alloy. To the small residuum con-
taining the precipitate add more nitric acid,
diluted with about six times its volume of
water, and heat again. Pass it then through
a chemist's filter-paper properly folded in a
glass funnel, and when the dilute acid has all
run through pour water on the powder on the
filter-paper so as to wash it thoroughly. If
the water on coming from the filter is at all
blue in colour copper is still being dissolved,
and the treatment with the second orweaker
dilution of nitric acid must be repeated until
on washing as before no shade of blue can
be detected. All the liquid that has passed
through the filter should be added to that

OLD PEWTER

which was first poured off and reserved for
further treatment. The filter-paper, with
the powder adhering to it, must be dried
thoroughly in a small porcelain crucible, and
when that is done the paper lighted and left
to burn to ashes, which will be so infini-
tesimal in weight as not to affect materially
the result. Heat the remnant over a Bunsen
burner, or spirit lamp, and keep it for a time
at a dull red glow to drive off any water
remaining free or in combination, and when
it has cooled weigh carefully ; 75 parts of
oxide of tin contain 59 parts of pure metallic
tin, so that if the result be multiplied by 59
and divided by 75 you will have the exact
weight of pure tin in the alloy and can easily
calculate the percentage.

The next step is to release the lead. Into
the liquid which has been previously set aside
pour a small quantity of strong sulphuric
acid and evaporate it down in a glass or
porcelain basin, taking care that it does not
boil with sufficient violence to spurt over the
edge, until it begins to give off thick white
fumes. This operation drives off the nitric
acid which is no longer useful. Now dilute
the liquid with water and again a cloud of
20

•I

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XIV.

THE MAKERS' MARKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE
SHOWN ON PLATE CIV., FACING PAGE 148.

1. Pewter spoon, 6A" long, found in London. XVI century.

2. Pewter spoon, 6^" long. XVII century.

3. Laton spoon, 6J" long, found in London, stem of hexagonal

section. XVII century.

4. Laton spoon, with Apostle top, 6^" long. XVII century.

5. Pewter spoon, seal headed, hevagonal, 6£" long, found at

Bermondsey. XVI century.

6. Pewter sacramental spoon, with Maidenhead top, 7^" long,

found in London. XVI century .

7. Pewter spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XVII century.

8. Pewter spoon, with Apostle top, 6J" long, found in Londcn.

XVI century.

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XV.

THE MAKERS' MARKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE
SHOWN ON PLATE CV., FACING PAGE 150.

1. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6" long, found in York Road, West-

minster. XVI century. Same mark as Plate XIII., Fig. 6.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6" long, found in London. XVI

century. Same mark as Plate XIII., Fig. 6.

3. The same as Fig. 2.

4. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6i" long, found in London. XVI

century.

5. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6|" long. XVI century.

6. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVI

century. Same mark as Fig. 2.

7. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6i" long. XVI century.

8. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6f" long, found in Bermondsey. XVI

century.

• J

WHAT PEWTER IS

fine white powder will appear. That is the
lead in the form of sulphate of lead. Filter
and wash as before, only adding a few drops
of sulphuric acid to the water used. Once
more set aside the liquid that comes through
the filter, which will still hold in solution any
constituents of the alloy other than tin or
lead. Wash the powder in the filter with
alcohol or methylated spirit, but throw this
away after it is done with as it can serve no
further purpose ; then dry, burn off, heat
awhile, and weigh as in the case of the tin
oxide ; 151 parts of sulphate of lead contain
103 parts of lead, and a simple calculation, as
in the former case, will give the true weight
of the lead and the percentage.

If the alloy contains any appreciable
quantity of copper the liquid which has been
reserved from the first washing will have
a blue colour. To secure this copper is
easy, but, within-doors at any rate, some-
what unpleasant. The first step consists
in passing .through the liquid sulphuretted
hydrogen gas, easily made by pouring sul-
phuric acid on sulphite of iron in a suitable
vessel, but disagreeably distinguished by
possessing a powerful and highly offensive

OLD PEWTER

odour of rotten eggs. A fine powder, black
in colour this time, will soon appear. That
is the copper in the form of copper sulphide.
Repeat with this the now familiar operations
of filtering and washing. It is then redis-
solved in dilute nitric acid and a solution of
caustic potash (potassium hydrate) is added.
The precipitate reappears in the form of
copper oxide, which may then be filtered
out, dried, burnt off and so on previous to
weighing ; 159 parts of copper oxide con-
tain 127 parts of copper.

The final test for zinc is easy. A solution
of sodium carbonate added to the remaining
liquid will at once precipitate it as zinc oxide.
This should be white, but will possibly be
more or less tinged with reddish brown, a
proof that a slight accidental impurity is
present in the form of iron, which, however,
may be ignored. The washing, filtering, &c.,
are next carried out, but the final heating to
drive off the water must be done with great
care, as zinc evaporates at a comparatively
low temperature, and floating off as a gas
will be lost; 81 parts of zinc oxide contain
65 parts of zinc.

In some kinds of pewter, as has been
22

CLX

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XVI.

THE MAKERS' MARKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE
SHOWN ON PLATE CV , FACING PAGE 150.

1. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6£" long, found at Bermondsey. XVI

century.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 7^" long, found in London. XVI

century.

3. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6f" long, found at Bermondsey. XVI

century.

4. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6i" long, found at Bermondsey. XVI

century.

5. Laton slip-top spoon, 6£" long, found at Bermondsey, has

remains of tin plating. XVII century.

6. Laton slip-top spoon, 7" long, found at Bermondsey. XVII

century.

7. Laton slip-top spoon, 6^" long, found in London, has remains

of tin plating. XVII century.

8. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6£" long, found in London. XVI

century.

9. Pewter slip-top spoon, 6|" long, found in London. XVI

century.

WHAT PEWTER IS

previously pointed out, antimony is employed,
but the separation of this is a tiresome and
difficult task, only possible to a trained ana-
lytical chemist. Its presence, however, may
possibly be deduced in the process of securing
the copper from the orange tinge which its
sulphide, in sufficient quantities, would impart
to the black precipitate.

As these directions are intended solely for
those unaccustomed to chemical operations,
it may not perhaps be impertinent, in conclu-
sion, to call attention to the fact that the acids
used are not only virulently poisonous but
distinctly deleterious in outward application
to hands, clothes, tablecloths, &c., and should
consequently be handled with ample caution,
and either thrown away at once or carefully
locked up when done with.

THE THIRD CHAPTER

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

URING the Middle Ages, when
the now nearly extinct craft of
the pewterer was in the heyday
of its prosperity, the actions of
its followers were circumscribed,
their every proceeding regulated, and their
offences against the rules and ordinances from
time to time established punished with a
rigour and ruthlessness unequalled even by
the tyrannous edictsof modern Trades Unions.
Unlike these last, however, the laws were
made not solely for the benefit of the so-called
working man but for the general good. The
cynical doctrine, caveat emptor, found no
adherents in those days. The rules of the
Company were not indeed wholly unconcerned
with the welfare of the craft and craftsmen,
some of them in fact display a very sufficient
amount of greed and selfishness, but they did
not set on one side as useless or even harm-
ful its good name and honour. The modern
idea would seem to be that no man, however
skilful, however diligent, shall be permitted
24

DESCRIPTIONS OF^ OBJECTS ON PLATE XVII.

THE MAKKRS' MAKKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE
SHOWN ON PLATE CV., FACING PAGE I 50.

1. Laton seal-top spoon, 5^" long, found in London. XVII

century.

2. Laton seal-top spoon, 6i" long. XVII century.

3. Laton seal-top spoon, 6j" long. XVII century.

.4. Laton seal-top spoon, 6\" long, found in London. XVII
century .

5. Laton seal-top spoon, 6^," long, found in London. XVII

century.

6. Laton seal-top spoon, £V long, found in London. XVII

century.

7. Laton seal-top spoon, 6|" Icng, found in London. XVII

century.

8. Laton seal-top spoon, 6^" long, found in London. XVII

century.

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

to turn out more work or better work than the
most sluggish and incompetent can produce
in the same time. The old notion was that
no man should be allowed to foist upon an
innocent public work below a certain definite
standard of merit, while any and every man
should be encouraged to advance as far beyond
that standard as in him lay. It was recognised
that it was not only to the credit but to the
interest of the craft as a whole to deal honestly
with the customer and to make sure that he
was given exactly what he expected and had
a right to, not the omnipresent " just as good "
of nowadays, which in the majority of cases
means infinitely worse. How, when, and
where the vessel was made, its weight, quality,
and price, by whom, to whom, and in what
places it was sold, were all elaborately provided
for, and woe betide the knave or fool who
made or dealt otherwise. The first conviction
for illegal practices was followed by the con-
fiscation of the inferior object or material, and
the second confiscation was supplemented by
" punishment at the discretion of the Mayor
and Aldermen," while a third resulted in
expulsion from the craft, which in those
days of closely guarded Guilds must have

D 25

OLD PEWTER

meant in most instances starvation or the
gallows.

The Company did not, moreover, confine
itself to simply ordering the craftsman as
trader, but interfered most minutely with
nearly every detail of his daily life. With
these domestic and social restraints, curious
and often amusing as they are, we cannot
here concern ourselves. The reader who
would learn more may be confidently referred
to Mr. Welch's exhaustive " History of the
Pewterers' Company," and Mr. Ingleby Wood's
no less excellent "Scottish Pewter Ware and
Pewterers." We must content ourselves with
summarising the general trend of the regula-
tions governing the trade, without laying
stress upon the minor differences which
prevailed in different places.

Before the master-pewterer could set up
in business for himself he had to go through
a long apprenticeship, as a rule six years, with
an added year during which the work done by
the then fully trained craftsman was supposed
to repayhis master for the cost he had incurred,
and no master was allowed to be so "daring
as to receive any workman of the craft if he
have not been an apprentice." When this
26

_
Q-X

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XVIII.
THE MAKERS' MARKS. WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE

SHOWN ON PLATE CVL, FACING PAGE 152.

1. Laton slip-top spoon, 7!" long, plated with tin, found in

London. XVII century.

2. Pewter slip-top spoon, 7" long, found at Bermondsey. XVII

century.

3. Laton slip-top spoon, 6J" long, found in London. XVII

century.

4. Laton spoon, j\" long, plated with tin. XVII century.

5. Laton spoon, 5^" long, with remains of tin plating. XVII

century.

6. Laton spoon, 7 J" long, plated with tin. Handle " Pied de

Biche." Mark same as Fig. 5.

7. Laton spoon, 7^" long, with remains of tin plating. Handle

" Pied de Biche." XVII century.

8. Laton rat-tailed spoon, 7^" long, found in York Road, West-

minster. Handle " Pied de Biche." XVII century.

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

time of probation was out he was expected to
produce under test conditions his " essay,"
certain prescribed vessels which differed in
nature at different times and places, and only
when these had been submitted to and ap-
proved by the authorities of the craft was he
allowed to take up his "freedom," register his
private " touch " on the proper plate at theCom-
pany's Hall, and set up in business for himself.
It was only to the native-born, however, that
even these preliminary steps were open ; they
had no altruistic sentimentality in those days,
being fully determined to keep their trade and
its secrets to themselves as far as possible,
and to that end fining any master employing
a foreigner ten pounds besides confiscating
any ware made by him. The apprentice
doubtless began with the merely mechanical
part of the work, advancing by degrees to
such simple matters as the making of spoons,
a despised task relegated to the young or the
infirm, and gradually progressing to more
important objects as he gained skill in the par-
ticular branch he practised. These in England
were three — Sadware men, Hollow-ware men
and Triflers, corresponding fairly closely with
the French sub-divisions, Potters mditres de

OLD PEWTER

forge, Potters dit de rond, and Potiers
menuisiers. The Sadware men, who were
not rated very highly in the craft, made
dishes, trenchers, chargers, and other more
or less flat and open vessels of weight. The
derivation and significance of the term are
doubtful, and it is perhaps more ingenious
than allowable to refer it to the original
meaning of "sad," as given by Professor
Skeat, namely " satiated," and to attribute its
use in this connection to the fact that the
material used by the members of this branch
was that " fine pewter" which, as explained in
the last chapter, consisted of tin alloyed with
as much copper as " of its own nature it will
take," in other words, satiated, or, as chemists
would say, saturated. This conjecture, far-
fetched as it may appear, is to some extent
supported by the circumstance that the third
branch, the Triflers, were indisputably so
called because they worked in the mixture of
82'or 83 parts of tin to 18 or 17 of antimony,
known as "trifle." The term Hollow-ware
men sufficiently explains itself as denoting the
nature of the object produced, not the material
of which it was fashioned.

Whichever of these three branches of the
28

Q-X

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XIX.

THE MAKERS' MARKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE
SHOWN ON PLATE CVI., FACING PAGE 152.

1. Laton ratrtailed spoon, 8" long, plated with tin. Handle '; Pied

de Biche." XVII century.

2. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, 7^" long, found in Newgate Street.

Handle " Pied de Biche." XVII century.

3. Laton rat-tailed spoon, 7" long, found in Yuik Road, West-

minster, plated with tin. XVII century.

4. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, 7^" long, found in Bermondsey. XVII

century.

5. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, j%" long, found in Bermondsey.

XVII century.

6. Pewter rat-tailed spoon, 7" long. XVII century.

7. Laton spoon, 5^" long, plated with pewter, found in London.

Late XVII century.

8. Bronze rat-tailed spoon, 5^" long. XVII century.

9. Rat-tailed pewter chocolate spoon, 4" long, found in the

Wandle at Wandsworth. XVII century.

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XX.

THE MAKERS' MARKS, WHERE LEGIBLE, ARE
SHOWN ON PLATE CVI., FACING PAGE 152.

1. Pewter spoon, 8£" long, found in London. Late XVI II

century.

2. Laton dog-nose gravy spoon, zof" long, plated with tin.

XVII century.

3. Pewter spoon, 7|" long, found in Bermondsey. Late XVIII

century.

4. Laton slip-top ladle, 8J" long, the handle of hexagonal

section. XVII century.

5. Laton slip-top ladie, 8" long, found in the City of London, has

remains of tin plating. XVII century.

6. Laton slip-top ladle, 7^" long, found in Suffolk. XVII

century.

7. Laton slip-top ladle, 6^" long, found in London. XVII

century.

8. Laton spoon, seal-headed, 6^" long, has remains of tin

plating, found at Norwich. XVII century.

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

trade he followed, the worker's first business
must have been to make his alloy, mixing his
tin and lead or copper in the ordained pro-
portions, with a careful eye on the " sharp
laws provided in that behalf" mentioned by
Harrison. At any moment the searchers
authorised by the Master and Wardens of the
Company might swoop down upon him and
demand to assay the work he was engaged
upon or had already completed for sale, and
any serious deviation from the standard
meant fine and confiscation of the ley, lea, or
lay metal, as the debased material was called.
That he might not, however, be punished for
a fault that was none of his own, the Company
were empowered to assay all tin on its arrival
in London, and thereby to shut out " the multi-
tude of tin which was untrue and deceyvable
brought to the City, the defaults not being
perceptible until it comes to the melting."
Of this guaranteed tin it was customary to
cast a disk, keeping the mould so that in any
case of doubt a similar disk of the question-
able alloy might be cast in it, when, the
weights of tin and lead or copper respectively
being known, the calculation of the quantity
of each present was easily made.

OLD PEWTER

The tin came from Cornwall, the Warden
of the Company having the legal right to
purchase at the market price one-fourth of all
that came into the market, retailing it at a
small profit to the freemen, and it was to the
superior quality of the metal there obtained
that English pewter owed its high reputation
in foreign lands. The birth of this industry
is hidden in the mists of remote antiquity, for
as an element in bronze the use of the metal
goes back to dim pre-historic times. In the
Book of Numbers, xxxi. 22, it is included with
" the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron,
and the lead " among the spoils " that may
abide the fire " which were ordered by Moses
to be made to "go through the fire" for pur-
poses of purification after the victory over the
Midianites. Isaiah, i. 25, mentions it meta-
phorically : " I will turn my hand upon thee,
and purely purge away thy dross, and take
away all thy tin " ; and Ezekiel, in the same
style, xxii. 18 and 20, says, " The house of
Israel has become to me as dross ; all they
are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the
midst of the furnace " ; and, " as they gather
silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin
into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire
30

_j X

Q. X

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

upon it to melt it, so will I gather you in
mine anger and in my fury ; and I will leave
you there and melt you," while in the recital
of the various markets (xxvii. 12) contri-
buting to the splendours of Tarsus, which
precedes the prophecy of its downfall, he states
that " Tarshish was thy merchant by reason
of the multitude of all kinds of riches ; with
silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded in thy
fairs." It is not probable that this tin which
was brought in by the merchants of Tarshish
came in the ships of Phoenician or Cartha-
ginian seamen from these little islands in the
far-away northern seas, for Tarshish has been
plausibly indentified with Tartessus, a port in
the south of Spain, which country is known
to have produced tin at one time, and Ezekiel
certainly wrote centuries before Herodotus,
who did undoubtedly refer to them as the
Cassiterides, from the Greek word /cao-o-iVe^o?,
which is made use of by Homer also, and
other Greek writers. Tin, " plumbum candi-
dum," as Pliny calls it, in contradistinction to
lead, "plumbum nigrum," is frequently re-
ferred to by Roman authors, and was very
extensively imported in their days from
England to the continent in the form of small

OLD PEWTER

dice-like cubes, being embarked at Ictis, an
uncertain locality believed by various differing
authorities to be St. Michael's Mount, Fal-
mouth, Weymouth, and the Isle of Wight,
and delivered for distribution at Marseilles in
Roman days ; later principally at Bruges.
All the other metals employed were also
home products, antimony in the form of
sulphide (stibnite),bismuth, copper, zinc in the
form of zinc-blende, and lead being all found
in Cornwall, though most of the last, at any
rate, originally came apparently from Derby-
shire, if we may form any conclusion from
the fact that it was known as " Peak " to the
London workers.

The alloy once duly compounded accord-
ing to law, or bought ready mixed — as was
evidently sometimes the case since it was for-
bidden to buy it by night, in other words
clandestinely, or from tilers, labourers, boys,
or women ! all of whom were presumably ex-
pected to have stolen it, or to sell old pewter
as new, such when bought being obligatorily
melted down and recast — its subsequent treat-
ment depended on the article into which it
was to be converted and the class of workmen
using it. For making the largest dishes and
32

CO £

T if
" £ W

buO

o >>

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

chargers it was rolled into a sheet, and the
Sadware man was then compelled to fashion
it entirely by hammering, a process which
consolidated the metal and gave the necessary
rigidity while at the same time producing the
desirable smoothness of surface. Smaller
plates and dishes and all other articles were
cast. The moulds for this purpose were
usually made of gun-metal finished with pre-
cise care, and as these were consequently
expensive it was often the custom for the
Company to own them in common, each mem-
ber taking his turn in borrowing one or
another as he required it, giving proper notice
to the Company when he was about to make
castings in order that a searcher might attend
to make sure that only good metal was used.
Several lists of the various forms of these
have been preserved, the earliest of which, as
recorded by Mr. Welch, dating from 1425, is
is as follows : " i holow scharyder," i C plat-
molde, i C dysche molde, i C sawsyrmolde,
i medyll plat molde, i medyll dysche molde,
i medyll sawsyr molde, i kyngs ys dysche
molde, i holow dysche molde, i holow sawsyr
molde, i saly dysche molde, i saly sawsyr
molde, i salu bolle molde, i qware bolle molde,

E 33

OLD PEWTER

i trechor molde." Some of these terms are
of very doubtful import, but a comparison of
this list with one of the regulation weights
for various articles as laid down in 1430,
making due allowance for the eccentricity of
spelling at the time, suggests that they were a
mould for hollow chargers, each of which had
to weigh 2j pounds (the larger ones, weigh-
ing respectively 7, 5 and 3^ pounds, were
hammered) ; large, middle, and hollow plate,
dish, and saucer moulds, weighing, for the
first 2^, 2 and i J pounds each, for the second
i£, i£ and i pound each, and for the third f ,
TV and £ of a pound each ; and a mould for
king's dishes, each of which weighed impounds.
The saly dish, saucer, and bowl would seem
to correspond with the galley dishes and
saucers of the second list, weighing either i
pound or f of a pound each, which perhaps
were equivalent to the " flat, cowped, and
squard saler " of the York regulations of 1419,
the " 12 sallite" dishes in an inventory of Sir
William Fairfax's possessions at Gilling
drawn up in 1564, and Sir Richard Poullett's
" 14 small sallet pewter dishes " in an inven-
tory of 1618. The meaning of a qware bowl
is hard to guess, for the obvious suggestion,
34

CLX

u 6

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

square, seems highly hazardous, and the sup-
position that "trechor" is simply trencher
misspelt is scarcely less so. This collection
of moulds, however, was far from complete,
for the regulations as to weight include also
a middle charger weighing 3^ pounds, a second
sized platter weighing 2^ pounds, a hollow
dish weighing ^ of a pound, a small hollow
dish weighing! of a pound, a Cardinal's hatte,
saucers weighing 15 pounds the dozen,
Florentine dishes and saucers (greatest size)
weighing 13 pounds the dozen, next size of
the same weighing 12 pounds, and " small
holies " 13 pounds the dozen. The weights
and fashions seem also to have been modified
as time went on, for in a further list of York
moulds drawn up two hundred years later we
find such new names as "least dubler," "brod
border dish," " unmouldishe," and " banquitin
dish," while the smaller chargers then weighed
4 and 3 pounds, the smallest dish f of a
pound, the largest platter 3 pounds, and the
smallest i pound. The mould, whatever its
name or shape, was first coated inside with
fine pumice powder, sandarach, a resinous
body obtained from a small coniferous tree,
Callitris quadriualvis, native in North-West

OLD PEWTER

Africa, or white of egg and red ochre, and
having been securely closed if made in two
pieces, or properly fitted together if in more,
was filled directly with the molten metal and
left to cool. When taken out the surface has
a singular and somewhat unpleasing colour
and texture, and this had to be removed, which
was effected in various ways. Sadware and
spoons which were cast in one piece had to be
hammered and burnished, and any attempt to
save time and labour at the expense of
strength by the use of a lathe was sternly
repressed, while in 1686 an ingenious spoon-
maker named Burton was only grudgingly
permitted to employ an "engine" which,
probably by stamping them, turned out
spoons of good quality, on condition that he
did not take advantage of the lesser cost of
his process by selling his goods under the
market price, at that time six shillings a gross
in the country and four shillings in London.
The finishing of hollow-ware was generally
a much more elaborate process. These also,
when possible, as in the case of porringers
and other more simple forms, were cast whole,
but the more elaborate pieces with curved
sides, moulded rims and bases, handles, lids
36

PLATE XXV

H. i3J"
CHURCH FLAGON, Scotch. Early XVIII century type.

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

and other accessory parts, were cast in parts
which were subsequently soldered together,
and the completed article turned, scraped,
and burnished on a lathe. Lastly, the maker
was expected to mark each vessel by stamping
on it the quality mark and his own private
"touch," in order that in case of any deficiency
in weight or quality it might be traced to
him. Failure to comply with this sensible
regulation was punishable by a fine of forty
shillings. A third method of working pewter
was " spinning," by which the metal was
pressed with a blunt steel tool into a wooden
mould spun on a lathe.

The "how " of the manufacture being so
minutely provided for, the "when" and the
"where" were not neglected. Working at
night was forbidden, on a penalty of forty
pence for the first offence, eighty for the
second, and the mysterious and awesome
" discretion " of the Mayor and Aldermen for
the third, ostensibly on the grounds that the
sight was not so profitable by night or so
certain as by day, or on holy days, a restric-
tion due to the fact that this, like all other
guilds, was in the beginning a partly religious
body. The regulations as to the " where " were

OLD PEWTER

designed, as far as might be, to keep the craft
in the hands of the London pewterers, for,
though they had the right of search through-
out England, and were empowered to assay,
rigorously enough, we may be sure, all pewter
imported into London from the provinces
(none was admitted from abroad), they sternly
condemned as " evil-disposed persons " those
who, having learned their trade in the City,
went " for their singular lucre into strange
regions and countries " to exercise it, inciden-
tally revealing its secrets to the " foreigner."
They even claimed the right to command any
English pewterers working on the continent
to return within three months and perma-
nently establish themselves in London on
pain of forfeiting their nationality and right to
" the king's protection," while for the same
selfish ends it was ordained that no pewterer
should work in a shop open to the street,
where any country pewterer passing by might
spy out the process and haply profit thereby.
They, at any rate, were troubled by no doubts
as to the superiority of a policy of protection
over free trade, and "the open door" they
favoured was one that only opened one way
— outwards. At the same time, be it acknow-
38

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

ledged, they took good heed that only honest
ware should issue from it, for no ware was
allowed to be sent out of the City unless it
had been previously assayed.

The selling of the finished ware was as fully
provided for as the making of it. All work
was to be sold by the pewterer himself in his
own shop, unless by special arrangement with
the would-be purchaser, or was to be offered
publicly at recognised fairs and markets where
the searchers could inspect and test it if they
thought necessary, and such pewter must be
new, the re-selling of old being strictly for-
bidden. Table pewter was usually sold by
the " garnish," according to Harrison, con-
sisting of 12 platters, 12 dishes, and 12
saucers, and paid for by the pound, which
in his time was valued at sevenpence or
eightpence. Other articles were presumably
sold separately, also at so much a pound, the
amount being calculated from the price of tin
with a small addition for the cost of working.
A reversal of the rules as to selling was made
in the case of hiring-out pewter, only old
pewter being admissible for the latter purpose.
This would seem to have been a very profit-
able branch of the trade, whether the goods,

OLD PEWTER

known as " feast-vessels," were only loaned
temporarily to some one entertaining for the
nonce on an exceptionally lavish scale, or
were let by the year, as was not infrequently
the custom. An Earl of Northumberland,
for example, during the fourteenth century, is
recorded as having been in the habit of hiring
no less than one hundred dozen vessels, at a
charge of fourpence per dozen per annum.

On the ornamentation of pewter there is
no need to dwell at length. As a broad rule,
indeed, it may be said that the less extraneous
decoration it has the better. Good pewter
should rely for its decorative effects on its
structural incidents. The fineness of its lines,
the elegance of its curves, its Tightness of
proportion, an obvious adaptation to purpose
should be all-sufficient, and any essential em-
bellishments, such as the mouldings on rims,
bases, or strengthening bands, should be as
simple as possible, and should manifestly
display their object at a glance. The orna-
ment should be architectural rather than
sculpturesque, and this much came fittingly
within the province of the maker. His wares
were intended for use, and as a consequence
for subsequent fairly easy and wholly efficient
40

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

cleansing, and such additions as complicated
coats-of-arms in high relief in the middle of
dish or platter, which were made in later and
degenerate days, were opposed to both. Even
the attempt to tamper with the natural in-
tegrity of the plain surfaces was rarely made
during the best period, and still more rarely
successful ; and it is, indeed, at least open to
question whether many, if any, of the instances
that do occur of chasing, engraving, repoussd
work, or other niggling supposed embellish-
ments were the work of the pewterer himself,
but were not rather the unnecessary emenda-
tions of later ignorance and lack of taste. They
have in most cases an evident amateurishness
and inappropriateness that seem to stamp
them as often, if not always, the evil inspira-
tions of people who did not rightly understand
the characteristics of the object or appreciate
its special charm. It would, perhaps, be too
rash to assert dogmatically that the subtle
artistic instinct which would seem to have
been, almost universally, the heritage of even
the humblest craftsman in those days, assured
the pewterer that the texture and colour of
his material had a beauty -of their own which
the distraction of frivolous detail would only

F 41

OLD PEWTER

detract from, but there can be little doubt that
he fully realised that his handiwork was
destined to constant and sometimes rough
usage ; that this in the hands of good house-
wives entailed constant scouring; and that
in the process, with a metal so soft and easily
worn away as that in which he wrought, any
decoration, whether incised or in relief, would
speedily be injured if not obliterated. It was
a period of decadence when pewter " de belle
fasson" and " fasson d'argent" became the
fashion, and the elaborate salvers, basins, and
ewersof Briot and Enderlein, cast in fragments
and laboriously pieced together into a useless
object speciously imitating silver, were in-
evitably the forerunners of the later gilding,
painting, lacquering, inlaying, and other gross
offences against the dignity of pewter, by
means of which inartistic workmen, we may
hope solely at the instigation of vulgar and
ostentatious customers, endeavoured to dis-
guise with frills and fripperies the humble
but honest nature of their wares. It may
doubtless be maintained that fundamentally
neither difficulty of execution, durability of
the result nor cheapness of the actual material
ought to influence the judgment in the con-
42

HOW PEWTER WAS WROUGHT

sideration of a work of art, but one could not
but doubt the sanity of a sculptor who elected
to carve in crumblingsandstonewhen he might
with equal ease obtain enduring marble, or
his honesty of purpose if he painted it with
white enamel to simulate it. The artist who
truly respects himself and his art will not
sacrifice durability to ease of manufacture, but
will strive to make his work sound as well as
pleasing. It is not because silver is so much
more costly than pewter, but because it is of
its nature so much more lasting, that the treat-
ment which is right and proper for the one is
wrong and unfit for the other. To approach
in the second the effects obtainable in the first
necessitates either unpardonable weakness or
impracticable weight, and, at the risk of
tediousness, it cannot be too often asserted
that pewter fashioned in a shape that clearly
prohibits usefulness is pewter misapplied.

THE FOURTH CHAPTER

SOME FACTS ABOUT PEWTER

BEFORE THE FIFTEENTH

CENTURY

S with gunpowder, the mariner's
compass, and other useful inven-
tions, it seems possible that the
Chinese — that strange race who
advanced so far in the path of
civilisation centuries ago, and then, refusing a
step further, settled down into hide-bound
convention — predate the Western nations in
the use of pewter also, but the early history
both there and here is so obscure that it is
impossible to speak with any certainty. In
the entire absence of all early records it is
permissible to believe that the knowledge of
pewter must be nearly, if not quite, as ancient
as that of bronze, for it is scarcely credible that
the pre-historic man who conceived the idea
of mixing tin and copper and availing him-
self of the superior advantages of the blend
to either metal by itself should have not
tested also the desirability of combining the
brightness, lightness, and rigidity of tin with
44

3 O .

-II

w "%
'

iga*

-S ^ ^ 1; %

U O - o O

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

the greater toughness and malleability of lead.
This, however, in the present state of our
knowledge must remain mere speculation.
We first reach sure ground in the days of the
Roman empire. Not only do we meet with
probable references to pewter in the works of
Latin writers, as in Plautus, who describes a
magnificent feast served on what is generally
considered to have been pewter, and in
Suetonius, who states that Vitellius removed
the silver vessels from the temples, replacing
them with pewter, thus initiating a practice
which succeeding generations followed more
than once, but no inconsiderable number of
pewter vessels of Roman make are still in
existence. Important finds have been made
in our own land at various times, chief among
which ranks the remarkable collection now in
the British Museum, unearthed by the Rev.
R. G. Engleheart, at Appleshaw, Hampshire,
in 1877, though the discoveries at Icklingham,
Suffolk, in 1840, Sutton in the Isle of Ely,
about 1848, Southward, Colchester and else-
where were also notable. The Appleshaw
district, which lies five miles north-west of
Andover, near the intersection of the Roman
roads which ran from Old Sarum to

OLD PEWTER

Silchester and from Winchester to Ciren-
cester, had long been famous for its remains
of Romano-British constructions, when in
January 1897 Mr. Engleheart learned that the
plough had revealed in the shape of an
inscribed stone indications of yet another.
The details of the building, which are fully
described in Archczologia,vQ\. Ivi., do not con-
cern us here, but the pewter vessels found at
the time are of unusual interest. "They
appeared to be designedly hidden in a pit
sunk through a cement floor, three feet below
the surface of the field. The smaller vessels
were carefully covered by the larger dishes."
They included, as described by Mr. Charles
K. Read in an appendix to the paper, ten
circular dishes from twenty-two to fourteen
and three-quarter inches in diameter, a
square dish, fifteen and a half inches in
diameter, with a semi-circular projection in
the middle of each side [Plate I. 2], a chalice-
shaped cup of which more anon, an octagonal
jug, a portion of a circular one roughly in-
scribed VICTRICI, the two last letters US
having been broken off, fragments of three
cups, three bowls each with a curious hori-
zontal flange round the outside, five hemi-
46

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

spherical bowls about two inches high and from
six and one-eighth to four inches in diameter,
two saucers, two small plates, a portion of a
vase, a deep dish ten inches in diameter, and
an oval dish, originally nine inches in length,
of nearly pure tin. Many of them are remark-
able for their ornamentation. Several of
the dishes [Plate I. i and 3 and Plate II.]
are decorated with geometrical designs of
intricately interlaced strapwork produced by
punching a wedge-shaped furrow afterwards
filled in with a black bituminous material,
not metallic as in the later Italian niello,
which when the metal was bright must have
had a highly decorative effect. The oval
dish [Plate III. 3] has a fish in relief
within an oval border of interlaced work,
and one of the saucers [Plate III. i] is clearly
marked on the bottom with the well-known
Christian symbol >P, in connection with which
two facts Mr. Engleheart, in a letter which
he has kindly permitted me to quote, offers a
most important suggestion : " Though I
dislike guesses in archaeology," he writes,
" I cannot altogether dismiss a surmise of
some interest which has occurred to me. In
this collection of vessels we have (i) a patera

OLD PEWTER

marked, as though to distinguish it, with the
Christian monogram; (2) a small dish stamped
with the fish, a well-known Christian em-
blem, the form being almost exactly identical
with the one common in the catacombs ; (3) a
vessel which immediately and forcibly suggests
a Chalice [Plate III. 2]. Is it not at least pos-
sible that we have here a very early instance of
a ' pewter communion service ? ' If the inmates
of the villa were Christians, as would seem
to be indicated by the P, it is highly probable
that they would earmark some of their best
vessels for Eucharistic use. And it is a
curious coincidence that a small ingot of
pewter in the British Museum stamped with
the P is practically identical in analysis with
the similarly marked patera" on which point
Mr. Gowland speaks even more strongly,
saying that " it is of precisely the same com-
position." Mr. Engleheart goes on to say
that "C. N. Read objects to the chalice
theory that the edge of the bowl is reflexed,
making it difficult to drink out of. But the
vessel is surely a cup. He suggests it is a
lamp, but I have never seen a lamp shaped
at all like this, and I have seen most of the
collections of Roman ware at home and
48

PLATE XXXII

1 H. 24" 2 H. 23t"

ALTAR CANDLESTICKS. XVII century.

3 H.

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

abroad." When such learned doctors differ it
is meet for the layman to suspend judgment.
The reader may form his own conclusions
from an examination of the reproduction
[Plate III.] ; but with regard to the objection
to the chalice theory founded on the reflexed
lip it may be pointed out that in a large
number of surviving chalices of ancient date
the lip will be seen to be more or less turned
outwards in the same way.

Mr. Engleheart's supposition, if it be as
correct as it is probable, has a considerable
bearing on the question of the date of the
objects. In his original remarks upon the
find, he argued on this point as follows :
" Lying on the floor, below which they
were buried, was a fragment of wall-plaster
bearing a peculiar pattern of red flower-buds
on a white ground, absolutely identical with
plaster found in the Clanville villa. Now
the inscribed stone found in the latter proves
that the house was inhabited in the year
234 A.D., while the coins cease with Decentius,
351 A.D. Therefore, on the not unreasonable
suppositions (i) that the plaster, as found,
represents the wall-decoration of the houses
at the time of their destruction or abandon-

G 49

OLD PEWTER

ment ; (2) that the identity of design shows
a correspondence of dates ; (3) that the vessels
were concealed when the house was abandoned,
we may assign the vessels to a period not by
many years removed from 350 A.D." To
which conclusion he now appends that as
" the P would scarcely have appeared before
Constantine's sanction of Christianity in the
year 311," the probable date cannot well be
earlier than that. As, moreover, the Roman
legions left Britain in 411 never to return, it
is unlikely that they were made after that,
and we may therefore feel assured that we
have in them examples far more ancient than
anything the Eastern world can show.

The oldest of these, indeed, to which an
approximately definite date can be attributed,
were some spoons seen by Mr. Gowland in
the treasure-house at Nara, in Japan, among
the dresses and decorations of the Court
which are known to have been deposited
there on the accession of the Emperor
Kwammu in 784 A.D., when Kioto became
the capital, a few years after the first record
of the use of pewter made from tin found in
the country instead of imported from China
as heretofore, which innovation took place
50

PLATE XXXIII

1 H. 24!" 2 H. 35"

ALTAR CANDLESTICKS, Flemish. XVII century.

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

during the reign of the Empress Shokotu,
which lasted from 765 A.D. to 770 A.D.

After the withdrawal of the Romans, the
history of England, as in fact of all Western
Europe, becomes one long tale of ceaseless
wars. The hapless Britons, overmastered by
the Picts and Scots, adopted the desperate
remedy of calling to their help the Angles
from the Jutland shores, only to find too late
that in place of a trusty house-dog they had
enticed into their fold a ravening wolf. Year
after year, century after century, with few and
brief intervals of a respite, the rashly invited
invaders tightened and widened their grasp
upon the land they were called in to defend,
driving the natives step by step further and
further westward and northward, and during
the protracted struggle we may feel sure that
any lingering traces of civilisation which had
survived the downfall of the Roman domi-
nation were utterly swept away. How and
where in Europe the memory of the peaceful
arts, among them that of pewter-making,
was preserved, when and where the seeds,
so lying dormant, quickened again into life,
we do not know. Certain it is, and that is
all that is certain in the matter, that between

OLD PEWTER

this pewter from Appleshaw and the next
objects of which we have knowledge a gap
of some five or six hundred years intervened.
These, consisting of rings and fibulae of
Anglo-Saxon workmanship attributed to the
ninth or tenth centuries, are now in the Guild-
hall Museum, but are more interesting for
their antiquity than for their beauty. A
more important example of early post- Roman
European pewter is now unhappily only
known by a drawing, made in 1725 from
an ornate chalice, since destroyed, of very
uncertain date between the seventh and
eleventh centuries, which was reproduced
in the Revue des Arts Decoratifs, published
in Paris in 1883. The first we hear of pewter,
after the Latin authors already mentioned, is
in connection with Church use, when, in 1074,
at a Synod sitting at Rouen, wood was
emphatically forbidden as a material for
chalices, pewter being the only alternative
admissible in those cases where the poverty
of the congregation forbade the use of the
more costly metals — gold or silver. An
identical resolution was adopted for Eng-
land by a Council held at Winchester two
years later, but in the next century, at the
52

PLATE XXXIV

W. ,8"

CANDELABRUM, Flemish. XVIII century.

PLATE XXXV

ALMS DISH, German Early XVIII century.

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

Council of Westminster, assembled in 1175,
under the presidency of Richard, Archbishop
of Canterbury, pewter in its turn was
degraded from its sacred offices, and the
bishops were commanded not " to conse-
crate a pewter chalice," gold and silver
being alone considered worthy. A sense of
economy apparently limited this restriction
to vessels made for actual Eucharistic use in
the services of the Church, for the chalices
which it was customary to place in the coffins
of deceased churchmen to indicate their rank,
were still, as a rule, constructed, roughly
enough, of pewter, as were the plaques
sometimes added, bearing the name and
title of the dead man, two of which were
found at Mont St. Michel, one recording
the name of Robert de Torigny, abbot from
1154 to 1 1 86, and the other of Martin, abbot
from 1 1 86 to 1191. But stern necessity is
apt to overrule the decisions even of Synods
and Councils, and, as far as England was
concerned, the regulation did not remain long
in force, for in 1194 the sum of 10,000 marks
being called for from the nation at large to
pay the ransom demanded before the release
of Richard Coeur de Lion, the Church plate

OLD PEWTER

went perforce with the rest of the kingdom's
treasures into the melting-pot, and pewter
was tacitly permitted to resume its erstwhile
prohibited place upon the altar.

Whether the white metal alloy, of which
the magnificent Gloucester candlestick [Plate
IV.], now in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
can in all strictness be classed as pewter, is per-
haps open to dispute, but it is such a superb
example of rich twelfth-century workmanship
that it is not possible to pass it by without brief
mention ; nor need more be accorded to the
grant in 1201, by King John, of charters to the
Stannaries of Cornwall and Devon, which is
only incidentally connected with the subject.

The exclusion of pewter from ecclesiastical
use, which had so speedily fallen into abey-
ance in England, was soon found to be im-
practicable in many cases in France also, and
permission to employ it had perforce to be
accorded to parishes which could not afford
the nobler metals by the Council of Nimes in
1252 and confirmed by that of Albi in 1254.
The first definite mention of pewter in
domestic use occurs twenty years later in a
record stating that the meat for the Corona-
tion banquet of King Edward I. of England
54

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

(1274) was boiled in pewter cauldrons, and one
hundred dishes, one hundred platters, and,
curiously enough, more than one hundred
salt-cellars formed part of the three hundred
odd vessels of pewter owned by the same
king in 1290. But abroad, at any rate, the
popularity of pewter must have been well
established long before that date, since, in his
account of the Paris guilds in the middle
of the thirteenth century, Etienne Boileau
speaks of some twenty pewterers already
differentiated into potters, nail-makers,
lorimers, toy-makers, and makers of buckles
and other small goods, while the pewterers
of Bruges were becoming noted about the
same time for their porringers and flasks.

The continued increase of its employment
in this way during the succeeding years is
further indicated by a rough list of Parisian
craftsmen, which shows that during the eight
years between 1292 and 1300 the number of
makers of table vessels in wood had been
reduced by eighteen and their places had
been filled by eight pewterers, one of whom
was a woman, " une batteresse detain." In
1304 the pewterers' guild there was so con-
firmed in its prosperity that the Master was

OLD PEWTER

thenceforth ordered to pay a premium to the
State on succeeding to office, unless his father
had been Master before him. It was doubt-
less owing to this growing demand for pewter
in foreign lands, and, consequently, for the
tin which formed so essential an ingredient
of it, that in 1305 Edward I. confirmed and
enlarged the Charter to theStanners, relieving
them, among other provisions, of all duties ;
freeing them practically from all responsibility
to the general laws except for capital crimes ;
giving them courts, judges, and a prison of
their own ; and bestowing upon them the
extraordinary privilege of searching for and
securing tin and peat wherever they chose in
utter disregard of any private ownership in
land. The decoration of pewter, to a certain
extent, had already begun early in the four-
teenth century, though, as has been suggested
in the last chapter, it was not apparently as
yet undertaken by the pewterers themselves
but by a distinct class of craftsmen, for Jean
de Jeandun, writing in 1323, says that there
were many chasers of gold, silver, pewter,
and bronze on the Grand Pont, and as gold-
smiths were not allowed to infringe upon
the pewterers' province, nor the pewterers
56

^' OX

T ffi

- s

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

on theirs, it follows that these impartial
ornamenters must have been considered in-
dependent of both.

Germany by this time had developed a
sufficiently important pewter industry of
her own to necessitate the formulating of
regulations at Augsburg, in 1324, for the visi-
tation of the workshops and investigation
of the material used by properly qualified
officials, armed with the corresponding powers
to punish offenders, and in the same year the
name of a pewterer, Carel, is recorded at
Nuremberg. Belgium was also well to the
fore, for at Ath, in 1328, the pewterers' guild
was accorded the first place in the civic pro-
cessions, while a list of pewter belonging to
Clement of Hungary, made in the same year,
which included one hundred and forty-two
porringers and a portable b£nitier, or holy-
water-holder (see Plates V. and VI.), shows
that a recognition of the usefulness of pewter
was already widely spread in Europe.

In T333 the town authorities of Poitiers
found it advisable to pass an edict against the
use of inferior alloys ; and the establishment
of the craft in London is, for the first time,
definitely proved by the record in 1347 of the

H 57

OLD PEWTER

will of one Nicholas le Peautrer, which is
noted in the calendar drawn up for the Cor-
poration of the City of London by Dr. Sharpe.
The evidence is not, however, of high im-
portance, since the next year witnessed the
grant by the Mayor and Corporation, in re-
sponse to the petition of the London pewterers,
of those ordinances regulating the conduct
of the trade and appointing a Master and
Wardens to enforce them, the chief effects of
which upon the craft have been already re-
ferred to in the last chapter. An interesting
sidelight is furthermore thrown by them upon
the extent of the manufacture, pots, salers,
or salt-cellars, porringers, platters, saucers,
dishes, chargers, square pitchers, square cruets,
chrismatories, round pots, round cruets, and
candlesticks being among the articles speci-
fied, after which array the six quart pots pur-
chased by John of France in 1351 present but
a humble appearance.

Mons, in Belgium, appears among the
centres of pewter-making in 1353, and the
craft was so well supported at Ghent three
years later, that its members supplied no less
than thirteen sergeants to the town militia.
The pewterers' guild at Rouen emerges from

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

its previous obscurity in 1369, when the ex-
change value of old and new metal was fixed
by Royal Letters. An inventory made in 1370
informs us that Henri de Poitiers, Bishop of
Troyes,was the owner of fourteen dozen pewter
porringers, besides flagons, pots, decanters,
and cimaises. These last were vessels chiefly
used to contain the ceremonial wine offered
to royal personages on their arrival in the
neighbourhood of a city wherein they proposed
to sojourn for awhile. When the contents
had been duly disposed of the court atten-
dants looked upon the vessels in which they
were served as a rightful perquisite, and the
thrifty burghers, in consequence, who were
put in any case to quite sufficient expense by
the honour of the royal visit, economically
made them of pewter.

In 1376 the pewterers of Bruges were re-
presented in the town militia by eight ser-
geants, falling somewhat below the contingent
supplied by their brethren of Ghent.

During the closing years of this century
mentions of pewter in inventories, wills, and
accounts become much more frequent. Thus,
in 1380, Michelet the Breton, a pewterer of
Paris, supplied six dozen dishes and twelve

OLD PEWTER

dozen porringers, weighing in all 474^ marks,
to Charles VI., and in the same year a portable
bdnitier is recorded among the possessions
of Jean de Halomesnil, one of the canons of
Sainte-Chapelle. Two years later we find
the first record of pewter candelabra and
chandeliers at Soignies. A reason for the
extreme rarity nowadays of this early pewter
appears in 1383, when the before-mentioned
Michelet the Breton was paid 24 sols 9
deniers of Paris for recasting twenty-four
large pewter dishes, and the sum paid also
serves to show how slightly the mere work-
manship of such things was rewarded, since
the same dishes originally cost 119 marks.
Theflabour expended in remaking them must
have been exactly the same as was exercised
in the first instance, and it therefore follows
that three deniers' worth of work went to each
mark's weight of metal. A canon of Troyes
is found in 1386 as the owner of a good store
of pewter, though he is, properly enough, less
well provided than his bishop, boasting of
only five dozen porringers, with salvers, mugs,
and cups ; and in the same year the city of
Amiens purchased from Thibaut la Rue,
" 17 poz demi-los," and the city of Rouen a
60

PLATE XXXIX

1 H. ?J" D. at base 4V 2 H. 9" D. at base 5J"

CANDLESTICKS.

3 H. 8" D. at base 4'

PLATE XL

1 II. 6|"

CANDLESTICK.
XVIII century.

2 83" x 7"

TRAY. XVII I century

3 H. 4"
INKSTAND.

4 H. 6f"

CANDLESTICK.
XVIII century.

BEFORE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

gallon flagon which weighed twenty-eight
pounds, a moderately cumbersome prize for
the official who claimed it even after the
" wine of honour " had been finished.

The primitive simplicity was by then be-
ginning to give place to a more pretentious
style, and in 1389 the Archbishop of Rheims
bequeathed in his will, with eighteen dishes
great and small, forty-eight porringers, a
square measure, two square quart pitchers,
and other vessels, two round pitchers and two
measures of three chopins each, all "fasson
d'argent," while about the same time one
Sebaldus Ruprecht in Germany obtained
what must be regarded as an equivocal fame
for making and fashioning pewter which
could be mistaken for silver.

A woman pewterer, one Isabel de Moncel,
is first mentioned by name in 1395 as work-
ing at Paris, while in the same city a use of
pewter not contemplated by the maker comes
to light in 1396, when Jean Leboeuf was ac-
cused of striking a fellow toper with a wine
measure, thus forestalling by more than four
centuries the unnamed individual who knocked
the late Mr. Bardell "on the head with a quart
pot in a public-house cellar " and caused

OLD PEWTER

him, in the eloquent language of Serjeant
Buzfuz, to " glide almost imperceptibly from
the world, to seek elsewhere for that repose and
peace which a custom-house can never afford.''
During the fourteenth century, then, we
find that the use of pewter was almost entirely
confined to the Court, the nobility arid higher
Church dignitaries, who would seem, however,
to have been sufficiently profitable customers,
for the English pewterers throughout the last
thirty years of it were ceaselessly crying out
against the injury inflicted on them by the
tinkers and pedlars, who found it worth their
while to go about from house to house and
town to town in the country recasting damaged
pewter. They founded their demand for
redress on the plea that these unlicensed
workmen adulterated the pewter with so much
lead that the vessel afterwards was " not
worth the fourth part sold for," and thereby
not only defrauded the owner but brought the
craft into disrepute. This we may well be-
lieve was perfectly true, but it is impossible
to avoid suspecting at the same time that the
loss of business to themselves arising from
this illegal competition was the chief basis of
their objection.
62

PLATE XLII

1 H 2ojt" 2 H. 16"

GERMAN GUILD CUPS.

3 H. 18"

PLATE XLIII

1 H. 10 J" 2 H.6|"

For Descriptions see back of plates.

3 H. ng"

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XLII.

1. Cup, on lid 1721 three shields, right and left a tankard, above

I.W.L., below 1713, centre one a church with spire.

2. Flagon, on front IMS 1706, Nuremberg rose on bottom inside,

on the handle a shield, IMK, a wall and two turrets.

3. Cup, inscribed Johannes George Reichel Johannes Battzer

Rellurg, Anno 1693, Christope Stutz.

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE XLIII.

1. Flagon, German. XVIII century.

2. Beaker, Scotch. XVIII century.

3. Flagon, German. XVIII century.

THE FIFTH CHAPTER

SOME FACTS ABOUT PEWTER IN
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

URING this century the pew-
terers continued to enjoy exalted
patronage. In 1401 Isabella of
Bavaria ordered from Jehan de
Montrousti nine dozen dishes
and twenty-three dozen porringers for her
own kitchen and thirty dozen more for the
Hdtel St. Pol. An inventory made in the
course of the next year at Rouen, quoted by
Bapst, as far as its exact meaning is recog-
nisable under the originality of the spelling,
serves to show that the tools used by the
pewterer in those days were much the same
as now, including the lathe with its necessary
appurtenances, burnishers, scrapers, a file,
various moulds, punches, scales, &c.

Though the manufacture of pewter was by
then almost universal in Northern Europe, it
is not until 1406 that we discern any evidences
of its existence in Spain, but in that year
the customary regulations and statutes
were drawn up at Barcelona. In 1407 one

OLD PEWTER

Guillebert of Metz is noted as a maker of
remarkable works of art in pewter, but no
known examples of his handicraft remain.
York would seem to have captured at an
early date the command of the trade in the
north of England, and in 1419 the regulations
of her pewterers were codified. These were
on the whole much the same as those in force
in London, though they appear to have aimed
at an even more rigorous exclusiveness, since
it was ordained that no one was to set up as
a master in the city who had not served his
apprenticeship within its walls.

Yet another royal order is recorded for
1422, when Charles VII. of France purchased
sixty-four dishes and one hundred and fifty-
eight porringers from Jehan Goupil of Tours,
but the use of the material had already, in
England at least, descended far down in the
social scale, for Robert Chichely, Lord Mayor
of London, in 1423 ordained, with a quaint
preciseness as to detail, "that retailers of ale
should sell the same in their houses in pots
of pewter sealed and opened, and that who-
ever carried ale to the buyer should hold the
pot in one hand and a cup in the other; and
that all who had pots unsealed should be

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

fined." No pronouncement, unluckily, is made
as to what material the cup should be made
of, so it must remain doubtful whether we
have here the earliest example of beer served
" in its native pewter," to quote Mr. Robert
Sawyer. There is almost as much uncertainty
as to the exact meaning of " sealed " in this
connection as there has been in magisterial
minds of late years anent its exact signifi-
cance in the Act relating to the sale of intoxi-
cating liquors to infants. Mr. Massd assumes
that it means stamped by the maker as a
guarantee of the quality of the pewter, but it
would seem more probable that the seal was
to certify that the vessel held good measure,
a point which certainly would more directly
concern the customer, as well as the inn-
keeper, than the nature of the alloy. The
spread of pewter among the less exalted is
further illustrated in 1427 by the will of John
Ely, vicar of Ripon, who left half a garnish
and two chargers. The regulations as to the
lawful weights of various articles made in
1430 have already been referred to, as have
the two forms of the alloy authorised by the
Montpelier pewterers in 1437.

The London pewterers were evidently

OLD PEWTER

waxing proud in their growing prosperity by
this time, for in 1438 they presumed to add to
their ordinances without consulting the Lord
Mayor, who promptly asserted his authority
and showed his resentment by annulling the
additions until he had been petitioned with
due humility to allow them. How great this
prosperity was is shown by the fact that in
1444 the Warden of the Company thought it
advisable to ensure a sufficient supply of that
essential ingredient, tin, by obtaining the
right to pre-empt one-quarter of all that came
into the City. An inventory of the same year
shows that John Danby of Alveston, a mere
commoner, possessed " ix. pece led and pewd
vessell," worth two shillings and fourpence,
while in 1453 Jacques Coeur laid in a supply
of pewter for his workpeople. As is so often
the case with fashions, however, when the
common people began to enjoy it the upper
classes thought it time to eschew it, and in the
inventory of Sir John Fastolfe's possessions
in 1459 among nineteen thousand ounces of
plate not a grain of pewter is to be found.
Yet the noble and royal visitors to subject
cities had still to be content with supping
their vin d'honneur from humble pewter, at
66

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

any rate at Amiens, where cups for the pur-
pose were again purchased in 1463. The
partially religious nature of the London guild
is revealed by the mention of a gift made in
1465, in which it is described as "the
brotherhood of Our Lady of the Assumption
of the pewterer's craft," and the continued
use of their products for church purposes
by a record made in 1467 of the existence
at " St. Stephne's in Colman Streete," of
"3 pair of cruets, 22 dishes for the sepulcur,
2 for the pascal, and i on a stokke before
Synt John in the church." In the same
year the craftsmen of Mons began to mark
their wares with a crowned hammer and the
word " fin," unless it were spun, in which
case a castle and the town arms were used,
while pewter imported from England, a
common practice abroad at the time, was
stamped with a crowned rose. We find in
1470 that even the rival Goldsmiths' Com-
pany was investing in pewter, one pound
seventeen shillings and sixpence being paid
that year " for a garnish of 2 dozen pew-
ter vessels to serve the company," in spite
of the fact that the pewterers were then
imitating the designs of the goldsmiths, and

OLD PEWTER

in France were buying from them drawings,
and patterns in pewter and clay. About the
same time Buschius of Hildesheim undertook
a progress for the purpose of investigating
the state of the Saxon convents, and in his
account pewter bulks largely. The convent
at St. Cyr owned two hundred amphorae,
flagons and tankards, which does not point
to any excessive austerity ; that of the Holy
Cross of Erfurth one hundred and fifty
amphorae, seventy cups, twelve jugs, and
thirty-three porringers ; the Cistercians of St.
Martin had also one hundred and fifty am-
phorae, flagons and porringers ; but the White
Ladies of Erfurth, either owing to poverty or
a stricter rule, were satisfied with only forty-
one amphorae, porringers, and four flagons.
The year 1473 was a notable one for pewterers
in England, for in the course of it King
Edward IV. testified his royal approval of
their labours by conferring on their Company
a formal Charter confirming the privileges
they enjoyed and the powers they had pre-
sumably exercised so satisfactorily, and in
1478 the Duke of Burgundy followed suit by
establishing guilds in many of the cities in
his dominions. A clear idea of the immense
68

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

proportions the trade had assumed may be
gathered from the fact that in 1481 one
record of the metal employed for organ pipes
alone, a blend of six parts of tin with four of
lead, accounts for fourteen thousand five
hundred pounds. "A hoole garnish of
peautre vessel, two round basin of peautre "
are found in the will of Elizabeth Lady
Uvedale in 1487, and pewter bottles in the
11 Livre des Mestiers " of Charles V., while
from an inventory of the goods of the
Pewterers' Guild of London made two years
later we learn that their common seal bore
"the ymage of thassumpcon of our blessyd
lady gravy n theryn of silver." The fact that
the Company guaranteed by a stamp the
quality of pewter is confirmed by the entry in
1492 of the purchase of four new " marking
irons for Holoweware men."

Scotland, according to Mr. Ingleby Wood,
lagged far behind her southern sister in the
pewterer's craft, and this he suggests was due
in part to the greater general poverty, in part
to the absence of native tin, which must have
added very seriously to the original cost 01
the raw material, and in part to the facility
with which the ware could be smuggled into

OLD PEWTER

the country, in defiance of all statutes, from
the Dutch, Flemish, and French ports, with
which so large a general trade was carried on.
Be the causes what they may, it is not until
the very end of the century, in 1496, that we
get the first actual record of pewter-making in
Scotland, when a second " Seal of Cause" or
Charter of Incorporation was granted by the
Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of
Edinburgh to the Hammermen of the City, in
whose ranks, for the first time, the peudrars,
together with the coppersmiths, appear, the
first Seal of Cause issued in 1483 naming
only blacksmiths, goldsmiths, saddlers,
cutlers, and armourers. We learn from this
how greatly the arrangements in Scotland
differed from those in England, where each of
these crafts had a distinct guild of its own.
In Scotland, on the contrary, all the tradesmen
whose work was in the main executed with a
hammer, except the carpenters, masons, and
usually plumbers, were enrolled in one com-
prehensive Corporation, which, though differ-
ing in its exact composition at various times
and in different places, generally extended to
glovers, lorimers, buckle-makers, sword-
cutlers, gunsmiths, potters and braziers at
70

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

Perth, and sword-guard makers at Dundee ;
skinners, glaziers, wrights and potters at
Aberdeen ; clock-makers, bell-makers and
plumbers at Glasgow; and later on white-
ironsmiths, or tinsmiths as we should say
nowadays, watch-makers, carriage-makers,
bell-hangers, and at St. Andrews even such
alien trades as dyers, painters, and stationers.
The main features of the development of
pewter-ware during the fifteenth century were
the increasing range downwards in the social
scale of its domestic use, the consequent
growth in numbers of the craftsmen working
in it — Bapst has collected the names of one
hundred and sixteen workers during that
century in France alone — and the beginning
of the custom among the wealthier classes of
having their pewter so lavishly adorned that
the cost became prohibitive to the lower
orders, thus ensuring to themselves for a
while longer freedom from the competition
of the vulgar.

THE SIXTH CHAPTER

SOME FACTS ABOUT PEWTER IN
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

N England at the beginning of
the sixteenth century, pewter,
according to the Northumber-
land household book, was still
considered too expensive to be
common, but the trade had nevertheless
grown to be so important, and the tempta-
tions to fraudulent practices on the part of its
followers so strong and apparently so fre-
quently yielded to, that in 1503 an Act of
Parliament (19 Henry VII. c. 6) was passed
to compel every maker to mark his ware
with a recognisable touch of his own, to
forbid him to sell outside his own business
premises except in open fair and market, and
to put down the use of false weights and
scales. The legal mind about the same time
seems to have realised that the increasing
independence of the great City Companies, if
not dangerous to the Crown, was decidedly
inimical to its own financial interests, and
that certain customary regulations adopted
72

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

by them had the evil effect of preventing
many fat pickings from reaching the coffers
of the law. The remedy was attempted in
1504 by an Act providing that no ordinance
adopted by any one of them should be valid
and binding until it had obtained the formal
approval of the Chancellor or some other
court official, which doubtless meant fees,
and at the same time abrogating the rule
which forbade brother-members of a guild
from going to law with one another in the
courts, but compelled them to bring all dis-
putes for arbitration by the wardens and
councils, which certainly meant fees.

The " silver fashion " continued to wax in
favour with the wealthy and the merely useful
to decline, if we may judge by the fact that
in 1507 the Duke of Burgundy owned three
pitchers and three ewers of a decorative cha-
racter, and only thirty-two plates, the same
number of porringers and a mustard for
practical purposes. At the same time the
Duke of Bpurbonnays had three quart flagons,
three pitchers, and three ewers, and in the
following year the city of Amiens ordered
from Pierre Hemeron four small ewers of
fine pewter " fasson d'argent." The English

K 73

OLD PEWTER

Parliament again took cognisance of the craft
in 1512, in response to a complaint that " evil-
disposed persons" went about the country
buying pewter and brass, which was generally
stolen, and afterwards sold it clandestinely to
" strangers " who carried it overseas ; that the
same persons were in the habit of recasting
old vessels, adulterating the material in the
process, and, furthermore, used beams and
scales so " deceivable and false " " that one of
them will stand even with 12 Ib. weight at
the one end against a quarter of a Ib. at the
other," which certainly seems carrying fraud
to excess ; and the penalty of losing the beam
and paying a fine, of twenty shillings, or, in
default, of remaining in the stocks until the
next market and elevated on the pillory as
long as that lasted, does not sound unduly
severe in comparison with the fine of ten
pounds incurred by selling pewter otherwise
than previously ordained. The hospitality
of Amiens would seem to have been inex-
haustible, for in 1516 it is again found buying
thirty-five small pewter mugs from Jeanne
d'Avesne for the purpose of presenting the
wine of loyal greeting to Francois I. and
Louise of Savoy. 1518 brings the first inti-
74

PLATE L

1 2 3 H. si" 4 5

CREAM-JUG MEASURE CREAM-JUG

SALT-CELLAR
English. XVIII century.

EGG-CUP

PLATE LI

A PAIR OF TANKARDS, German. XVIII century.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

mation of the Incorporation of Hammermen
at Perth, but there is good reason for believ-
ing that the book of records bearing this date
had predecessors long since destroyed, and in
the same year the town authorities of Edin-
burgh drew up regulations concerning the
stamping of the vessels used by taverners,
in order to ensure their containing good
measure, a plug or " talpoun " on the inside
of the neck indicating the height to which
each was to be filled. In 1535 we first hear of
the Hammermen of the burgh of the Cannon-
gate, who had an Incorporation of their own
distinct from that of Edinburgh, and that year
appealed for leave to build an altar in the
abbey church and dedicate it to St. Eloy,
always in Scotland the patron saint of ham-
mermen. On the face of it the offer would
seem all to the good of the church, yet for
some reason it was not accepted by the abbot
until eleven years later.

The English makers about this time began
apparently to be troubled by foreign compe-
tition. Whether any of the ware of Martin
Harscher, a German pewterer who died in
1523 at the age of eighty-three, which was
proudly asserted to be superior in quality

OLD PEWTER

to English pewter, found its way over here is
doubtful, but it was considered desirable, in
days when Members of Parliament had no
Free Trade bogey to fright them, by an Act
passed in 1538 to forbid all importation
of foreign pewter, to deny to foreigners the
right of working in England, and even to
endeavour to prevent Englishmen from
working abroad.

The Incorporation of Hammermen at Glas-
gow is first mentioned in 1536, but pewterers
are not particularly specified, probably, as Mr.
Wood suggests, because they were too few to
make it worth while, being merely included in
the comprehensive " others within the burgh."
The dissolution of the monasteries in 1537,
or, rather, the inventories of their contents
which that high-handed proceeding gave rise
to, might well have been expected to throw
a flood of light upon the variety of domestic
utensils in pewter employed at the time ; but
as a matter of fact, whether the Commis-
sioners did not consider it as worthy of
notice, or whether the monks were too
wealthy to condescend to such base material,
very little of it appears in any of the records,
and the chief fact we learn is that what we now

PLATE LI I

2 H

3 H. 2ij"
GERMAN GUILD TANKARDS

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

call porringers were known as " counterfettes
or podingers."

The earliest ordinances of the Hammermen
of St. Andrews bear date 1539, but in this
case also it is supposed that older ones ex-
isted but have been lost. In the same year
King James V. persuaded a number of foreign
craftsmen from Holland, France, and Spain
to settle in Scotland, in order, doubtless, that
his subjects might learn from them, and it
is at least probable that some pewterers were
among them ; and in the next year the same
enlightened monarch conferred upon the
Hammermen of the Cannongate a ratification
of their " Seal of Cause," which confirmed,
and to some degree extended, their privileges.

At the same time in England the pewterers
of York were deciding that every pewterer
was to stamp his handiwork with his own
mark, a " counterpayne " of which was to be
kept in the "common chambre " for purposes
of identification, in which course they were
evidently following in the footsteps of their
brethren in London, who already, according
to an inventory of the date, had " a table of
pewter, with every man's mark therein," which
has unfortunately long since disappeared.

OLD PEWTER

The various corporations obviously found
it easier to lay down rules and regulations
than to enforce them, for again and again we
find one or another re-affirming laws which
were supposed to have been long in force.
Thus, in 1543, the Hammermen of St. An-
drews found it necessary to repeat an Act
governing the admission of none but those
whose competence in their particular craft
had been thoroughly established, not only to
the satisfaction of the selected officers belong-
ing to it, but of the Provost and Magistrates
of the city, and in the course of the same
year the Edinburgh authorities were obliged
to renew and amplify their Act relating to
taverners' measures. Two years later the
Edinburgh Trade Incorporations became
owners of the Chapel and Hospital of St.
Mary Magdalen, and the Charter of Dedica-
tion was drawn up in accordance with the
wishes of one Janet Rhynd, to whose generous
gift of two thousand pounds Scots, or one
hundred and sixty-six pounds sterling, the
completion of the building was due.

Meantime in France the manufacture of
what would nowadays be called "art" pewter
was progressing so rapidly that the gold and

H. 6i"

MEASURE or TANK-
ARD, German. Late
XVII century.

1 H. 5" 2 H. 6.1" 3 H.

SCOTCH MEASURES. XVIII century.

PLATE LV

PLATE LVI

1 H.4>" 2 H. 3i" 3 H.3l" 4 H. 3J"

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

silversmiths of Paris began to take fright at
the encroachments of their rivals upon their
especial domains which had clearly been initi-
ated ; and in 1545 they appealed for an enact-
ment forbidding the pewterers to work in any
other metal, while they on their part, in
order to balance things and forestall a griev-
ance on their rivals' side, undertook never to
work in pewter.

The first glimpse of pewterers in Perth is
gained by an odd side-light in 1546, when
the hammermen forbade the apprentices,
among them the " pewteraris," to play foot-
ball on the historical Inch, whereon Hal of
the Wynd fought his famous fight. 1550 is
famous in the annals of purely decorative
pewter as the probable birth-year of Francois
Briot, in whose hands it reached its highest
culmination. Though over-elaborated and
ill suited to the material, there is no denying
to his masterpieces a wonderful fertility of
invention and consummate finish of work-
manship. His finest work is undoubtedly
the salver with a nude figure of Temperance,
seated and holding a cup, in the centre, alle-
gorical representations of the elements sur-
rounding her, and the sciences on the rim,

OLD PEWTER

the whole accompanied and embellished by a
variety of Renaissance ornamentation. Speci-
mens of this may be found both in the British
Museum and at South Kensington.

The beginnings of a revolution which was
destined in after years to cause the London
pewterers much vexation of spirit, is indicated
in 1552 by the rules promulgated compelling
the makers of the pewter lids attached to
stoneware vessels to bring their whole weekly
output every " Satterdaye " to the Hall in
order that, if they were judged sufficiently
well and truly wrought, the lids might be
stamped outside with the mark of the Hall
as well as with the maker's own personal
mark. Traces of the Reformation which
had devastated church and church plate
seventeen years before probably linger in
the record on the register of Waltham Abbey
Church of the purchase, in 1554, of a chris-
matory and pix in pewter, the former costing
three shillings and sixpence, the latter two
shillings. The order against buying by night
from unauthorised or suspicious characters,
which has been already referred to, was passed

in 1555-

The high respect with which pewter was
80

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

regarded in Scotland is shown by an entry
in the town records of Edinburgh, dated
June 27, 1559. In consequence of threatened
disturbances the treasures of the Church of
St. Giles were to be removed and distributed
for safety amongst various presumably trust-
worthy members of the congregation, who did
not, however, apparently justify in all cases
the confidence so rashly reposed in them,
since even " Johne Charterhous, elder, Dean
of the Guild," in spite of his responsible
position, never, as far as we know, could be
persuaded to restore the " twa candelstyks of
tin " which had been deemed worthy to adorn
the "hie altar" until untoward circumstances
flung them into his too conscientious custody.
Another of many quaint and interesting re-
cords which Mr. Wood has unearthed for us
is found at Perth next year, where, among
the duties prescribed for an apprentice who
wished to qualify as master, we discover the
obligatory presentation of a football. The
same year brought about the downfall of the
Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and the
establishment of Presbyterianism on its ruins,
and in the process, what with the vessels
which were carried abroad by the departing

L 81

OLD PEWTER

faithful, those which came into the care of
such guardians as Johne Charterhous, those
like the possessions of St. Giles's which were
sold in 1561 for the public benefit, and those
that fell victims to the zeal of the Reformers,
the pre-Reformation church plate without a
known exception disappeared.

In 1564 the question of apprentices was
finally settled for England on a definite basis.
In accordance with a statute passed in the
previous year, it was ordained that every
freeman of the Company was entitled to take
one apprentice, while the Master and Wardens
were allowed three, provided that at the same
time they employed not less than two journey-
men. They did not, it would seem, approve
of the decorative debauch in progress among
their brethren across the Channel, supporting
whole-heartedly the rigour of the game, for
while a Nuremberg pewterer, Melchior Koch,
who died in 1567, was gaining fame for a
process, the secret of which he carried with
him to the grave, of making an alloy which
closely resembled gold, the Englishmen pro-
hibited absolutely the application of gilding
or painting to the surface of vessels with the
exception, allowed by an Act of 1564, of small
82

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

articles which had been made solely to be
given away as presents by the maker, a
curious illustration of the minute details
with which the makers of the ordinances
concerned themselves.

The need of some distinguishing mark to
indicate the quality was first officially recog-
nised in Scotland in 1567, when an Act of
King James VI. provided that "fyne tyn
pewder" was to be marked with a crown and
hammer, and the second quality with the
maker's name, with the usual penalties of
fine and confiscation if the stamps were
absent or undecipherable. Before 1570 Dun-
dee had followed Edinburgh in her resolve to
ensure for her citizens good measure from the
taverners, and "ane iron stamp to mark ye
tinn stoopis " was in the charge of the Dean
of Guilds there that year.

In England and on the continent pewter-
ware had by the middle of the century be-
come almost an inevitable part of the plenishing
of every respectable family, so that in 1572 a
simple draper of Paris could bequeath to his
heir ''six plates, two eared and two deep and
four shallow porringers, three large dishes,
three sauce-boats, a mustard, a salt, a couple

OLD PEWTER

of basins, a water-pitcher, and a pint pot."
The pewterers, in fact, were beginning to
boast, especially in Germany, that they could
and did make everything in their material
that the gold or silversmith could produce,
though they did not at that time confine
themselves strictly to pewter, for the pewterer
in a " Treatise on Industries," by Harman
Schoper, written in 1573, is made to declare:
" I make vases of all sorts of molten metals."
It was, therefore, scarcely to be wondered at
that in 1579, some candlesticks made in
pewter by Peter Schmitt having attracted
too much approval, the goldsmiths of Nurem-
berg secured the adoption of a self-denying
ordinance, similar to the earlier one agreed
to in Paris, consenting to forego the right of
themselves working in pewter, on condition
that the pewterers did not intrude upon their
speciality.

The first " Seal of Cause" was granted to
the Hammermen of Aberdeen in 1579, but
from references in the document it is clear
that they must have existed as a properly
organised body before the Reformation of
1560, since it is remarked that they still
owned and worshipped at an altar to St. Eloi,
84

PLATE
LX

H. iif

TAPPIT HEN. XVIII century.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

and, strangely enough, still lighted it with
candles made, as was very general in Scotland,
from wax procured in the form of fines from
offenders against their ordinances. For many
years, wherever incorporations of the various
crafts existed in Scotland there had been
constant friction between the deacons and
other officers elected by the members and the
town magistrates, who represented for the
most part the wealthier merchants, and, jealous
doubtless of the increasing power and unity
of the craftsmen, endeavoured to interfere
more closely and frequently in their affairs
than the victims deemed desirable, while the
magistrates on their part were constantly
complaining that the deacons were always
striving to exceed their lawful powers. The
question was grappled with, and in the end
set at rest by an Act of James VI., passed in
1581, which by granting a Charter to the
crafts raised them to the same level as the
merchants, and though these last can scarcely
have been well pleased at their practical defeat,
peace seems to have reigned thereafter. Dating
from 1587 the first record book existing of the
Dundee Incorporation was, as usual, evidently
not the earliest, but the history of this body

OLD PEWTER

is not of great importance to us, since one
Master Gray is the only " pewderer " belong-
ing to it.

The same year in England saw the publica-
tion of Harrison's " Description of England in
Shakespeare's time," which gives many in-
teresting pictures of the life of the period, not
omitting references to pewter, which he notes
is becoming more frequent. " For so common
were all sorts of treene stuffe in olde time,
that a man should hardly find four pieces of
pewter (of which one was peradventure a salt)
in a good farmer's house. But now a farmer
will think his gains very small if towards the
end of his term he cannot have a fair garnish
of pewter on his cupboard, a bowl for wine
(if not a whole neast), and a dozen of spoons
to furnish up the suit." As for the upper
classes, he says : " Likewise in the houses of
knights, gentlemen, merchantmen, and some
other wealthy citizens, it is not geson (un-
usual) to behold generallie their great pro-
vision of tapestrie, Turkic work, pewter,
brass, and fine linen, and thereto costlie cup-
boards of plate with five or six hundred or a
thousand pounds to be deemed by estimation,"
a passage which strikingly recalls Shakes-
86

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

peare's own description of a well-provided
house which he put into the mouth of Gremio,
in the Taming of the Shrew, act ii., scene i.

" First, as you know, my house within the city
Is richly furnished with plate and gold ;
Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands ;
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry ;
In ivory coffers I have stuffed my crowns ;
In cypress chests my arras counterpoints,
Costly apparel, tents and canopies,
Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss'd with pearl,
Valance of Venice gold in needlework,
Pewter and brass and all things that belong
To house or housekeeping."

What the pewter probably consisted of is
made clear by an inventory made in 1594 of
the contents of a house at Gillingham, occu-
pied by Sir William Fairfax, as reproduced
in Archczologia, vol. xlviii. In the "wine-
seller one quart pewter pott," in the pantry
two basins and ewers of pewter valued at
fourteen shillings and four pence, and two
pewter trays valued at ten shillings ; in the
" kytchine," twenty-four saucers, twenty-four
dishes great and small, twenty-four platters
great and small, four chargers, and twelve
more dishes. There were also twelve saucers,
twelve " sallite dishes," twenty-four great

OLD PEWTER

dishes, eighteen great platters, and " i charger
of the greatest sort," which were all new.
The value of the whole collection being eigh-
teen pounds, six shillings and eightpence.
Perhaps the shortcomings of some of these
very saucers may have led the Company in
the following year to decide that never more
should saucers be wrongfully finished by
turning on a lathe, but duly and properly
hammered "uppon payne of forfayture."

That the French merchants did not fall
behind the standard of luxury attained by
their English neighbours is shown by the
inventory of one Pierre de Capdeville of
Bordeaux in 1591, which, in spite of some
uncertainty as to the exact meaning of some
of the distinctive descriptions, gives a good
idea of the state of bourgeois comfort at the
time. In addition to a variety of jugs and
measures used in the business of selling wine,
he possessed a ewer, two flagons, two ollieres,
which may have been cruets or oil-jars, six
great dishes " du grande molle," thirteen
dishes " du deuxieme molle," one " du tiers
molle," eight "du petit molle" (the terms
referring perhaps to the size of the moulds in
which they were cast), thirty-six round plates,
88

PLATE LXII

JUG, English. XVII century.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

fourteen eared porringers, seven sauce-boats,
two large " gardelles," and one hundred
pounds weight of old pewter, while he was,
furthermore, so far in the fashion as to own a
basin and ewer or cistern of ornamental ware.
Imperfect as are the records of the In-
corporations of Hammermen in most Scot-
tish cities, those of Stirling are more than
usually so, only two which in any way con-
cern us, covering the period from 1596 to
1620, remaining ; and though, like all these
ordinances, they contain much unconscious
humour, and throw considerable light on the
life of the time, they do not to any appreci-
able extent advance our knowledge of the
state of the pewterer's craft in the burgh.
The most notable fact revealed by them is
that between 1599 and 1620 there were four
men practising the trade there, a surprising
number considering the size of the place,
surpassing, as Mr. Wood points out, Aber-
deen, Dundee, then the second town in Scot-
land, St. Andrews and Perth, in the minute-
book of whose Incorporation the first name
tof a freeman " peutherer " does not appear
ill I597-
The confirmation by letters patent of the
M 89

OLD PEWTER

London Company's privilege of charging a
royalty on the smelting and * casting of tin,
obtained in 1598, brings the history of pewter
in the sixteenth century to a close. The most
remarkable point in it is the still further
widening of the social field in which it came
into common use in England, though this
was perhaps not altogether without certain
incidental disadvantages from the pewterer's
point of view. Whether it were cause and
effect due to a resentment on the part of
fashion against this increasing employment
of pewter by the commonalty, or mere coinci-
dence arising out of the growing prosperity
inaugurated by the reign of peace which
ensued from the overthrow of Richard
on Bosworth Field and the accession to
the throne of Henry VII., it would be
hard to say ; but, in England at any rate,
even in the opening years of the century, we
begin to discover evidences of a steady ten-
dency among the higher classes towards the
uses of the more precious metals. In 1501
the banquet given in honour of the politic
marriage of Arthur Tudor, the king's ill-
fated eldest son and heir, to the scarcely less
unfortunate Catherine of Arragon, is stated
90

UH X

. o
ffi £*

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

to have been served on gold plate enriched
with pearls and other gems at a total cost of
more than twenty thousand pounds ; while
the accounts given some years later by Robert
Amadel and Cavendish of the plate belonging
to Cardinal Wolsey read more like pages
from the " Arabian Nights " than sober state-
ments of fact. Setting aside such objects as
an image of the Virgin and great candlesticks,
for which pewter would have been inappro-
priate, we find three chargers weighing nine
hundred and sixty-eight ounces, twenty-two
dishes weighing four hundred and fifty-one
ounces, and so on. So prodigious was the
amount, that even at great banquets a large
proportion of it was reserved solely for dis-
play. " There was," says Cavendish, speak-
ing of such occasions, " a cupboard as long as
the chamber was in breadth, with six deskes
in height, garnished with guilt plate, and the
nethermost deske was garnyshed all with gold
plate, having with lights one pair of candle-
sticks with silver and guilt, being curiously
wrought, which cost three hundred marks.
This cupboard was barred round about that
no man might come nigh it, for there was
none of all this plate touched — there was

OLD PEWTER

sufficient besides." As this example was
certainly followed, though less lavishly per-
haps by smaller men, the great Cardinal was
clearly no good friend to the pewterers ; and
they, at least, can have felt no great reason to
lament his fall.

Other noticeable features in this century
are the continued growth of the craft in
Scotland, the rapid development of the
manufacture of highly decorated ware in
France and Germany, and the regrettable
and wholly irreparable destruction of church
plate during the Reformation in England and
Scotland.

Q
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THE SEVENTH CHAPTER

SOME FACTS ABOUT PEWTER IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

ROUBLES began to thicken
round the London pewterers
during this century. As early
as 1 60 1 the provincial compe-
tition was making itself so
markedly felt that they resolved to insist
that thenceforth no craftsman under their
control should work publicly in an open shop,
thereby giving " occasion that pewterers of the
country and others shall come to great lyght
of farther knowleg to the great hindraunce
of the Company," and so serious did they
deem the danger to be that a first failure to
comply with the requirements of the ordinance
was punishable by a fine of thirteen shillings
and fourpence, a second by one of twenty
shillings, and the third by expulsion, so that
" no brother of the Company shall buy and
sell with them," an ancient precedent for
boycotting.

1602 is notable as the date inscribed on
the most interesting surviving specimen of

OLD PEWTER

Scottish pewter, the Pirley-Pig of Dundee,
which is one of the very few examples, show-
ing added exterior ornament. It is a flattened
sphere six inches in diameter and three in
height, with a narrow opening in one side
for the insertion of coins, and was used for
many years to hold the fines for non-attend-
ance paid by members of the Council. For
a time it disappeared, but by a most fortunate
chance was rediscovered in 1839 in a heap of
old metal ear-marked for the foundry, and
now once more forms one of the treasures of
the Town Hall.

To the collector 1603 is not without im-
portance, as in that year by a Canon of the
Reformed Church of England it was required
that the wine should be brought "to the
Communion-table in a clean and sweet stand-
ing pot or stoup of pewter — if not of purer
metal/' and it is, therefore, safe to assume
that no pewter church flagons are of earlier
date. That this permission to use pewter
was promptly taken advantage of is shown by
an entry at Strood near Rochester in 1607 of
11 the purchase from Robert Ewer (for 95. 6d.)
Two pewter pots to serve the wine at the
Communion " ; while one still existing at
94

hJ O

tuO

"•n O

53 °r >>

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Werrington in Northamptonshire bears an
inscription, " Ex dono Edmundi Pennye et
Franciscae uxoris ejus ad usum Capellae de
Werrington 1609."

An example of seemingly calm appropria-
tion of another man's ideas, bearing the date
1 6 1 1, is to be seen at the Victoria and Albert
Museum in the form of a salver of Nurem-
berg pewter which is practically a reproduc-
tion of Briot's Temperantia salver, though
it is unblushingly signed, SCULPEBAT
GASPARD ENDERLEIN, and stamped
with his initials G. E.

About this time we begin to perceive an
augmenting activity in the craft in England,
as indicated by the lengthening catalogue of
articles turned out. Among the new names
extracted by Mr. Welch from a list made by
the Company in 1612, are " chapnets," small
vessels for church use, weighing, according
to size, one pound and a half or one pound
the half dozen ; great beakers, both wrought
and plain, middle, small, and children's
beakers, large and small beer bowls, large
wrought cups, two sizes of French cups,
" spowt potts " of various capacities, hawkes-
bills and ravensbills, which were ewers of

OLD PEWTER

different sorts, named perhaps from the beak-
like shape of the spout ; thurndells and half
thurndells, according to Mr. Mass£, on the
authority of Mr. St. John Hope, a Wiltshire
name for vessels containing three pints ; and
a number of measures, "new quarts, new
great, small and halfe potts, hooped thurn-
dells, Winchester quarts and pints, with or
without lidds, long hooped Winchester pyntes
and Jeayes danske potts," which last are a
mystery. The rigorous distinctions between
the various branches of craftsmen seem to
have been somewhat relaxed about the same
period, for the Triflers were including not a
little hollow-ware in their output.

The curious independence of the Scottish
towns in those days of bad roads and little
travel is suggested by the fact that only in
1614 did the Incorporation of Dundee ordain
the hall-marking by the Dean of Guild and
Town Baillie of tavern measures, nearly a
century after Edinburgh had adopted the
same sensible course, although as early as
1563, and again in 1568 and 1613, stern
punishment had been provided for the use
of false measures.

Still new uses for pewter come to light in

£ o

a ^

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

a list of " trifles" in 1614, such as basins,
bowls, pastie plates, pye coffins, limbecks,
cefters, and still-heads, so that it is small
wonder that in my lord Northampton's
kitchens that year the weight of the pewter
amounted to three hundred pounds. Thirteen
candlesticks of pewter form a noteworthy
item in the inventory of Sir Thomas Hoskyns
of Oxted, dated 1615; the rest, however, con-
sisting of eight dozen dishes of all sorts, four
dozen saucers, and four flagons, is of the
usual type of kitchen furniture.

A second wave of revolution swept over the
Church of Scotland in 1617, when James I.
(VI. of Scotland) forced upon his old kingdom
the form of worship prevailing in his new one,
under the name of Episcopalianism, and the
change of ritual unquestionably contributed to
the destruction of much of any plate that had
survived from 1567. It also brought into
ecclesiastical use, apparently for the first
time, a new vessel in the " laver," a form
of flagon, usually with a narrow spout, which
was used either for pouring the water at
baptism on to the face of the child or simply
to convey the water to the font. No pewterer
is especially mentioned as a member of the

N 97

OLD PEWTER

Incorporation of St. Andrews until 1619,
and Mr. Wood conjectures that the supplies
of ware which must have been demanded by
the castle, the university, and the cathedral,
were obtained from the gypsies and other
wandering unfreemen, who are known to have
driven a thriving trade in Scotland just as
did the "deceivable hawkers" in England,
for whose suppression the London Company
were once more clamouring in 1621 as they
had done ineffectually so many times before,
A further element of tribulation for it appears
about this time under the guise of " the
Crooked Lane men " whose ware was as-
serted by it in 1634 to be a "counterfeiting
of the reall commodity of Tynn." What this
ware was actually made of cannot be stated
with absolute certainty. That it was not
regarded as fraudulent, except by the pew-
terers, who can scarcely be considered as in-
dependent or disinterested judges, is clear,
since their hostile attempts were unsuccessful ;
and, as workers in tin-plate, under the name
of white-ironsmiths, were accepted as journey-
men by the Corporation of Aberdeen as early
as 1649, and as full freemen of that of Glas-
gow in 1652, it is scarcely a rash conclusion
98

PLATE LXVIII

H.'io"

JUG, George IV

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

that in these obnoxious Crooked Lane men
we have the first of those tinsmiths whose
handiwork in years to come was fated to
play no small part in the overthrow of the
pewterer's craft.

It is rather sad in the face of this aggres-
sive eagerness on the side of the pewterers to
protect " his Matits subjects " from " deceipt or
wrong " to find that they were themselves en-
gaged at the very time in marking their wares
in a manner so closely resembling the four
hall-marks which the Goldsmiths' Company
stamped on real plate, that in 1635 the latter
appealed for redress to the Privy Council, and
that in response the Court of Aldermen
ordained that the pewterer should use only
one stamp, though he might add the arms or
sign of the purchaser on his desiring it.

Once more, in 1638, there came an up-
heaval in the Church of Scotland, when the
people, who had always more or less hated
and actively resented it, revolted against
Episcopalianism, and pledged themselves to
the New Covenant, but the result of this was
probably, at any rate at first, an increase in
the use of pewter for church vessels, the more
precious metals being absorbed in providing

OLD PEWTER

means for carrying on the conflict which
followed. 1640 is the earliest date on the
first of the touch-plates still preserved at
Pewterers' Hall, forming with a windmill the
touch of one N.M., whose initials are enclosed
in an octagon ; while 1641, according to the
Rev. J. E. Nightingale's " Church Plate of
Dorset," is the oldest date on pewter found in
that county, viz., two flagons inscribed, " Ex
dono Henrie Arnoldi Ilsingtoniensis."

The same year witnessed the passing of
an Act by the Parliament of Scotland com-
manding every pewterer to mark his ware
with the thistle, the Deacon's mark, and his
own name, and ordaining that none but the
finest pewter, such as in England bore the
mark of the rose, was to be employed. It is
probably owing to the regrettable carelessness
displayed in preserving the records of the
Hammermen of Glasgow that we find no
mention of a pewterer in such as remain
before 1648, for, though the now large and
prosperous city was at that time but a small
place, it had its cathedral, and it seems
scarcely credible that there should have been
no resident craftsmen to meet the demand
that must have existed for the making and
100

tu
a

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

repairing of pewter ware. An unusual but
significant employment for a member of the
craft is revealed by an Act of Parliament
passed at Edinburgh in 1649 to authorise the
payment of a sum of four hundred and forty-
six pounds odd sterling (five thousand three
hundred and fifty-three Scots) due to one
James Monteith from the Government for
making musket and pistol balls, presumably
for the Parliamentary forces in Scotland and
England, two years before, an account which
was duly discharged, thus saving the creditor
from carrying out his rather Gilbertian threat
of deserting his wife and family. Nor can
James Monteith have been the only one
among the pewterers to profit handsomely by
the internal dissensions, for to his English
contemporaries also it must have come as a
not wholly disagreeable illustration of the
old proverb anent an ill wind. As the long-
drawn-out contest between King and Parlia-
ment dragged on its weary length, nobleman
after nobleman and gentleman after gentle-
man sent his rich stores of gold and silver
plate to be melted down to meet the endless
drain upon the war-chest, and, since men must
eat even in the intervals of victory and defeat,

101

OLD PEWTER

the vanished treasures were doubtless replaced
by humble pewter. Even royalty itself, as we
know, was fain at last to be content with such,
for in the possession of Mrs. F. W. Barry
there is a large and handsome rose-water dish,
which was one of a set of six provided for the
King's use when he lay at York. The opposing
party in their turn also made much work for the
pewterers' lathes and hammers, more especially
when they flung out from the churches the
fonts as savouring particularly of papistry,
necessitating the use of pewter bowls and
basins for baptismal purposes.

In France during this half-century the use
of pewter — except the ornamental kind — by
the nobility had steadily declined, and not even
the permission given in 1650 to gild, silver,
or lacquer it, forbidden till then save for
church use, was successful in inducing them
to return to it to any great extent, although
by royal command, in order to defray the
expenses of the endless wars, their plate was
sent to the Mint, the King leading the way
with "tables, candelabra, large seats of silver,"
so "enriched with figures, bas-reliefs, and
chasings " that, though they had cost him ten
million francs, the metal when melted down
1 02

* t
•8 :

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

was worth no more than three. So despised,
indeed, had pewter become, that the Grande
Mademoiselle when visiting Nanteuil six
years later thought it needful to her dignity
and delicate susceptibilities, while commend-
ing her supper, to deprecate the pewter it was
served on.

The punishment recorded in 1652 of
William Abernethie of Edinburgh, for using
bad metal, is remarkable as the only instance
of such a necessity arising, a praiseworthy
proof of the faithfulness with which the
Incorporation and craftsmen fulfilled their
obligations to the public.

It may, perhaps, be doubted whether the
London Company was so unselfishly con-
siderate for the consumer when in the same
year it forbade Thomas Allen to lend his
professional assistance to a Major Purling,
who had invented a new material which he
called Silvorum, and in the following year
fined Lawrence Dyer for working in it, though
the last, be it acknowledged, did aggravate his
offence by selling it unmarked. One would
like to know whether he paid any or all of his
fine in the farthings stamped "£ of an ounce
of fine pewter," which Cromwell found it

103

OLD PEWTER

necessary to issue that year in imitation of
the tradesmen's tokens, which had for many
years been fashioned in that material. Cer-
tainly it was on no sentimental, altruistic
grounds that in 1658, when they were debarred
from introducing their ware into Bordeaux,
doubtless with its large wine trade a paying
customer, the London pewterers grumbled,
quite regardless of the fact that their own laws
against the importation of foreign ware were
of the strictest.

With the return of Charles II. to the throne
in 1660 the hated yoke of Episcopalianism
was again laid on the shoulders of the Church
of Scotland, and doubtless a new era of melt-
ing down and refashioning church plate,
pewter and otherwise, ensued ; but the interests
of the pewterers were not ignored, for in 1661
an Act was passed absolutely prohibiting the
exportation of old pewter, a precaution by no
means unnecessary if we may deduce the rarity
of the metal there from the fact that it was
estimated at nearly three times its value on
the south side of the border. This high price,
in fact, would seem to have had a damaging
effect upon the business of the craftsmen, and
to have driven those of Edinburgh into under-
104

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THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

taking jobs outside their regular profession,
for an Act was called for in 1663 to decide
that plumbers belonged to a distinct trade,
and that pewterers had no right to work in
lead.

Cisterns and toys next appear among the
articles fashioned of pewter in England, Mr.
Samuel Pepys having purchased one of the
former in 1667, while Francis Lea was fined
ten shillings in 1668 for making the latter of
inferior quality, for even to such small deer
did the powerful Company deign to attend in
the intervals of such weightier business as
joining the Girdlers in 1669 in opposing the
endeavour of the poor Crooked Lane men to
get a charter for themselves, or, as in 1671,
making puzzling and apparently contradictory
resolutions as to the lawful use of the rose
and crown stamp and the addition or omission
of the name of the maker in full.

Pewter spoons and forks are found in a
French inventory of 1672.

A series of ordinances issued by the Aber-
deen Incorporation are interesting as showing
with what intimate details of the daily life of
its members, quite apart from their work, it
was suffered to interfere, more especially in the

o 105

OLD PEWTER

case of apprentices, who, if the rules were
conscientiously enforced, must have had a
dull and rather difficult time. The quarrel
between the pewtereis and plumbers of
Edinburgh came to a head next year, and
resulted in 1679 in an action brought by the
former in which they endeavoured to establish
their right in the teeth of the Act of 1663 to
work in lead, and some of the pleadings show
the smallness of the trade, owing to which
the craftsmen were unable to exist by it
alone. Yet people of fair social standing did
not hesitate to embark in it, a nephew of the
Laird of Wallieford being apprenticed in
1687. The collapse of Episcopalianism and
revival of Presbyterianism on the accession
of William of Orange in 1688 led once again
to alterations in church plate, though on this
occasion much more of it was preserved in-
tact, and some of it still survives.

In the course of the same year the pew-
terers of London made it clear that, however
cordially they might welcome a king from
foreign parts, they were not prepared to
extend their toleration to rival workmen, for
one Mark Henry Chabrolles, a Frenchman,
was bluntly forbidden to open a "shopp."
106

CL_I

DESCRIPTIONS OF OBJECTS ON PLATE LXXIV.

1. Tankard, English, 4" high. Early XVIII century.

2. Dish, Scotch, stamped with initials ADV and AW. dinm. i^

XVI century.

3. Mug with handle. English, si" high. Early XVII I century.

4. Measure, English, 2l" high, 2|" diam. XVII century.

5. Tankard, English, 4" high. XVIII century.

6. Tobacco-box, English, 5^" high, 4" diam. XVIII century.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Learning later that he was a Protestant
refugee, they consented to his working
"some time longer," but in 1692, repenting
of its leniency, the Court finally ordered him
to abandon the trade of pewterer by the
24th of August, as they recognised, some-
what tardily, that his practising it was illegal.
At the same time it was tinkering with the
rules as to stamping wares with a persistency
and contrariety that would have rejoiced the
heart of a War Office permanent official. In
1690 complaint was made that one Samuel
Hancock was brazenly stamping his name in
full upon his plates, yet in 1692 the Court
ordered or allowed this to be done, only to
renew its prohibition six months later, which
was again withdrawn in 1697.

A significant entry appears in the records
of Aberdeen for 1694 admitting white-iron-
smiths to the freedom of the Incorporation,
by which, as far as the pewterers were con-
cerned, it was opening the gate to an
insidious foe. Indeed, everywhere at the
end of the seventeenth century signs of the
approaching end of the prosperous days of
the craft were becoming plainly visible. In
Scotland the white-ironsmiths, in England

107

OLD PEWTER

the makers of glass and earthenware, were
steadily absorbing more and more of the
trade ; so much so that the Pewterers' Com-
pany attempted, though in vain, to procure
the passing of an Act of Parliament enforcing
the sale on draught of beer and other intoxi-
cating liquors in pewter vessels only, declar-
ing with sublime effrontery that no others
held full measure. It may even be doubted
whether the long wars with France which
followed the triumph of William of Orange
and the final overthrow of the Stuarts gave
much stimulus to the pewterers' trade,
though William, after having been driven to
the same expedients as his rival LouisXIV. —
melting down the larger portion of the pro-
fusion of silver accumulated by Charles II.,
and calling on his subjects for similar sacri-
fices— was finally reduced to striking part of
his coinage in pewter.

1 08

PLATE LXXV

H. 12"

SOUP TUREEN, Russian. Archangel mark,

* O £

X D 3

*sj

as s

THE EIGHTH CHAPTER

THE END OF THE STORY

HE history of pewter during the
eighteenth and nineteeth cen-
turies is an unrelieved record of
steady continuous decline, of
loss by the Companies and
Incorporations of their power to control the
trade, of loss finally by the craftsmen of the
trade itself. At the beginning of the period
the London Company was still struggling
with the vexed question of the marking of
pewter. Regulation after regulation had
ordained that each maker should possess a
mark peculiar to himself, that this mark
should be registered on a plate kept for the
purpose at the Company's Hall, and that every
master should stamp this touch on every piece
of pewter that issued from his shop. Yet in
1702 it was still necessary for the Company
to obtain a charter empowering them to make
more regulations, or rather to reiterate those
that had been laid down so often before. The
attempt to prevent the importation of foreign
pewter would appear to have been no more

109

OLD PEWTER

successful, in spite of the fact, as proved by a
number of tests undertaken by the Company
in 1709, that it was immensely inferior in
quality to the native material.

In Scotland at the same period the in-
sidious white-ironsmiths were gradually ex-
tending their boundaries. One is mentioned
at Edinburgh in 1713; another, the first, was
admitted as a freeman of the Dundee Incor-
poration in 1715 ; while — a still more signifi-
cant fact — in 1720 the last pewterer, one
Patrick Sampson of Dundee, joined the St.
Andrews Incorporation.

The grip of the London Company weak-
ened yearly. Few rules had been more
persistently enforced than that forbidding
anything approaching to self-advertisement,
yet in 1727 one Samuel Smith had no hesita-
tion in asserting publicly by means of the
stamp upon his wares that these were "good
mettle made in London." As far as the
country was concerned matters were even
worse. The Company, which had owned and
regularly exercised the right of search for
inferior ware throughout the length and
breadth of England, though assured in 1729
that such was being offered for sale in large
no

PLATE LXXVII

Ewer, H. 8|" Basin, 14" x io|"

EWER AND BASIN.

THE END OF THE STORY

quantities at Bristol, no longer dared to put
their prerogatives into practice, and by a
timorous inaction surrendered their whole
position and abandoned their justification for
continued existence. To issue edicts to which,
on your own confession, you have no means
of compelling obedience, is to wilfully court
humiliation. The weakness of the authorities
was furthermore reflected in the trade itself.
The makers lost their originality and in-
dividuality, and more and more as time went
on we find them content merely to re-echo the
work of the gold- and silver-smiths. This is
especially observable in their table ware, as,
for example, in the dish [Plate IX. 2], the
mustard pots [Plates VII. 4, and VI 1 1. 6 and 7],
pepper pots [Plate VIII. 2 and 3], and salts
[Plate VIII. 9 and 12], which, admirable as
they are in design, are only slavish copies
of the silver of the time.

In 1729 the last pewterer was enrolled
among the Hammermen of the Cannongate,
and, moreover, the Patrick Sampson who, as
mentioned above, had migrated from Dundee
to St. Andrews nine years previously, so
evidently had found business in that city
unsatisfactory that he shook its dust from his

OLD PEWTER

feet, and returning to his former place of
residence sought and obtained admission to
the Incorporation there, while the craftsmen
of St. Andrews set themselves to the task of
reducing the overcrowding of the Incorpor-
ation which had resulted from the ill-con-
sidered diminution of the entrance fees some
years earlier, by enacting that no one who was
not either the son of a freeman or married to
the daughter of one should thenceforth be
entitled to belong to it. How far this served
to improve matters for the time we do not
know, but in endeavouring to bolster up an
out-of-date monopoly they were foredoomed
to failure in the end. The spirit of the age,
with its growing sense of personal freedom,
was against all such galling restrictions on
the liberty of the individual, however well
directed to the public benefit they may have
been, and from an order issued in 1732 to its
members by the Incorporation of Perth to spy
out what burgesses of the town were illegally
trafficking with the unfreemen it is clear that
the consumer from without was aiding and
abetting the revolt from within. One by one
the Incorporations had to retreat from positions
formerly held in strength. Thus in 1733
112

£p Q

<N Q

THE END OF THE STORY

Patrick Campbell was admitted as freeman of
both " the Coppersmith and the Pewter Arts,'1
though only nine years earlier Ninian Grey,
although Deacon of the Incorporation, was
brought to book for working at the two.
The same year the pewterers of Edinburgh,
beginning, maybe, to realise their danger,
endeavoured to assert their authority over
the white-ironsmiths by denying them the
right to alter without permission their " essay,"
as the test-pieces which a man had to make
before admission to the freedom were called,
but they had to give way, a result which
might act, but did not, as a warning to their
neighbours of the Cannongate, who, all un-
suspecting, gave entrance to their first white-
ironsmith that very year.

The London Company must have been
equally ready to forego its lawful powers
under continued pressure, or John Jupe would
never have dared in 1736, not only to label
his metal " Superfine," but to crown his
defiance with the additional insult " French " 1

By 1739 the white-ironsmiths of Edin-
burgh had waxed so fat in their own estima-
tion that they began to kick, urging complaints
against the pewterers and demanding the

p 113

OLD PEWTER

right to establish a definite and distinct
craft of their own, but that time they went
too far, and the pewterers firmly and suc-
cessfully rejected the appeal. At Perth,
in the course of the same year, a tinsmith,
the first to be found in the records, actually
appealed to the Incorporation for charitable
relief, a disaster to one of the rival craft
which should have afforded unbounded satis-
faction to the pewterer members, and not
the less so because George Brown, the bene-
ficiary, had formerly been a pewterer and an
officer of the Incorporation withal, and had
deserted them for the enemy, evidently with
very poor results as far as he was concerned.
The year 1745, so fraught with bitter memories
for Scotland, brought about a further reduc-
tion in the amount of any early plate yet
remaining to the congregations of the dis-
established, but not deserted, Episcopalian
Church, whose members, naturally taking the
side of the Pretender in the ill-fated attempt
at rebellion, were ruthlessly harried by the
victorious Duke of Cumberland, their plate
being carried off and their chapels burned,
though this in the upshot proved of some
small benefit to the pewterers. For the
114

PLATE LXXIX

1 2345

H. 3-J" D. 2!" H. 2J" D. 2|" H. 2" D. 2J" H. 4|" Base 2" H. 2J" D. 3"

MUSTARD-POT. SALT-CELLAR. MUSTARD- PEPPER-BOX. MEASURE.

XVIII century. XVIII century. POT. Late XVIII century. XVIII century.

XVIII cen-
tury.

PLATE LXXX

3 45

From 4" to 6" high

MUSTARD-POTS. XVII and XVIII centuries.

PLATE LXXXI

1 234

From 4!" to 6" high

PEPPER-POTS. XVII and XVIII centuries.

THE END OF THE STORY

congregations, impoverished and oppressed
could only afford the more modest ware
when replenishing their ravaged stores, and
as a consequence most of the Episcopalian
pewter plate still in existence dates from the
nearer side of " the Forty-five." This demand,
however, was far too small to provide any
serious check on the downward path of the
doomed craft ; in the very next year the
Dundee Incorporation enrolled the last on its
books, tinsmiths thenceforth occupying their
places, while after 1747 no Perth hammer-
man can be shown to have made a living out
of pewter alone, combining the craft with work
in copper or some other trade, a practice, as has
been said, at one time utterly prohibited.

In London at the same time the Company,
with an inability to recognise or an unwilling-
ness to admit the hollowness of their preten-
sions which is almost pathetic, were still
perseveringly legislating on the subject of
touches, ordaining that all objects large
enough should bear the Christian name and
surname of maker or vendor, and smaller
articles his registered mark, though their
edicts were by then so openly disregarded
that one Edward Box two years before, with

OLD PEWTER

apparently complete impunity, advertised by
means of the stamp upon his ware that, in his
opinion, there was " No better in London."

For the Episcopalians of Scotland we may
well feel compassion in regard to the destruc-
tion of their ancient plate, since it was sacri-
ficed nobly in a gallant if mistaken effort to
uphold a falling cause, but for the Presby-
terians, in their almost conspicuous lack of
early vessels, we have nothing but contempt.
Without compulsion, of their own foolish free
will, they began to consider such precious
relics as old-fashioned, and, from about the
year 1750 onwards, remodelling silver plate
and destroying pewter altogether, they wrought
their own devastation. Small wonder that
the pewterers were dying out. The last was
enrolled at Aberdeen in 1765, and at Perth in
1771, while at Glasgow by 1776 the white-
ironsmiths were undisguisedly making num-
bers of articles which should have pertained
properly to the pewterer. Nor do matters seem
to have been any better abroad, for at Paris
in 1776 the hitherto independent pewterers
were joined in somewhat uncongenial union
with the coppersmiths and scale-makers to
form a single company. It was probably
116

PLATE LXXXIII

1 D. 4>'

MEASURE. SALT.

3 H. 5g" 4 5

SUGAR- VINEGAR INKSTAND.

CASTOR. CRUET.

PLATE LXXXIV

1 H. if" 2 H. ij"

SALTS.

3 H. 2" 4 H. 2 ' 5 H.

THE END OF THE STORY

owing rather to the badness of trade in
general than to any successful competition
on the part of the pewterers that no white-
ironsmith appears in the records of St.
Andrews until 1787, for by 1794 the admis-
sions of tinsmiths as compared with pewterers
were as six to one, while those at Edinburgh
in 1795 were strong enough to so far turn the
tables as to secure the condemnation of a
pewterer for undertaking their work. Well
might the offender, James Wright, exclaim in
bitterness, " Ichabod, Ichabod — thy glory has
departed."

It would be a useless and ungrateful task
to follow the practical extinction of the craft
to the bitter end in the nineteenth century.
The ever-increasing cheapness of glass and
chinaware ousted pewter from table use, the
discovery of the possibility of coating steel
with tin, forming what is now known as block
tin, introduced a material both stronger and
lighter for hollow-ware, the invention of
Britannia metal — a form indeed of pewter —
German silver, nickel plate, and other com-
positions, either more silver-like in themselves
or more easily susceptible to plating with
silver, banished it for the most part from

117

OLD PEWTER

taverns and public eating-houses, and the
isolation of zinc as a distinct metal and its
employment in combination in the form of
galvanised iron gave a result more convenient
for many and varied domestic and commercial
purposes. To complete the downfall, the
pewterers themselves made no effort to meet
the altering conditions. With that fine British
conservative obstinacy which is by no means
extinct as yet among us, they declined to adapt
their ancient methods to new demands. They
adhered resolutely to the good old principle,
which has exercised such unmistakable effects
upon our foreign trade, that it is the business
of the customer to want what the manufacturer
chooses to make, in no way whatever that of
the manufacturer to make what the customer
wants, and, clinging with limpet-like consis-
tency to the rock of trade traditions, they let
the tide of public requirements ebb away from
them, never to return. The last touch on the
plates at Pewterers' Hall is dated 1824, and
though the Company still survives, and is by
no means the smallest or poorest among its
fellows, its official purpose is non-existent.
A Mr. James Moyes kept a pewterer's shop in
the West Bow, Edinburgh, until some time
118

PLATE LXXXV

L. 6' 2 3 H. 5" 4 II.?,;. 5 H. 5f 6 H. aj

SUGAR-SIFTERS. SET OF CRUETS, Scotch. SPIRIT-LAMP.
XVIII century. XVIII century.

PLATE LXXXVI

1 H. 4"

2 H. 5S"

3 H i}8"

4 H. 5|"

CRE^M-IUG

HERB-CAN-

15OX. No

HERB-CAN-

Scotch. iNo

NISTER,

mark.

NISTER, Dutch.

mark.

Dutch. XVII

Marked 1766, a

century. Mark

Cupid in profile

a standing

blowing a horn.

figure.

P.S.B.

5 H 4J"

CREAM-JUG,

No nicirk.

THE END OF THE STORY

between 1870 and 1880, though it is said that
for some years previously he had ceased the
manufacture. The Incorporations of Ham-
mermen at Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and
Stirling still hold meetings and make a poor
pretence of carrying on their business, but as
they possess no executive powers the prac-
tical effect is insignificant ; indeed, as far as
pewter is concerned, is nil. Some little
pewter is still made in London on the old
lines, and there are even now eating-houses
where, with a pleasant if somewhat artificial
conservatism, the guest is served on pewter,
but the recent attempts to revive the craft by
bending it to the too often ill-directed pur-
poses of the so-called new art have not as
yet produced much calling for extended
notice.

119

THE NINTH CHAPTER

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING
PEWTER

N the matter of a scientific know-
ledge of his chosen subject
founded on accurate and organ-
ised information the collector of
pewter is, and most indisputably
will always remain, sadly at a disadvantage
in comparison with the collector of gold and
silver plate. In theory, had the regulations
of the Companies and Incorporations been
rigorously enforced or loyally adhered to,
and had the records been faithfully kept and
carefully preserved, there should have been
no more difficulty in establishing the identity
of the maker of any specimen and ascertain-
ing its approximate date in the one case than
in the other. Every article would have borne
the touch of the craftsman. A comparison of
this with the touch-plate and a consultation
of the register of touches and of the list of
freemen would have been all that was neces-
sary for full enlightenment. Unfortunately
this ideal state of things is very far from

120

a o

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

prevailing. In practice it may be said that
it is the exception rather than the rule when
this is possible. Indeed, it would probably
be no exaggeration to assert that nine out of
ten of the existing specimens of pewter bear
no mark at all, and that of those which are
marked ninety-nine out of every hundred
now convey no intelligible meaning. There
are indeed, as has been previously observed,
five plates of touches at Pewterers' Hall, and
Mr. Massd has patiently described every
touch upon them, but the registers which
should have preserved the names of their
owners have disappeared, and the result in
the present state of our knowledge is only
useful to a limited extent. The number of
these touches is nearly twelve hundred, but
of these only forty-one give the name and
date. In the case of two hundred and fifty
the name alone is recorded, but, as the same
is included in the list of freemen also repro-
duced by Mr. Massd, we may, in the majority
of them, arrive with fairly assured certainty
at the period at which the vessel so marked
was made, while in three instances the date is
given and the name may be conjectured. In
no less than three hundred and six instances,

Q 121

OLD PEWTER

on the other hand, the name on the touch is
not to be found in the list of freemen ; in one
hundred and fifty-six a date, with initials or a
device, is all the information afforded, and in
all the remaining cases there is neither name
nor date to guide us. The authorities, in
fact, as long as their power was paramount,
did all they could to baffle the collector of the
future, unconsciously, of course, for it can
never have occurred to craftsmen, working
their best, indeed, but with no deliberate
artistic intent, that posterity would take any
interest in their productions, but none the
less effectively, since these dateless initials
and nameless devices may be traced directly
to their horror of self-advertisement and
their consequent prohibition of a touch
bearing name or address, even so wide a
one as " London " having been for long
forbidden.

Had the touches only been put upon the
plates in orderly succession we should have
been less at a loss, for it would at all events
have been possible to assign a date to a touch
lacking one somewhere between the nearest
previous and succeeding ones which were
dated ; but there is no doubt whatever that
122

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

no system was followed, but that the striker
chose his own place haphazard, left his mark
where he would, and actually, to a certain
extent, made choice of what plate he would
strike it on. In no other way can we account
for the fact that the earliest remaining plate
bears such dates as 1679, 1680, 1687, &c.,
though the second shows 1676, and the
fourth plate was stamped in 1704, 1705, and
so on, while the third contains one as late as
1786, and many others of the later half of
that century. Nor is this the last of the
sources of possible confusion. Makers some-
times marked their wares with a touch differ-
ing from the one on the touch-plate, and this
not only in those cases where, as a penalty for
infringing some regulation, or for other good
reason, one was ordered to change his touch,
duly recording the new one. Thus Tim Fly,
who was Warden in 1737 and Master in
1739, and should therefore have been staunch
in upholding the rules of the Company,
registered his name and a punning device of
a fly as his distinguishing mark, yet a speci-
men in the collection of Mr. Hugh Bryan
bears his name and a cock and crown, which
is not to be found on the touch-plates,

123

OLD PEWTER

together with the forbidden four small
stamps simulating the hall-marks on gold
or silver plate. Finally, to crown our un-
certainty, some makers, either illegally and
probably with fraudulent intent, or with due
permission given on sufficient grounds,
used the touch registered by another man,
while some provincial pewterers, as, for
instance, one Stephen Maxwell, of Glasgow,
went so far as to stamp " London" on
their home-made goods, doubtless to enhance
the price. These Edinburgh touches, as far
as they go, are much more instructive than
those of London, as a large majority of the
one hundred and twenty-nine described
by Mr. Wood are dated between 1600 and
1764, and in a great number of cases it has
been possible, with more or less certainty, to
connect the initials on them with a contem-
porary name in the existing lists of freemen
and apprentices. Unfortunately only two of
these touch-plates or counterpanes survive,
and they, it would seem, by a happy and
mysterious accident. Whether the Incor-
porations of the other Scottish cities kept
their own touch-plates, as York, in England,
did, is not known. Probably they did, as
124

fe 3

h-i

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

they certainly made regulations as to touches,
but in no instance has any been preserved.
With regard to private touches, then, the
owner of any vessel bearing one would be
well advised to search through the lists given
by Mr. Massd and Mr. Wood on the chance
of identifying it, though the likelihood of his
doing so, or of obtaining any great accession
of knowledge if he does so, cannot be said to
be very great. Speaking broadly, and with
due regard to exceptions, we may infer from
Mr. Masses list that up to the end of the
seventeenth century the proportion of stamps
bearing names to those bearing initials and
devices was small, that names in full
increase constantly in frequency during the
eighteenth century, and that by the end of it
the use of initials alone had almost died out.
In respect to the general marks which
every pewterer was supposed to use, matters
are not in a much more satisfactory con-
dition. The rose or the x, crowned or
uncrowned, were English guarantees of
quality at an early date, but the former was
sometimes used under pretence of being a
private touch on inferior ware, and in the
eighteenth century it was adopted without any

125

OLD PEWTER

such meaning as it had in the south by many
pewterers in Scotland. A similar mark also
occurs on pewter of the second quality made at
Lidge, and on ware from Ghent, Nuremberg,
and many other places in Holland, Flanders,
and Germany. The x, whether crowned or
not, denoting extraordinary ware, and four
small marks imitating those on silver plate,
were frequent in London from at least the
beginning of the seventeenth century in spite
of the energetic protests of the Goldsmiths,
but these also were adopted in Scotland
during the eighteenth century, while the
thistle, which after 1641 was an evidence of
good material in Scotland, was sometimes
used by English makers, possibly Scotsmen
naturalised, in their private touches. A
crowned hammer was a mark used at Mons
as early as 1467, sometimes accompanied by
the word "fin," and the same mark, without
the word, of course, was used as a sign of
first quality in Scotland during the sixteenth
century. The fleur-de-lys was the mark of
third quality at Lidge, but was also often
used in France, and the same was, by an
order made in 1548, to be stamped on the
lids attached in London to stoneware or
126

PLATE XCI

fT C
1 1

;f
.*

1 2 3

EGG-CUPS, no marks.

4 5 6 H. 2l" 7

SET OF SIX EGG-CUPS, Scotch. No marks.

PLATE XCII

1 H. 31"

3 H.

2 H. 2" D. 3"

MILK-JUG, English. SUGAR-BASIN, TFAPOT, English. Early
Early XIX century. English. Early XIX century
XIX century.

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

earthenware pots, on the outside to begin
with, though in 1559 it was, for some obscure
reason, transferred to the inside. Not even
" London" or " Made in London" can be
accepted as absolute evidence of provenance,
as has been remarked before. The castle
of Edinburgh, though by no means in-
variably present, seems a fairly certain mark
of nationality, but may possibly be confused
with the castle used at Mons, and the
double eagle and half eagle between the flails
of Nuremberg appear to have been almost
the only marks that were not duplicated
elsewhere.

When pewter bearing a mark affords
such shifting and uncertain footing to the
inquirer, it is small wonder that it should
present a very quagmire of doubt and
hesitation when it is entirely without mark of
any kind, and this is only too commonly the
case. In the excellent illustrated "Cata-
logue of the Pewter Exhibition," organised
by Mr. Massd at Clifford's Inn Hall in
1904, the words " Maker's mark none" or an
equally expressive silence occur again and
again. Out of fifty-nine vessels still existing
in twenty-nine churches in the Diocese of

127

OLD PEWTER

Llandaff, as recorded in Mr. J. E. Halliday's
published " Terrier," only fifteen are marked,
and the list of evidences to the same effect
might be almost indefinitely extended, but
every collector of pewter knows how greatly
unmarked specimens preponderate. The
reasons] are not far to seek, and, though in
the main conjectural, are not without con-
siderable antecedent probability. In the first
place, though the gold- and silver-smiths were
compelled to carry their finished wares to the
Company's Hall, where they were assayed
and stamped by the proper officials, while
any evasion, owing to the intrinsic value of
the material, would certainly be pointed out
by the purchaser and promptly and severely
punished, the pewterer was, in most cases,
allowed to mark his wares in his own shop,
subject always to surprise visits by the
Company's searcher, and as the customer
would doubtless be less particular as to the
exact quality of this cheaper metal, avoidance
of the obligatory marks must have been
much easier. In the second place, it is
certain that the use of pewter would have
lingered on in the remoter country districts
for many years after it had gone out of
128

C .

~ w

So
a
W

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

fashion in London and other large towns,
while the London Company lost control over
the provincial makers long before their
authority ceased to be effective in the City.
Furthermore, even when their powers
theoretically extended over the whole of
England we know that tinkers, gypsies, and
other travelling pewterers went about the
country melting down and re-casting worn-
out pewter, in spite of frequently renewed
edicts against them, so that in the course of a
century or two very little, if any, of the ware
can have retained its original form and
markings. Now it is highly unlikely that
these unlicensed workers whom the Com-
pany was so ceaselessly, though vainly, en-
deavouring to suppress would have stamped
any mark which might lead to their identifi-
cation on their wares, nor would the
employer be keen in demanding such, and as
a very large proportion of the old pewter,
which, now that the demand for it is grow-
ing, is finding its way into the market, comes
from these rural districts, the general lack of
marks is in no way surprising.

This conclusion, if held valid, compels us
to the recognition of yet another stumbling-

R 129

OLD PEWTER

block in the path of a collector anxious to
date his pewter, for these pedlars working, as
they did, surreptitiously in constant fear of
detection, and in a necessarily small way,
would not have been able, even if they could
have afforded, to procure a constant supply of
new moulds, nor could they well have carried
about with them an extensive variety of such
bulky and ponderous objects without attract-
ing undesirable attention from the authorities
of any town they passed through, and it
follows that their productions, in most, if not
in all cases, must have been antiquated in
style to an unascertainable extent. In the
absence of marks, however, style is practically
the only indication of time and place of manu-
facture, and when it is probable, considering
the durability of the massive metal moulds,
that in remote country neighbourhoods vessels
were being turned out in shapes a century or
more perhaps behind the prevailing taste in
London, an element of uncertainty to a quite
incalculable amount is introduced into all such
deductions. Nevertheless uncertainty is pre-
ferable to absolute ignorance, and, keeping
well in mind this possible source of error, we
must continue to judge the period of a vessel
130

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

from its form. There is much yet to be done
in accumulating and codifying the necessary
materials even for this, and only vague and
general indications can as yet be attempted,
taking the form rather of rough and detached
notes than of any connected story of develop-
ment. No hard-and-fast dogmatic proposi-
tions can be accepted. Speaking only
generally, then, and taking as understood the
" possibly's " and " perhaps's " with which
every paragraph should bristle if we would
keep strictly within the four corners of allow-
able hypothesis, we may venture to assume
that the greater the simplicity the greater the
age. Straight or slightly waved lines pre-
ceded swelling curves, flat unadorned lids
came before domed tops with knobs or crests,
few and simple mouldings were the forerunners
of many and elaborate ones. This decorative
evolution as displayed in the thumb-pieces of
tavern-measures made in Scotland is effec-
tively described and illustrated by Mr. Wood
in the volume so often quoted before, and at
the same time he lays down various broad
rules of the greatest importance to the collector.
For example : that a vessel with the lower
part of the handle attached directly to the

OLD PEWTER

body is older than one in which it is connected
with it by a short intervening peg or strut ;
that the Scottish "quaigh" differs from the
porringer, so often incorrectly called a
bleeding-vessel or barber's bowl, by the fact
that the first was round-bottomed, the second
flat, and that the handles or " lugs " were
always plain and solid, not pierced or otherwise
ornamented ; that the older a plate is the
broader is the rim and the thicker the metal
of which it is made, though this refers chiefly,
if not wholly, to large plates ; that, owing to
the national partiality for broth, porridge, and
other more or less fluid foods, their plates were
generally deeper than those used in England ;
and that up to 1707, and less regularly up
to 1835, the Scots measures differed con-
spicuously from the English, the former being
the Scots gill, which was eight-tenths of the
English gill, the mutchkin, which held three
English gills, the chopin, containing one pint
two gills English measure, the Scots pint,
familiarly known as a "Tappit-hen " [Plate
X. 2], a peculiarly characteristic type of vessel
which equalled three of the degenerate English
pints, and the noble Scots gallon, which
absorbed three petty English ones ; while in
132

PLATE XCVI

i L. 2Ty

SNUFF-BOX. No
marks. XVIII cen-
tuiy

PLATE XCVI I

2 L. 2J" 4 W. ij"

A PAIR OF SHOE BUCKLES. The
forks of hand-cut steel. No marks.

3 L 3i"
SNUFF-BOX.

No marks.

SNUFF-BOX,
Scotch. No
marks.

1 H. 5" 2 H. 3i" 3 H. 3i" 4 L. 3i"

PEPPER-POTS, English. MUSTARD-POT, Engl^h. SNUFF-BOX

XVIII centuiy. Earlv Early XVIII century. English. Middle

XIX century. XVIII century.

5 H. aj"

EGG-CUP,
with bead
pattern,
English.
XVI 1 1 cen-
tury.

PLATE XCVI 1 1

INK-POT, Scotch. No INKSTAND, Italian. With ink- TOBACCO-BOX,

mark. holder, sand-box, holes for two marks,

quills, and drawer for wafers.

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

his two chapters on " Church Vessels before
and after the Reformation" he provides a
wealth of information as to the various shapes
which these assumed at different periods, and
the distinctive features of those appertaining
to the Presbyterian and Episcopalian forms
of worship respectively. In considering style
and estimating from it the probable date of
pewter ware, a knowledge of the contemporary
work of the gold- and silver-smiths will be
found of the greatest assistance. It is cer-
tain that the pewterers were accustomed to
follow with considerable closeness the designs
in favour with them, doubtless at the insti-
gation of their customers, who desired that
their table furnishing, though cheap, should
be in the mode. More especially would this
seem to have been the case with Church plate,
and naturally enough only those parishes
which were too poor to afford better would
content themselves with the baser and doubt-
fully canonical material, and they would have
been more than human had they not done
their best to conceal from stranger eyes the
narrowness of their circumstances. To this
desire to keep up appearance, quite as much as
to a sense of the sacredness of the vessels, may

133

OLD PEWTER

perhaps be ascribed the precise rules as to
"scouring" it which were in force, one of
which, quoted from Boissonet by Bapst,
some collector may be inclined to try. " It
must be washed every three months in hot
soap-suds, and be rubbed with oats or other
husk-bearing grain, or with broken egg-shells;
then washed in clean water, dried, and wiped
with a clean cloth."

Thanks to the inclusion in the hall-marks
on gold or silver plate of a letter definitely
denoting the year of manufacture, it is, as a
rule, easy to fix the date of these, and it will
be a fairly safe presumption that pewter in
the same fashion is of somewhat later make.
Coats-of-arms engraved upon it may also at
times afford indications of the date, though
these must always be regarded with some
suspicion. Even if genuine there can be no
assurance that they have not been added
later, while there is only too good reason to
suspect that the forging of them is becoming
a common practice among some unscrupulous
dealers.

To the young collector anxious for certain
guiding in the subject he has selected it is to
be feared the foregoing remarks will prove
134

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

not a little disappointing, but to such a one
it may be suggested that it is to the gradual
increase of knowledge accruing from it that
one of the highest pleasures of forming a
collection is due. He who buys wholesale,
relying solely on the dictum of the dealer or
the authority of the expert, without attempting
to arrive at any opinion founded on his own
judgment, misses one of its chiefest joys. It
is better to make a few mistakes, provided
that these are not too costly, and to profit by
them, than to depend in ignominious ignorance
upon the real or assumed experience of
another, however inglorious a security this
may by chance result in. If he does not
appreciate the simple beauties of good pewter
no one is likely to be tempted to possess it,
and if an object displays this unaffected
beauty to its owner's eyes it is not a matter of
very great importance to what century exactly
it may belong, always presuming that its
alleged date has not been made the excuse for
extorting a purely fancy price.

In conclusion a few lines may be devoted
to indicating briefly some of the articles in
pewter which the collector may hope to find,
though it would be tedious to attempt a

135

OLD PEWTER

complete catalogue of the uses to which it
was applied. Plates and dishes, flagons and
tankards, measures and drinking vessels of
diverse forms and sizes are comparatively
common, as are candlesticks, inkstands,
porringers, bowls and basins of various sorts ;
while among the less frequent objects are
articles of church plate, lavers, chalices, patens,
baptismal bowls, fonts, and so on, guild cups
from foreign cities, salt-cellars, pepper and
mustard pots, tobacco and snuff boxes, candle
boxes, tea-caddies, lamps, some with glass
reservoirs and a divided band indicating the
hour's consumption of oil for night use, spoons
and forks, Scotch communion tokens, beggars',
porters' and other badges, tea and coffee pots,
punch ladles, colanders, powder-puff boxes
and money-boxes, eggstands, haggis-dishes,
and quaighs. The seeker after pewter has no
need to fear monotony in his pursuit.

When the collection has been made or has,
at any rate, attained a sufficient importance
in quantity and quality, the question of its
disposition so as to display its decorative
powers and aesthetic features in the most
complete and characteristic manner becomes
one for serious consideration. Beyond all
136

o s

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

question the happiest results are secured in
those few but fortunate cases where in old
country houses the vessels made for and used
by departed ancestors remain in their original
habitation, either still spread out on the very
shelves and dressers primarily designed to
receive them or removed with loving care into
equally congenial but more generally acces-
sible surroundings. This, however, may be
rapidly passed over as an usually unattainable
counsel of perfection. The principle, never-
theless, is one that should be borne carefully
in mind when the subject of arrangement
calls for attention. It must never for one
moment be forgotten that, leaving out of
account the highly ornamented but artistic-
ally wrong works of Briot, Enderlein, and the
like, the prime intention of pewter was
practical, every-day usefulness, that the
beauties it possesses are incidental rather
than intentional, arising from the perfection
of its construction and adaptation to purpose,
and that consequently any setting that tends
in any way to weaken or destroy the clear
impression of its maker's meaning will be
ipso facto a bad one. In short, though
devoting it in reality solely to purposes of

s 137

OLD PEWTER

ornament, we should endeavour to retain a
suggestive reminiscence of possible use.

One cannot, of course, dogmatically pre-
dicate the hidden influences working on
another's mind, but one may tentatively
assume that like effects, as a rule, spring
from like causes, and deduce from that pos-
tulate a belief that few, if any, true lovers of
pewter are blind altogether to the large part
which associations play in the fostering of
their devotion. It is out of its very home-
liness that pewter weaves one of its most
potent spells. From the world at large
crowned heads and belted earls are too far
removed to greatly stir the imagination. The
gorgeous gold and silver of royal feasts and
noble revels, flashing beneath the electric
lamps, dazzle more than they delight. The
modest, moonlight sheen of pewter, on the
other hand, blinking demurely on the oak
dresser in the dancing firelight of a winter's
night, speaks to us of ourselves. We may
trace it back in fancy to the shelves of some
stout and prosperous burgher, long since
crumbled into dust beneath some silent city
church, to the stone-paved house-place of
some far-off farm-house, at the highest to

138

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

some comfortable country manor inhabited
by well-to-do gentry, for we prefer to keep
aloof from the clattering scullions in the
kitchens of the great. Or giving looser reins
to the Pegasus of our musings as the glow-
ing coals fall together and the flames leap
up anew, we may more definitely conceive
our mind-pictures, and bring into them well-
known figures from the distant past. That
measure may have stood upon the board
between Shakespeare and Ben Jonson at the
Mermaid Tavern ; from that tankard Mar-
lowe may have supped his last draught before
the footman's sword brought to nothing his
mighty if erratic genius ; Dicky Steele may
have taken that candlestick in his shaky hand
to re-light his oft-extinguished pipe ; and why
should not Robby Burns have filled a mug
from that " Tappit hen " ?

But to feel certainly that these agreeable
pictures are provable facts, we must have
our pewter in congenial surroundings. It
cannot be denied, indeed, that to an owner
who fully realises its limitations as well as
its capabilities, pewter is to no small extent
exacting in its demands. It possesses so
marked an individuality, so large a measure

139

OLD PEWTER

of dignity and solidity, that it will combine
harmoniously with few of the ordinary em-
bellishments of the average house. No one,
it may be taken for granted, would dream of
enshrining it in the fanciful glass cases or
on the delicate velvet-covered shelves and
niches of a drawing-room, or of forcing it
into incongruous propinquity to the dainty
subtleties of Dresden china or Venetian glass.
Such a proceeding would be too flagrantly
absurd ; yet, setting aside such extremes of
bad judgment, it is not difficult, with the
best intentions, to fall into error nearly as
serious ; and complete success will, in most
cases, be found in keeping it apart in, as far
as possible, conditions approximating in their
simplicity to what may not inaptly be termed
natural. We cannot all command for it stone
floors, wood panelling and antique furniture ;
nor ought we to expect, even if we could,
any one but an enthusiast so far to sacrifice
comfort to aesthetic appropriateness ; but we
may at least spare it the indignity of an
anachronistic connection with gilded gim-
cracks and modern wall-papers. The charm
of well-wrought and well-designed pewter lies,
in the main, in form and colour, and the
140

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

fullest expression of these should be the sole
aim. Isolation, and the carefully considered
but not too obviously intentional combina-
tion of sufficiently numerous examples, will
most surely secure the desired result. Plates,
dishes, and other shallow objects may be
arranged effectively and justifiably on shelves
or ledges of proportionate apparent strength
in passages or ante-rooms, the wood being
either naturally dark or stained, and the back-
ground of some uniform light tint, undis-
turbed by fretful patterns, in harmony with
the general tone of the material. In the
selection of this there is ample scope for
personal preferences, though it will be found
that plain, unpretentious whitewash is hard
to beat. Never, under any circumstances,
should a specimen be suspended in any way.
A porcelain plate seemingly adherent to the
wall is ridiculous enough ; a pewter plate
under such inane conditions is an eyesore.
More bulky objects, jugs, tankards, and so
on, backed by plates and dishes in goodly
array, will find a fitting home in the dining-
room, and the trouble and expense will be
abundantly repaid by the enhanced beauty of
the exhibit if an old oak or walnut dresser

141

OLD PEWTER

is secured for their reception, and smaller
hollow-ware, mugs, porringers, &c., are hung
on hooks along the front edges of the shelves.
These, with candlesticks, snuff-boxes, and the
endless variety of smaller articles, may also
be well disposed upon the mantelpiece and on
shelves over it ; always, however, taking good
care that none are placed too high above the
level of the eye, that the examples are neither
so widely dispersed as to suggest specimens
in a museum nor so crowded together as to
interfere with the spectator's full enjoyment
of the lines and curves of each individual
object ; and lastly, that the illumination shall
be as full as can be managed, for the colour of
pewter is of a delicate nature, and in a dim
light it is apt to take on a dull and leaden
hue.

The final steps before installing the col-
lection in its destined place are the cleaning
and the repairing, as far as is desirable, the
effects of time and ill-usage. As to the
extent to which the former process may
legitimately be carried there may be no little
difference of opinion. Undoubtedly, when
the objects first came fresh and fair from the
maker's workshop they were as bright as
142

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

silverware, and it cannot be denied that a
well-chosen display, cleaned and polished to
the highest point of brilliancy, is an attractive
sight. Yet, on the other hand, one cannot
altogether unreluctantly destroy the results
of the mellowing hand of time, and the
problem would seem, on the whole, one of
those that is best left to individual predilec-
tion for solution. It may, however, be
remarked that, according to Mr. Gowland,
the Japanese, whose supreme attainments in
subtleties of taste Western nations have long
since learned to acknowledge, never attempt
to clean or polish pewter after it has left the
fashioner's hands, confining themselves to an
occasional rubbing with a piece of silk or
cotton. The result of this is that the various
slightly differing alloys which, as has already
been pointed out, develop during the process
of cooling, acquire somewhat different tones
in the course of the slow oxidisation which
they undergo when exposed to the air, and
the consequent mottling of a light and darker
patina, when well marked and evenly dis-
tributed, is a highly valued and much
appreciated feature of the ware.

With regard to repairs, unless these are

OLD PEWTER

absolutely necessary it is better as a general
rule to refrain from the attempt, but if such
must be undertaken the judicious lover of
his pewter will be at the slight pains of
learning to execute them himself. The use
of a blow-pipe and soldering-iron for patch-
ing up holes and rents, though calling for
differences of manipulation under differing
circumstances, and not easy therefore to
make clear in words, is not in actual practice
difficult to acquire. A few experiments on
objects of no importance will soon lead to
dexterity, and the owner of some neatly
mended treasure will feel himself well re-
warded should he subsequently encounter in
some rival collection the ghastly results of
confiding such a delicate operation to the
clumsy mercies of the average British work-
man. For the dents, which few hollow
vessels altogether escape in the chances and
changes of life, pressure applied artfully, and
above all very gently and gradually, inside
with the round knob of a poker, the head of
a curtain-pole, or even a wooden spoon will
usually be found effectual, but in more
obstinate cases it may be needful, after
placing a hard object of the right shape
144

COLLECTING AND DISPLAYING

inside, to beat very lightly with a curved-
faced hammer outside all round the circum-
ference of the bulge, which, if done with
caution will eventually restore it to its
former level. Slight scratches are easily re-
moved by rubbing with fine emery-powder,
but no attempt should be made to eradicate
the deeper knife-cuts which will generally
be found on plates and dishes that have been
much used. It is not, after all, advisable to
endeavour to render old pewter indistinguish-
able from new.

In the case of the irregular black blotches
and stains caused by oxidisation, which in-
variably occur upon examples — often the
richest prizes — which have been brought to
light, forgotten and long-neglected, from the
obscure recesses of a broker's shop or country
cottage, a long soaking in paraffin is the
surest and safest remedy, for, though it may
be done more rapidly by a careful treatment
with acids, the process is not without its
inconveniences, not to speak of dangers to
hands and garments.

Finally, when all that is needed has been
done, and supposing there is no intention
of using the ware, as will most often be the

T 145

OLD PEWTER

case, a very thin coating of oil, or still better,
vaseline, applied to the entire surface of each
specimen will form an admirable protection
against the effects of the atmosphere, and
will greatly reduce the frequency of necessary
cleanings.

146

THE TENTH CHAPTER

SOME NOTES ON THE
ILLUSTRATIONS

FORKS AND SPOONS

HESE are the forms in which
we most seldom find pewter at
the present day. Indeed the
first are the very rarest of all
objects. When gathering speci-
mens for the Exhibition at Clifford's Inn, Mr.
Massd was only able to secure a single fork,
and an inspection of many collections made
for the purpose of selecting the materials for
the illustration of this volume only revealed
one further example. Nor is this scarcity in
any way surprising. It is not probable that
forks were made in any great quantity in so
unsuitable a metal. Strength and sharpness
are the fundamental qualities required in the
prongs of a fork, and neither could be assured
permanently in so soft a medium. The points
would very soon get blunt, and the neces-
sary slenderness of the various parts would
quickly lead, under even fair wear and tear, to

OLD PEWTER

breakage. The one we reproduce in the middle
of Plate XI. 2 is small and exquisitely finished
with well-designed ornament, and may per-
haps have once formed part of a dessert service,
to which use alone pewter might be applic-
able, but it seems more probable that it is in
fact one of those trial pieces which the
goldsmiths and silversmiths are known to
have made in pewter.

Spoons, though decidedly less exceptional,
are very far from common. The thinness of
the stem and the inevitable point of weakness
at the junction of this with the bowl rendered
them very liable to damage under rough
usage, while the small quantity of metal
contained in each would reduce the probability
of any attempt at repairs, even were this
practicable. The few early examples, conse-
quently, which we are able to present, dating
from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
are made of bronze or laton, a form of brass,
and, though not properly coming within our
subject, are given as types of the shapes which
were no doubt adopted also by the pewterers.
Of fourteenth-century make are Nos, i and 2
[Plate XII.] in laton and 3 in bronze ; and of
the fifteenth, 4 and 5 in laton and 6, 7 and 8
148

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

in bronze. There are, on the other hand, no
bronze or laton spoons of sixteenth-century
make in this collection, all the twenty-four
of that period being pewter. The bowl in
each is of the broadly oval shape, charac-
teristic also of earlier examples, which differs
so conspicuously from our present spoons in
being broadest at the end and narrowing up-
wards towards the handle — obovate, to employ
a botanical term — instead of tapering down
from below the handle towards the point.
The handles, however, present a considerable
variety. Most of them belong to what is
known as the " Slip-top " pattern, in which the
stem, which has straight parallel sides and is
as a rule only slightly flattened, is abruptly
and obliquely truncated, presenting an acute
angle at one edge and an obtuse one at the
other, as if it had been cut off by a slanting
blow from a chisel. Such are Nos. i, 2, 3, 5,
6 and 7 in Plate XIIL, all in Plate XV.,
and Nos. i to 4 and 6 and 9 in Plate XVI.
Of these, No. 6 Plate XIIL, and Nos. i, 2, 3
and 6 in Plate XV. all have the same maker's
mark with pellets above and below in a
dotted circle, and the owner's initial, A, and
were all obtained from the same excavation

149

OLD PEWTER

in York Road, Westminster. The remain-
ing four are all different; one, No. 6 in Plate
XIV., is a very curious Sacramental spoon
with a half-length figure on a rough capital at
the top of the stem, from which it and others
of the same form obtain the name of "Maiden-
head " spoons ; a second, No. 5 in the same
plate, has a roughly moulded hexagonal head
with a flat top, hence called "Seal-headed" ;
the third, No. 8, also in Plate XIV., is of the
familiar "Apostle " design ; while the fourth,
No. i, Plate XIV. again, has an acorn head.
The laton spoons again preponderate among
those of the seventeenth century, there being
no less than twenty-eight, of which only those
presenting some marked peculiarity or forms
not found in the pewter specimens need be
mentioned. No. 4 Plate XIV. is a laton
"Apostle" spoon, No. 8 Plate XVII., No. 3
Plate XIV., Nos. i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, all in
Plate XVII., while No. 8 in Plate XX. has a
sort of shallow urn-shaped top which is quite
peculiar. An equally unusual type is No. 7
Plate XX., which has a very deep circular
bowl and a short flattened handle ; while in the
large gravy spoon, No. 2, we have in both
the bowl and the so-called " dog-nose " handle
150

o ! co

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

a distinct tendency towards more modern
shapes, and in No. 4, both in the same plate,
a curious pierced ladle. Of the pewter spoons,
No. 2 Plate XIV., with the seated lion on the
handle, is noteworthy. No. 2 Plate XVIII.
has a decidedly broadened and flattened slip-
top handle of the type known as " Puritan,"
of which other examples in laton are Nos.
i, 3, 4 and 5, all in the same plate, the
notches on the head of the last perhaps indi-
cating the first beginnings of the three-lobed
broadened top known as " Pied-de-biche," a
further approach to which is seen in No. 6
in the same plate. The subsequent develop-
ments of this idea were very varied, and are
well illustrated in Plates XVIII. and XIX.
Thus in No. 7 Plate XIX. a slight deepening
of the notches gives three regularly rounded
lobes, a more marked deepening in No. 9
Plate XIX. (a highly ornamented pewter
spoon) and No. 8 Plate XVIII. gives a broad
round central lobe with a claw-shaped projec-
tion on each side. In No. 3 Plate XIX. these
are cut off, leaving a single lobe. In No. 4 Plate
XIX. the notches are shallow, forminga pear-
shaped expansion, and in Nos. 2, 5, and 6 Plate
XIX. they are variously modified. Nos. i

OLD PEWTER

and 3 Plate XX. are eighteenth-century work,
evidently founded on the contemporary silver
work, and differ little from those made at the
present day. The spoons in Plate XI. are of
the nineteenth-century make, the soup ladle
on the right bearing the initials W. R. flank-
ing a crown and the name ASH BER RY
in three separate stamps, while that on the
left, the three table-spoons and the ten toddy
ladles, are marked JO HN YA TES simi-
larly divided into four, and a crowned V.R.

CHURCH VESSELS

The earliest examples of these, and indeed
the most ancient objects here reproduced, are
the three Roman vessels from Appleshaw in
Plate III., but as these have been fully dis-
cussed in an earlier chapter no further refer-
ence to them need be made here. The next in
point of age is the hexagonal pyx on the left
of Plate XXL, with the Annunciation and
the arms of England and France on the lid,
which dates from the fourteenth century,
while the two patens from a church in York-
shire on the right of Plate XXII. 3, are of
fifteenth-century make. To the seventeenth
belong the fine English Communion flagon
152

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

on the left of the same plate (i), that in the
centre of Plate XXI. 2 which bears the date
1677 and came from Midhurst in Sussex,
and probably the Dutch earthenware flagon
mounted in pewter in the centre of Plate

XXIII. 2. The two other flagons in Plates

XXIV. 3 and XXV., one with, the other
without, a spout, though belonging to the
earlier flat-lidded type, are eighteenth-century
work, and to the same period may be attri-
buted the various forms of chalice, those in
Plates XXIV. 2, XXVI. i and 3, and XXVII.
being English, that on the left of Plate
XXIII. 3, and those in Plates XXVIII. 2 and
XXIX. i, Scotch, the latter dated 1804, while
that on the right of Plate XXIII. i is Italian.
An uncommon object is the minute pocket
Communion set in Plate XXX. i, the chalice in
which is only two inches high, with its roughly
carved wooden case, which comes from Ice-
land. Rare also are the two Communion
cruets, or chapnets, in Plate XXX. 2, 4, of
French or Flemish workmanship, their re-
spective uses being indicated by the letter
which forms the handle to the lid, A on the
left for Aqua, V. on the right for Vinum,
of which last a second and more graceful

u 153

OLD PEWTER

specimen stands on the extreme left of Plate

XXXI. i. The portable bdnitiers, so often
mentioned in mediaeval wills and inventories,
are well represented, that in Plate V. being
adapted for suspending only, 2, 3 and 4 in

' Plate VI. for either hanging or standing,
while i in the same plate could only be used
on a table or altar. They are all of Flemish
make, as are the church candlesticks in Plates

XXXII. i and 3, and XXXIII., and the
candelabrum in Plate XXXIV.

DOMESTIC CANDLESTICKS AND LAMPS

Candlesticks, being easily made strong
and not necessarily subject to much handling,
are comparatively common, and do not as a
rule present any marked differences from
those of the same dates made in brass or
silver. Those in the centre and on the left
of Plate XXXVI. i and 2 are Scotch, the pair
on the right of the same plate (3) Dutch. The
larger one in Plate XXXVII. 3 is French,
and the little taper-holder on the left of it (2)
Flemish. Lamps are more rarely found in
good condition, and the three of German
eighteenth-century make in Plate XXXVII.
i, 4 and 5 are exceptionally interesting,
154

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

though still more so are those with glass
reservoirs in Plate XXXVIII. In these the
metal band which supports the oil-holder is
divided into numbered spaces, by means of
which, as the lamp burned and the oil sank
down, the passage of the night hours was
roughly indicated. That this would be fairly
accurate in the flat and cylindrical forms (i,
3 and 5) is easy to believe, but the later hours
in the two with pear-shaped reservoirs (2 and
4) must have appeared to have sped much
more rapidly than the earlier ones, since, at
any rate, no alteration has been made in the
distances apart of the divisions to compen-
sate for the reduced bulk of oil contained
between each two.

CUPS AND TANKARDS

The line of demarkation between these
two and between the second and flagons is
not always an easy one to draw, but, speaking
broadly, the first may be defined as drinking-
vessels with two handles or none, the second
as one-handled vessels intended to be drunk
out of, and the last as similar vessels destined
to hold liquors which were poured into others
for the consumer. Cups may be conveniently

155

OLD PEWTER

divided into two classes, those with stems,
and those without. The former, with the
exception of a certain type to be considered
hereafter, are rarely met with in pewter, and
when they do occur are generally those direct
imitations of silver-work which have perhaps
been more than sufficiently deprecated already,
and there is consequently no necessity for
pointing out the constructional defects in the
four cups, light and graceful as they are
in design, represented in Plate XLI. The
stemmed cups, mostly made in Germany for
the use of various trade guilds, are less
uncommon, and examples are to be found
in most large collections. Like much other
German work, they are apt to show a tendency
to exaggeration of outline and over-redun-
dancy of ornament, but the simpler forms,
such as those shown in Plates XXXII. 2 and
XLI I. i and 3, are not without a certain
dignity. A beautiful example of the stemless
type is the little English cup on the left of
Plate XXVIII. i. The "beaker" or "tumbler"
shape, illustrated in Plates XLIII. 2 and
XLIV. 4, is far commoner, these having been
largely imported from the Netherlands into
Scotland, where, after the Reformation, they

156

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

seem to have been generally used as Com-
munion cups.

Tankards, again, may be considered as
falling into two categories, those with lids
and those without. The most usual form
of the first is that with straight sides more
or less relieved by hoops and bands, as in
the one on the right of Plate IX. 3, the four
in Plate XLVL, and one in the centre of
Plate XLVII. 2, or slightly conical or curved,
as in Plates XLIII. i and 3, and XLVII I. 3,
but from these simple lines we find every
graduation to the full, bold curves of the
"balustrade" type, illustrated in the middle
of Plate L. 3, or such fantastic designs as
the German guild tankard, dated 1645, on
the right of Plate XL. i. Simplicity, as a
rule, marks the lidless tankard, characteristic
examples of which are shown in Plates XLI V.
i, XCIII. 2, and CIII. 3.

157

OLD PEWTER

MEASURES

The segregation of these is often, it must
be owned, somewhat arbitrary, since they
graduate indefinitely into tankards on the
one hand and flagons on the other, for
measures such as the Scotch half-mutchkin,
gill, half-gill, and half-glass [Plates XXXI.
3, 2, 6, 5, and 4, LV. and LVL], and the
English one which stands second from the right
hand in Plate XLIV.3,were undoubtedly used
as drinking-vessels, while the flagon-shaped
one on the left of it (2), and those in Plates
IX. i, LVII. 2 and 3, and LVIII. 5, are equally
well adapted for filling round. Most inter-
esting among these last are the Tappit hens
previously mentioned, examples of which are
given in Plates X. 2, LIX. and LX., the last
in especial being of unusual importance. Mr.
Ingleby Wood could only rely upon tradition
for the fact that hot drinks were brought
out in these vessels to the passengers upon
coaches at the changing-places, and served
round in a small pewter cup, but we have
direct proof in the existence still in its place
of the cup fitting into the throat of the
vessel.

158

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

FLAGONS AND JUGS

There is probably more diversity of shape
and size in these than in any other class of
vessels, and many of them are remarkable
for their unforced beauty of line and propor-
tion. It would be hard, for instance, to
improve upon those reproduced in Plates
LVIII. 2 and LXIL, both of which are
English, the former eighteenth, the latter
seventeenth century. The German taste
was, as usual, more ornate, but there is much
dignity in the large guild flagons in Plates
LI., LIII., LXIII. 3, and XLII. 2.

PORRINGERS

These, which are frequently, and generally
erroneously, called bleeding-bowls or barber's
bowls, were very commonly in use in the
Middle Ages, and great numbers of them
still exist. The ornamentation of the bowl
when present was generally confined to a
Tudor rose in relief on the bottom, as in
Plates LXIX. 2 and LVII. 2, but a consider-
able freedom of treatment was allowed in the
handles. In some cases these were quite
plain, or with a slightly curved outline [Plate

159

OLD PEWTER

LXX]. In the one on the left of Plate LXIX. i
the border is deeply crenated, in that on the
right of the same plate and in those in Plates
LVII. i and LXXI. i and 3 the ears are
elegantly and elaborately pierced, while in
Plate XXVIII. 3 we have a rare instance of
solid ears with a pattern in relief.

PLATES AND DISHES

Beyond doubt these are the commonest
objects which will come under the collector's
notice, ranging in point of date from the
Appleshaw Roman pewter [Plates I. and II.]
up to the present day, and in size from a few
inches in diameter to two feet or more [Plate
LXXII. 2 and 3]. The rims of the plates
were originally quite plain, or strengthened
by a plain band below. This in later days
was placed above, and frequently adorned
with mouldings, as in Plates XXII. 2,
LVIII. 4, LXXII. 2, and LXXIII. 3, while
in the eighteenth century the rim was often
broken into curves and the border variously
beaded or moulded in imitation of silver
work [Plates IX. 2, and LXXIII. i and 5].
The surface also presented temptations to
1 60

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

the would-be decorator, as shown in Plates
XXXV. and XLVII. i.

TABLE PLATE

Practically every article used in the
serving or consuming of food has been at
one time or another manufactured in pewter.
We have soup-tureens [Plate LXXV.], vege-
table dishes [Plates LXXII. i and 4, and
LXXVI. i], ewers and basins for washing the
hands [Plate LXXVIL1, and bowls for
washing the dishes [Plate LXXVIII.]. Salt
cellars, pepper and mustard pots appear in a
variety of forms too large to specify in detail

([Plates LXXX. to LXXXIV. and others], but
note must be made of a curious kind of
vinegar sprinkler of Scottish origin which
exactly resembles in its construction the
small spirit lamps often handed to-day to
after-dinner smokers [Plates LXXXIII. 4 and
LXXXV. 6] . When tea came into general use
pewter was devoted to its service. The herb
was kept in pewter bottles [Plate LXXXVI.
2 and 4], and urns [Plate LXXXVIL], tea
and coffee pots, milk jugs, and sugar bowls
[Plates LXXXVIII. &c.] replaced the earlier
beer jug and tankard at the breakfast table.

x 161

OLD PEWTER

Even the matutinal egg appeared in a pewter
cup [Plate XCI.], and the whole was some-
times brought in on a pewter tray [Plate
LXXVI. 2].

MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS

The number and variety of these is almost
infinite. Boxes to hold tobacco [Plates LXX I V.
6, XCIV. 3, and XCV. 3] and snuff [Plates
XCVI. i and 3, and XCVII. 4] for the master,
spices [Plate XXIX. 2], powder or patches
[Plate LXXXVI. 3], sugar [Plate XC. 2] or
other trifles for the mistress [Plates XL. 3, and
XC. 2], inkpots of diverse sorts [Plates XCV. 2,
XCVIII. i and 2, and XCIX. 2], shoe buckles
[Plate XCVI. 2 and 4, and buttons [Plate VII.
3] were only a tithe of the fancy articles turned
out by the trifler. In the East pewter was
even allowed the honour of adorning weapons
[Plate C.].

A puzzle which few people succeed in
solving unaided is presented by the object
in the centre of Plate LVIII. 3. It is a
round vessel pierced with holes and closed by
a screw lid with a twisted handle, and was,
and doubtless still is, used by the French
peasant women to keep the rice apart from
162

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

the meat and broth with which it was
boiled. Another puzzle which still awaits
solution is the exact purpose to which the
screw-top bottles in Plate CI. i and 3 were
devoted. They are generally six-sided,
though the one on the left of our plate is
flattened, and in the catalogue of the Clifford's
Inn Exhibition are called food-bottles or food
carriers, but this title seems to be merely
speculative, and there is yet opportunity for
some pewter-lover to tell us what they really
were.

163

USEFUL BOOKS OF REFERENCE

History of the "Worshipful Company of Pewterers of
the City of London. Based upon their own Records.
By CHARLES WELCH, F.S.A. Two vols., 410. (1902.)

Pewter Plate. A Historical and Descriptive Handbook. By
H. J. L. MASSE, M.A. (1904.)

Scottish Pewter- Ware and Pewterers. By L. INGLEBY
WOOD. (1905.)

Les Metaux dans 1'antiquite et au moyen age. L'Etain.
Par GERMAIN BAPST. Avec n planches, &c. Paris. (1884.)

Old Scottish Communion Plate. By THOMAS BURNS,
F.R.S.E. With a Preface by the Right Rev. J. MACGREGOR
. . . and Chronological Tables of Scottish Hall-marks, pre-
pared by A. J. S. BROOK. Illustrated. (1892.)

Dictionnaire de I'Ameublement et de la Decoration
depuis le xiiie siecle jusqu'a nos jours. Par HENRI
HAVARD. Four vols., 410. Paris. (1887-90.)

Histoire du Mobilier : recherches et notes sur les objets
d'art qui peuvent composer rameublement et les
collections de 1'homme du monde et du curieux.
Par ALBERT JACQUEMART. 8vo. Paris. (1876.)

Fran£ois Briot, Caspar Enderlein und das Edelzinn.
VON HANS DEMIANI. 4to. Leipzig. (1897.)

The Perth Hammermen Book. With an Introductory
Sketch by COLIN A. HUNT of Perth. 4to. (1889.)

The Church Plate of the County of Northampton. By
C. A. Markham. Illustrated. 8vo. (1894.)

The Church Plate of the County of Dorset. With
Extracts from the Returns of Church Goods by the
Dorset Commissioners of Edward VI. By the Rev. JAMES E.
NIGHTINGALE. (1889.)

The Church Plate of the County of Wilts. Including
that part of the County now in the Diocese of Gloucester
and Bristol. From Returns made by the Rev. J. E. NIGHT-
INGALE and the Rev. E. H. GODDARD. (1891.)

The Church Plate of the County of Norfolk. By the
Rev. J. E. NIGHTINGALE.

An Inventory of the Church Plate of Leicestershire,
with some Account of the Donors. With Plates. By
ANDREW TROLLOPE. (1890.)

Elizabethan England. From a Description of England by
William Harrison in " Hollinshed's Chronicles." Edited by
LOTHROP WITHINGTON. With an Introduction by F. J.
FURNIVALL. "Camelot Classics." (1886.)

INDEX

ABERNBTHIE, WILLIAM, of Edin-
burgh, fined, 1652, for using
bad metal, 103
"Acorn -head" pattern. See

Spoons
Allen, Thomas, forbidden to

assist a new invention, 103
Alloy :

Proportions variable, 8 ; pro-
portions in Roman and
English pewter, 8-11 ; pro-
portions legalised, 11-14;
proportions in 1350, 13 ;
object of regulations, 14;
inconsistencies in analysis,
1 5 ; discussed at the Society
of Arts, ib. ; proportions not
of practical importance to
the collector, 17 ; simple
method of analysis, 18-23 >
precautions taken in assay-
ing the metal of the worker,
29 ; purchase by night for-
bidden, 32 ; alloy resem-
bling gold made by a Nu-
remberg craftsman, 82
Alms Dish. See Church Vessels,

&c.

Amadel, Robert, reference, 91
Altar Candlesticks. See Church

Vessels, &c.

Anglo-Saxon work, specimens in
the Guildhall Museum, Lon-
don, 52

Antimony, its proportions in
some kinds of pewter, 1 1 ;
separation by analysis only
possible to a trained chemist,
23 ; references, 12, 28, 32
Apostle spoons. See Spoons
Appleshaw, discovery of Roman
specimens at, 45, 52, 160.
See plates i, n, in

Apprenticeship, the " essay "
and subsequent registration of
private " touch," 26, 27

Aquae Neriae, analysis of fourth-
century specimens found at,
10

" Archaeologia," inventory of the
contents of a house at Gilling-
ham, quoted, 87 ; references,
9,46

Arnold, Henrici, of Ilsington, a
donor of Church pewter, 1641,
100

Arthur Tudor, reference, 90

" Arts, Journal of the Society of,"
discussion on alloys, quoted, 8,

15
Ashberry, his mark, plate xi, iv ;

14, 52

Ath, reference, 57
Augsburg, reference, 57
Avesne, Jeanne d', a French

craftsman, 1516, 74

BAPST, M. Germain, on Roman
alloy, 10 ; references, 63, 71,

J34

Barber's Bowl. See Bowls

Barry, Mrs. F. W., rose-water
dish in her possession pro-
vided for Charles I., 102

Battersea, composition of Roman
metal found at, n

Beaker. See Bowls

Beer-Jugs :

English ; eighteenth century ;

plate LXVI, iii, 94
Students' Beer-Jug ; German ;
seventeenth century ; plate
LXXIII, ii, 104

Belgian Pewter : Bruges crafts-
men noted for porringers and
flasks, 55 ; the guild at Ath in

165

OLD PEWTER

Belgian Pewter — cont.

1328, 57 ; Mons a centre in
I353» 58 ; craft well supported
at Ghent, ib. ; Bruges crafts-
men support the town militia,
J376, 59 ; Mons marks in
1467, 67
Benitier. See Church Vessels,

&c.

Bermondsey, spoons found at,
See plates xin, i, 18 ; xiv,
v, 20 ; xv, viii, 21 ; xvi, i, iii,
iv, v, vi, 22 ; xvin, ii, 26 ;
xix, iv, v, 28 ; xx, iii, 29
Boileau, Etienne, his account of
the Paris guilds in thirteenth
century, alluded to, 55
Boissonet, 1'Abbe, his method of
" scouring " quoted by M.
Bapst, reference, 1 34
Bourbon, the Duke de, his

pewter vessels, 1507, 73
Bowls :

Barber's Bowl, English ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate LXIX,
i ; 100, 160

Beaker, engraved ; early eigh-
teenth century ; mark, a
crowned rose ; plate XLIV,
iv; 64, 156

Beaker, Scotch ; eighteenth
century ; plate XLIII, ii ;
62, 156
Bowls ; plate LXXII, i, iv ;

103, 161

Bowl ; marks, crowned rose
and W.R.W. ; plate LXXI,
iii ; 101, 160

Bowl, Flemish ; seventeenth
century ; plate LXXVIII, i ;
112, 161

Bowl, Scotch ; mark on one
lug indecipherable ; plate
LXXI, i ; 101, 160
Two-handed bowl ; plate LVIII,

i ; 82

Dutch ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXIX, ii ; 100,
159

1 66

Box, Edward, London, disre-
gards advertising rule, 115

Box ; no mark ; plate LXXXVI,
iii ; 118, 162

Briot, Fran9ois, references, 3, 42,

79, 95> 137

Britannia metal, &c., aids the
downfall of pewter, 117

British Museum, Decorated speci-
mens at, 80 ; references, 45, 48;
see also plates i, n, in

Brown-Austen, Professor, refe-
rence, 15

Brown, George, Perth tinsmith,
applies for relief, 114

Bruges, references, 32, 55, 59

Bryan, Mr. H., specimen in his
possession made by the Master
of the Company, 123

Burgundy, Duke of, establishes
Guilds, 1478, 68 ; his pewter
more decorative, 1507, 73

Burns, Robert, reference, 139

Burton, spoon-maker, 1686, un-
willingly allowed to use a
lathe, 36

Buschius of Hildesheim, his
record of Saxon pewter, 1470, 68

Buttons, Two ; plate vn, iii ;
10, 162

CAMPBELL, PATRICK, reference,

Candelabrum, Flemish ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate xxxiv ;

52, 154
Candlesticks :

Candlestick, French ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
xxix, iii; 44, 154

French ; plate xxxvu.

iii; 56, 154

Candlesticks ; plates xxxix,
i, ii, iii ; 60, 154

eighteenth century ; plates

XL, i, iv ; 60, 1 54
Dutch; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate xxxvi, iii ;
54, 154

INDEX

Candlesticks — cont.

Scotch ; eighteenth cen-

tury ; plate xxxvi, i ;

54, 154

Scotch ; nineteenth cen-

tury ; no marks ; plate
xxxvi, ii; 54, 154
Taper-Holder, Flemish ; plate

xxxvn, ii; 56, 154
Gloucester Candlestick, The,
twelfth century ; plate iv ;

5, 54

Canterbury, Richard, Archbishop
of, reference, 53

Capdeville, Pierre de, of Bor-
deaux, extracts from inven-
tory, 1591, 88

"Cardinal's hatte " mould, 35

Carel, a Nuremberg pewterer,

1324, 57

Casket, French ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXI, ii ; 101

Cassiterides, the " Tin Islands "
mentioned by Herodotus, 31

Catherine of Arragon, reference,
90

Cavendish, his account of Wol-
sey's plate, 91

Chabrolles, Mark Henry, a
Frenchman, refused permis-
sion to trade in London. 1688,
106

Chalice. See Church Vessels

" Chapnets." See Church Ves-
sels," &c.

Charles II., references, 104, 108

Charles V., reference, 69

Charles VI., reference, 60

Charles VII. of France, his ex-
tensive purchase in 1422, 64

Charterhous, John, refuses to
restore two candlesticks at
Edinburgh, 1559, 81, 82

Chichely, Robert, Lord Mayor of
London, ordains the use of
pewter by ale-dealers, 1423,
64

Chinese, conjecture as to the in-
vention of pewter by the, 44

Chopin, a Scottish measure, 61,

132
Church Flagon. See Church

Vessels, &c.
Church Vessels, &c. :

Alms Dish ; Scotch ; eigh-
teenth century ; mar-
ked AS. IK; plate
xxii, ii ; 32, 160

English ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate xxiv, i ; 36

German ; early eigh-
teenth century ; plate
xxxv, 53, 161

Altar Candlesticks ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
xxxii, i, iii ; 48, 154

Flemish ; seventeenth

century ; plate xxxin,
i, ii ; 50, 154

Benitier, probably Flemish ;
no marks ; plate v ; 6, 57,

154

Benitiers, Flemish ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate vi,
i, ii, iii, iv; 8, 57, 154

Chalice and Paten, from Kris-
wick ; plate xxi, iii ; 30

Chalice, Italian ; no marks ;
plate xxm, i ; 34, 153

Scotch ; no marks ; plate

xxin, iii ; 34, 153

English ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate xxiv, ii ; 36, 153

Chalices and Church Flagon ;
English ; plate xxvi, i, ii,

iii ; 38, 153

Chalices, • English ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
xxvn, i, ii, iii; 40, 153

" Chapnets," small church ves-
sels, 95, 153

Church Flagon, Scotch ; early
eighteenth century type ;
plate xxv ; 37, 153

Communion Cup ; Scotch ;
plate xxvin, ii ; 42

1804 ; plate xxix, i ; 44,

153

167

OLD PEWTER

Church Vessels, &c. — cont.

Communion Flagon ; English ;
from Midhurst Church,
Sussex ; frontispiece ;
plate xxi, ii ; 30, 153
Flagon ; English ; seven-
teenth century ; plate
xxii, i ; 32, 153
Jug, earthenware, moun-
ted in pewter ; mark :
angel standing holding
crossed branch ; letters in-
distinct ; plate xxm, ii ;

34, 153

Laver, Scotch ; late eighteenth
century ; plate xxiv, iii ; 36

J53

Patens, from a Church in
Yorkshire, England ; fif-
teenth century ; plate xxii,
iii; 32, 152

Pocket Communion Service, in
wooden case, bought in
Iceland, probably Danish
or Scotch ; plate xxx, i ;

45, 153

Pyx, hexagonal ; English ;
fourteenth century ; plate
xxi, i ; 30, 152
Sacramental Cruet ; Aqua ;
French or Flemish ;
plate xxx, ii; 45, 153

Cruet ; Vinum ; French

or Flemish ; plate xxx,

iv; 45» !53

Spoon, with " Maiden-

head " top, found in
London ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xiv, vi ; 20,
150

Church, utilisation of pewter for
the ; early records, 52 ; its
use forbidden, 1175, 53; its
exclusion found impracticable
in France, 54 ; vessels in use
at St. Stephen's, Coleman
Street, London, 1467, 67 ;
vessels at the Cistercian Con-
vent of St. Martin, 68 ; at

1 68

Church — cont.

the Convent of St. Cyr, ib.
very little recorded at the dis
solution of the monasteries,
76 ; Chrismatory and pyx
bought, 1554, by Waltham
Abbey, 80 ; the plate of St.
Giles, Edinburgh, removed for
safety, 1559, 81 ; disappear-
ance of much pre-Reformation
plate in Scotland in 1559, 82 ;
destruction of church plate
during the sixteenth century,
92 ; purchase at Strood, 1607,
94 ; safe to assume that no
pewter Church flagons are
earlier than 1603, 94 ; in-
scription on vessel at Werring-
ton, 95 ; effects of the revolu-
tion of 1617 in the Church of
Scotland, 97 ; first appear-
ance of the " laver," ib. ; ear-
liest examples, 152 ; English,
Scotch, Italian, Icelandic, and
French or Flemish specimens.

153
Cider Jug, Norman ; plate en, iii ;

140

Clifford's Inn Exhibition, refe-
rences, 127, 147, 163
Cceur, Jacques, supplies pewter

for his work-people, 66
Coffee Pots :

Eighteenth century ; plate

LXXXVIII, iii; 122, 161
Dutch ; no marks ; plate

LXVII, ii ; 96
Flemish ; eighteenth century ;

plate xcv, i ; 132
French ; eighteenth century ;

plate LXXXIX, ii ; 124
Louis XIV. style ; German ;
first half of eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate xc, i ; 125
Collecting : not a fashionable
craze, i ; its attractions as
compared with other objects,
2 ; taste increasing, 4 ; ex-
amination of good specimens

INDEX

Collecting — cont.

essential, ib. ; aim and scope
of the book, 5 ; proportions of
of alloy not important, 17 ;
pewter Church flagons before
1603 unlikely, 94 ; collecting
and displaying, 120 ; diffi-
culties caused by imperfect
records of the companies, ib. ;
five plates of " touches " at
Pewterers' Hall, 121 ; paucity
of marks on existing speci-
mens, ib. ; confusing effects of
early rules, 122 ; Edinburgh
" touches " more instructive
than those of London, 124 ;
advice to owners of vessels
with private "touches," 125 ;
marks generally misleading
and confusing, 125 ; Nurem-
berg almost the only marks
not duplicated elsewhere, 127 ;
reasons for the absence of
marks, 128 ; effects of the use
of old moulds by travelling
pewterers, 130 ; style, practic-
ally, the only indication of
time and place of manufac-
ture, ib. ; differences between
Scotch and English measures,
132 ; knowledge of contem-
porary work of gold- and
silver-smiths valuable, 133 ;
Boissonet's rules for " scour-
ing," 134; coats of arms
doubtful indications of date,
134 ; experience and genuine
interest in the subject neces-
tary, 135 ; some of the articles
collectors may hope to find,
136 ; unadvisable to render
old pewter indistinguishable
from new, 145

Communion Cups, &c. See
Church Vessels, &c.

Cornwall, its metals, 30, 32

Cream Jugs :

Plate LXIV, iii, 92 ; plate
LXXXVI, v, 118

Cream Jugs — cont.

English ; eighteenth century ;

plate L, i, v ; 74
Early nineteenth century ;
plate LXXXVIII, ii ; 122,
161

Scotch ; plate LXXXII, i ; 116
Scotch ; no mark ; plate

LXXXVI, i ; 118
Cromwell, Oliver, reference,

103

" Crooked Lane men " and their
ware in 1634, 98 ; references,

99» 105
" Crooked Lane men " and their

ware in 1634, 98
Cruets :

Cruet, Vinum ; no marks ;

plate xxxi, i; 46, 154
Cruet-Stand ; German ; Mid-
dle of eighteenth century ;
plate XLIX, ii; 72
Cruets, Set of ; Scotch ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate LXXXV,
iii, iv, v ; 118
Cumberland, Duke of, reference,

114
Cups. See Tankards

DAGGER, Oriental ; pewter and
bone ; sheath bound with
pewter; plate c, 136, 162

Danby, John, of Alveston, his
pewter of 1444, 66

Decoration : characteristics of
good specimens, 40 ; supposed
embellishments probably not
the work of the maker, 41 ;
chasers alluded to by Jean de
Jeandun, 1323, 56; Francois
Briot famous in sixteenth cen-
tury, 79 ; gilding and painting
prohibited, 1564, 82 ; develop-
ment of French and German
decorated ware during the
sixteenth century, 92

Dishes :

English ; seventeenth century ;
plate XLVII, i ; 68, 161

169

OLD PEWTER

Dishes— cont.

English; eighteenth century ( ?);
date 1689 ; plate LXXII,
ii; 103, 160

middle of eighteenth

century ; plate ix, ii ;
12, in, 160

eighteenth century; plate

LXXIII, iii ; 104, 1 60

Scotch ; sixteenth cen-

tury; plate LXXIV, ii; 106

sixteenth century ; plate

XLVII, iii ; 68

Roman ; found at Appleshaw ;
plates I, II, in ; I, 2. 4, 47,
48, 49, 160

Displaying : original surround-
ings the best, 137; its utility
to be considered in the choice
of surroundings, ib. ; its home-
liness appeals to the sympa-
thetic and imaginative, 138 ;
its limitations and individu-
ality* I39 J incongruous proxi-
mity to choicer objects to be
avoided, 140 ; suggestions for
housing and placing, 141 ;
cleaning and repairing, 142 ;
evidences of age to be pre-
served, 145

"Dog-nose" handle. See Spoons
Dyer, Lawrence, fined for work-
ing a new invention, 103

EDWARD I., pewter used at his

coronation, 54 ; confirms

charter to the Stanners, 56
Edward IV. confers a charter on

the Guild, 1473, 68
Egg-Cups :

English ; eighteenth century ;
plate L, iv ; 74

with bead pattern ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate xcvn,
v ; 133

Scotch ; set of six ; no marks ;
plate xci, iv-ix ; 126, 162

No marks ; plate xci, i, ii, iii ;
126, 162

170

Ely, John, Vicar of Ripon,
bequest, 1427, 65

Enderlein, Gaspard, references,
3,42, 95, 137

Engleheart, Rev. C. H., disl
found at Appleshaw by, plates
i, n, in, i, 2, 4; his deduc
tions concerning the marks
on, 47, 48 ; references, 45,
46, 49

English Pewter : moulds owned
in common, 33 ; foreign ii
portations prohibited, 38 ;
some causes of decadence, 42 ;
its domestic use first men-
tioned in 1274, 54; the craf
established in London in 1347,
57 ; master and wardens ap-
pointed to enforce ordinances,
1348, 58 ; during fourteenth
century used principally by
the Court, nobility, and
Church dignitaries, 62 ; out-
cry in the fourteenth centui
against pedlars and unlic
workmen, 62 ; York, in 14 1<
the principal trading place fc
the North of England, 64 ; i1
use ordained, in 1423, by re-
tailers of ale, 64 ; bequest by
John Ely, Vicar of Ripon,
65 ; London pewterers pros-
perous in 1438, 66 ; pewter
possessed by John Danby in
1444, 66 ; its use by tl
nobility declining in 1459, 66
partly religious nature of tl
London Guild, 67 ; imports
tions from England stamped
by the importers in 1467, with
a crowned rose, 67 ; pewter
bought in 1470, by the Gold-
smiths' Company, ib. ; Ed-
ward IV. confers a charter on
the Guild, 68 ; Lady Uvedale's
bequest in 1487, 69 ; stami
and seal of London Guil
1492, 69 ; development during
fifteenth century tends to-

INDEX

English Pewter — cont.
wards articles of domestic use,
71 ; at beginning of sixteenth
century too expensive to be
common, 72 ; in 1503 marks
and " touches " made com-
pulsory, ib. ; Guilds, in 1504,
restricted in their powers with
regard to disputes, 73 ; craft
complains of " strangers " and
false weights, 1512, 74;
troubled by foreign competi-
tion, 1535, 75 ; protective
measures passed in 1538, 76;
special marks ordained for
York craftsmen, 1540, 77 ;
stamping pewter lids for stone-
ware vessels compulsory, 80 ;
buying at night by pewterers
prohibited, 32, 80 ; number of
apprentices limited, 82 ; pew-
ter in great demand in middle
of sixteenth century, 83 ;
London Company privileged
to charge royalties on smelting
and casting of tin, 90 ; pewter
falls into disuse by the higher
classes, 90 ; provincial com-
petition, 93 ; increased ac-
tivity in 1612, 95 ; distinc-
tions between various branches
of craftsmen relaxed, 96 ;
new uses in 1614, 97 ; Lord
Northampton's pewter in
1614, ib. ; the pewter of Sir
Thomas Hoskyns in 1615,
ib. ; clamour for the suppres-
sion of " deceivable hawkers "
in 1621, 98 ; pewterers imi-
tate the marks of the Gold-
smiths' Company, 1635, 99 ;
1641 the earliest date of
Dorsetshire pewter, 100 ; res-
trictive methods of the London
Company, 103 ; pewter cis-
terns and toys appear in 1667,
105 ; penalty for making in-
ferior toys, ib. ; exclusion of
a French craftsman, 106; in-

English Pewter — cont.

consistent attitude of the
London Company in 1690,
107 ; decline of the craft
evident at end of the seven-
teenth century, ib. ; craft de-
clines during eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, 109 ;
rule against self-advertise-
ment falls into disuse, 1727,
no ; London Company power-
less, ib., 113, 115 ; practical
extinction of the craft in the
nineteenth century, 117, 118 ;
last " touch " registered at
Pewterers' Hall, 1824, ib. ;
efforts to revive the craft in-
appreciable, 119

Ewer, Robert, sells pewter, 1607,

Ewer and Basin ; plate LXXVII,
in, 161

and Cover ; German ;

plate XLIX ; i. 72

FAIRFAX, Sir William, his " sal-
lite " dishes, 34 ; inventory
of the contents of his house at
Gillingham, quoted, 87

Falstolfe, Sir John, reference, 66 ;

" Fasson d'argent," a sign of
decadence, 42 ; vessels made
of, 6 1 ; reference, 73

" Feast vessels," the loan of, 40

FitzHenry, J. H., Esq., cruet-
stand and sugar-box given by ;
plates XLIX, ii, xc, ii ; 72, 125

Flagons and Jugs :

Flagon ; plate LXIV, ii ; 92

seventeenth century ;

plate xcix, i ; 1 34

seventeenth century ;

plate xcix, iii ; 1 34

Imitation Chinese ;

Dutch ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate LXIII, ii ; 90

German ; seventeenth

century ; plate LXIII ;
iii., 90, 159

171

OLD PEWTER

Flagons and Jugs — cont.

Flagon ; eighteenth century ;
plate cm, ii ; 142

- 1706, Nuremberg mark ;

plate XLII, ii ; 62, 159

- German ; eighteenth

century ; plate XLIII,
i ; 62, 157

- German ; eighteenth

century ; plate XLIII,
iii ; 62, 157

- Probably Scotch ; eigh-

teenth century ; plate
LXIII, i ; 90

Jug ; Dutch ; early eigh-
teenth century ; plate
LXXVIII, ii ; 112

- Covered ; Archangel
mark ; plate LXIV, i ;

92
Dutch

mark, crossed
plate LXVII, i ;

rose
96

- Dutch ; majk, a rose ;
plate LXVII,* iii; 96

- English ; seventeenth
century ; plate LXII, 88,

159

- English ; eighteenth cen-

tury ; plate XLVIII, ii ;
70

- English ; eighteenth cen-

tury ; plate LXVI, ii ;

- French ; eighteenth cen-

tury ; plate LXVI, i ; 94

- George IV. ; plate
LXVIII ; 98

Fly, Tim, his punning device, 123
Food Bottle ; square ; plate ci, i ;

138, 163
- Bottle ; sexagonal ; plate

ci, iii ; 138, 163
Forks : pewter forks mentioned

in a French inventory of

1672, 105 ; their rarity, 147 ;

Fork, small, no mark ; plate

xi, ii ; 14
Fran9ois I., reference, 74

172

French Pewter : proportions of
alloy during the eighteenth
century, 13 ; mentioned in
Boileau's account of the Paris
Guilds in the thirteenth cen-
tury, 55 ; mentioned in a
further h'st of Parisian crafts-
men, ib. ; Guild prosperous
in 1304, ib. ; edict against
inferior alloys passed at Poi-
tiers, 1333, 57 ; Guild at
Rouen, 1369, 58 ; vessels
owned by Henri de Poitiers,
Bishop of Troyes, 59 ; vessels
considered as perquisites by
court attendants, 59 ; Miche-
let the Breton, a craftsman of
1380, 59 ; record in 1380 of a
Benitier in the possession of
Jean de Halomesnil, 60 ; store
possessed by a canon of
Troyes, 1386, 60 ; the reward
for workmanship very slight,
ib. ; the city of Amiens buys
pewter from Thibaut la Rue,
ib. ; the city of Rouen pur-
chases a gallon flagon, 61 ;
bequest of the Archbishop of
Rheims, 1389, 61 ; Isabel de
Moncel, a Parisian crafts-
woman of 1395, ib. ; mis-
applied use of a wine measure
by one Jean Le Bceuf, 1396,
ib. ; tools used at Rouen,
1402, 63 ; Isabella of Bava-
ria's order for the Hotel St.
Pol, 1401, 63 ; Guillebert of
Metz a noted maker, 1407,
64 ; extensive purchase by
Charles VII. of France in
1422, 64 ; Jacques Coeur in
1453 supplies pewter for his
workpeople, 66 ; Amiens buys
pewter cups for noble visitors,
1463, 67 ; Duke of Burgundy
in 1478 establishes Guilds,
68 ; pewter bottles in the
" Livre des Mestiers " of
Charles V., 69 ; increase of

INDEX

French Pewter — cont.

craftsmen during the fifteenth
century, 71 ; the "silver
fashion " increases in favour,
I5°7> 73 5 Duke of Burgundy's
vessels, in 1507, incline to
a decorative character, 73 ;
Duke of Bourbon's vessels in
1507, ib. ; Amiens buys vessel
in 1507 from Pierre Hemeron,
ib. ; in 1516 from Jeanne
d'Avesne, 74 ; Paris silver-
smiths take action against
the pewterers, 1545, 79 ;
Briot famous as a decorator of
pewter, sixteenth century,
79 ; Paris draper's considera-
ble bequest, 1572, 83 ; extracts
from inventory of Pierre de
Capdeville of Bordeaux, 1591,
88 ; development of decorated
ware during sixteenth cen-
tury, 92 ; decline, except the
ornamental kind, during first
half of seventeenth century,
1 02 ; pewter spoons and forks
mentioned in French inventory
1672, 105

Galbraith, Glasgow, his mark ;
plate XLIV, i ; 64, 157

Gardner, Mr. Starkie, quoted, 8,
9, 12, 14

German Pewter : development
of the industry, 1324, 57 ;
Sebaldus Ruprecht famous for
pewter which could be mis-
taken for silver, 61 ; Buschius
of Hildesheim records pewter
in Saxon convents, 68 ; pew-
ter in the convents at Erfurth,
ib. ; Martin Harscher, a noted
German craftsman, 1523, 75 ;
Melchior Koch, a Nuremberg
craftsman, makes an alloy re-
sembling gold, 1564, 82 ; pew-
terers claim to make every
article produced by gold- or

silversmiths, 1573, 84 ;
Schmitt's candlesticks

Peter
ob-

German Pewter — cont.

jected to by goldsmiths of
Nuremberg, 84 ; development
of decorated ware in the six-
teenth century, 92 ; salver of
Nuremberg a reproduction of
Briot's Temperantia salver, 95
Ghent, references, 58, 59, 126
Gilbert, W. S., references, 2, 101
Gill Measure. See Measures
Gloucester Candlestick. See

Candlesticks

Goldsmiths' Company purchase
pewter, 1470, 67 ; their marks
imitated in 1635, 99
Goupil, Jehan, of Tours, sells
pewter to Charles VII. of
France, 64

Gowland, Mr., on the treatment
of pewter by the Japanese,
143 ; references, 9, 10, n, 14,
15, 48, 50

Gray, Master, of Dundee Corpo-
ration, 85
Grey, Ninian, works at two

trades, 113

Guild Cups. See Tankards
Guildhall, London, reference, 13
Guildhall Museum, London,

Anglo-Saxon specimens at, 52
Guillebert of Metz, a noted
French craftsman, 64

HALF -GiLL Measure. SeeMeasures

Half-Glass Measure. SeeMeasures

Half Mutchkin. See Measures

Halliday, J.E., his "Terrier," or

inventory of the Diocese of

Llandaff, reference, 128

Halomesnil, Jean de, benitier

possessed by, 60

Hammermen : called " Sad-
ware " men, 27 ; articles made
by, 28 ; their work fashioned
by hammering, 33 ; incor-
porated at Perth, 75 ; at
Cannongate, ib. ; patron saint
St. Eloi, ib. ; incorporated at
Glasgow, 76 ; earliest ordi-

173

OLD PEWTER

Hammermen — con/,

nances at St. Andrew's, 77 ;
James V. ratifies "Seal of
Cause " of the Cannongate,
1540, ib. ; apprentices of
Perth forbidden to play on
the Inch, 79 ; first " Seal of
Cause " granted to Aberdeen,
1579, 84; Stirling records
imperfect, 89 ; pewterers not
mentioned in Glasgow records
before 1648, 100 ; last Can-
nongate enrolment, 1 1 1 ; craft
combines with other trades
at Perth, 1747, 115 ; meetings
still held at Aberdeen, Dundee,
Perth, and Stirling, 119

Hancock, Samuel, London Com-
pany's attitude towards, 1690,
107

Harrison's " Description of Eng-
land," quoted, 12, 29, 39, 86

Harscher, Martin, a famous Ger-
man craftsman, reference, 75

Hemeron, Pierre, a French crafts-
man, 1507, 73

Henry VII., references, 72, 90

Herb-Cannisters :

Dutch ; seventeenth century ;
mark, a standing figure ;
plate LXXXVI, ii ; 118, 161
Dutch ; marked 1766, a Cupid
in profile blowing a horn ;
PSB ; plate LXXXVI. iv ;
118, 161

Herodotus, reference, 31

Hiring out articles a profitable
branch of the trade, 39

Hollow-ware, finishing process, 36

Hollow- ware men, references, 27,
69

Hope, Mr. St. John, reference, 96

Home, John, of Snow Hill, his
mark on early English Mea-
sure ; plate ix, i ; 12, 158

Hoskyns, Thomas, of Oxted, his
pewter in 1615, 97

Hungary, Clement of, list of his
pewter vessels, alluded to, 57

174

ICELAND, Pocket Communion
Service bought in ; plate xxx,

i; 45
Ictis, named by old historians,

supposed to be either St.

Michael's Mount, Falmouth,

Weymouth, or the Isle of

Wight, 32
Ink-Stands, &c. :

Ink-pot, Scotch ; no mark ;
plate xcvin, i ; 133, 162

Inkstand ; plate XL, iii ; 60, 162

plate LXXXIII, v ; 117

late eighteenth century ;

plate xcix, ii ; 134, 162
French ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate xcv, ii ;

132, 162

Italian ; plate xcvin, ii ;

133, 162

Isabella of Bavaria, her pur-
chase for the Hotel St. Pol in
1401, 63

Isle of Wight, reference, 32

JAMES V. persuades foreign
craftsmen to settle in Scot-
land, 1539, 77

James VI. grants charter to the
crafts, 1581, 85 ; references,
97» 83

Japan, spoons seen by Mr. Gow-
land at Nara, 50

Japanese treatment of pewter.

I5» 143
Jeandun, Jean de, his reference

to French decorators, 56
John II. of France, his pewter,

I35i» 58

John, King, reference, 54
ohnson, Dr., reference, 7
onson, Ben, reference, 139
ugs. See Flagons
upe, John, his defiant attitude

towards the London Company,

1736, 113

KOCH, Melchior, his alloy resem-
bling gold, 82

INDEX

Kriswick, chalice and paten

from, plate xxi, iii, 30
Kwammu, Emperor of Japan,

reference, 50

LADLES :

Laton slip-top Ladle, handle
of hexagonal section
seventeenth century ;
plate xx, iv ; 29, 1 5 1

slip-top Ladle, found in

the City of London ;
has remains of tin pla-
ting ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xx, v ; 29

slip-top Ladle, found in

Suffolk ; seventeenth

century ; plate xx, vi ;

29
slip-top Ladle, found in

London ; seventeenth

century ; plate xx. vii ;

29, 150
Soup Ladle, marked John

Yates ; plate xi, iii ; 14,

IS2

marked Askberry, &c. ;

plate xi, iv ; 14, 152
Toddy Ladles, marked John
:, Yates, &c. ; plate xi, i ; 14,
1 152

" La Grande Mademoiselle "
(the Duchesse de Montpensier),

T I03
Lamps :

Rarely found in good con-
dition, 154

Lamp Time-Keepers ; seven-
teenth century; plate xxxviu

i-v; 58, 155

Oil Lamp ; German ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
xxxvii, i ; 56, 154
Lamps ; German ; eigh-
teenth century; plate xxxvii
iv, v ; 56, 154
Spirit-Lamp ; plate LXXXV, vi;

118, 161
La Rue, French craftsman, 60 ;

" Laver," the, its first appear-
ance, 97. See Church Vessels,
&c.

Le Boeuf, Jean, in 1396 fore-
stalls an incident recorded in
" Pickwick," 6 1

Le Peautrer, Nicholas, estab-
lishment of the craft in London
proved by his will, 1347, 58

Lea, Francis, fined, 1668, for
making inferior toys, 105

Limoges, composition of pewter
at, 13

" Livres des Mestiers " of
Charles V. pewter bottles
mentioned in, 69

London, spoons found in, plate
xu, ii, iv-viii, 16 ; plate xin, ii,
v, vii, viii, 18 ; plate xiv, i, iii,
vii, viii, 20 ; plate xv, ii, iv, vi,

21 ; plate xvi, ii, vii, viii, ix,

22 ; plate xyn, i, iv-viii, 24 ;
plate xvni, i, iii, 26 ; plate xix,
vii, 28 ; plate xx, i, vii, 29

Louise of Savoy, reference, 74
Louis XIV. sends his plate to

the mint, 102, 108
Loving Cup. See Tankards

MACHINES, their use discouraged
by early craftsmen, 36

Marks and Marking : vessels to
be stamped with quality mark
and private " touch," 37 ;
Mons marks in 1467, 67 ;
marking made compulsory by
Act of Parliament, 1503, 72 ;
enacted in Scotland, 1567,
83 ; hall-marking of tavern
measures ordained by Dundee
guild, 1614, 96 ; compulsory
in Scotland, 1641, 100 ; plates
of " touches " at Pewterers'
Hall, 121 ; few marks on
existing specimens, 121 ; con-
fusion caused by the au-
thorities, 122 ; Edinburgh
"touches," 124; advice to
owners of specimens with

OLD PEWTER

Marks and Marking — cont.

private " touches," 125 ; marks
in general misleading and con-
fusing, 125, 127 ; Nuremberg
marks the most reliable, 127 ;
reasons for the absence of
marks, 128 ; marks, where
legible, of spoons on plates
xn-xx. See special plates civ,
cv, cvi, 148, 150, 152

Marlowe, Christopher, reference,
138

Martin, abbot, 1186-1191, early
pewter plaque recording name
and title, 53

Masse, Mr., " Catalogue of the
Pewter Exhibition " organised
by him at Clifford's Inn Hall,
references, 127, 147 ; alluded
to, 9, 16, 65, 96, 121, 125

Maxwell, Stephen, of Glasgow
uses London stamp, 124

Measures :

Comparison of Scotch and

English, 132

Measure; plate LXXXIII ; 117

Measures ; plate LVI, i-v ; 78, 1 58

Measure, temp. Charles II.

found in Parliament

Street ; plate xxx, iii ; 45

English ; seventeenth

century ; plate LXXIV,
iv. ; 106

English; early eighteenth

century ; plate LXV, iii ;

English ; early «• eigh-

teenth century ; mark,
" John Home," &c. ;
plate ix, i ; 12, 158

English ; early eigh-

teenth century ; plate
XLIV, ii ; 64, 158

English ; early eigh-

teenth century ; plate
XLIV, iii ; 64, 158

English ; eighteenth

century ; plate L, iii ;
74, 157

Measures — cont.

Measures English ; eighteenth
century ; plate LVIII,
v ; 82, 158

eighteenth century; plate

LXXix, v ; 114

Measures, French, A set of,
plate LXI, 86

Scotch ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LV, i-iv ; 78, 158

Measure, German ; plate vn, i ;
10

or Tankard, German

late seventeenth century
plate LIV ; 78

Gill Measure ; no marks ;
plate xxxi, vi ; 46, 158

Measure, Modern, mark

VR Crowned ; plate xxxi,
ii; 46, 158

Half Gill Measure ; marked
like Mutchkin but with
two oval stamps instead
of Glas. and shield ; plate
xxxi, v; 46, 158
Quarter Gill Measure ; Glas-
gow mark ; plate LXXXII, ix ;
116

Half Mutchkin Measure ;
marked Imperial crown
Standard, &c. ; plate xxxi,
iii; 46, 158

Old Half Glass Measure ; no
marks ; plate xxxi, iv ; 46, 158
Tappit Hen. ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LX ; 85, 158
Scotch ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
x, ii ; 13, 132, 158

Hens ; plate LIX, i, ii, iii ;

84, 158

Wine Measures, German ;
eighteenth century ; plate
LVII, ii, iii ; 80, 158
Michelet the Breton, a French

craftsman of 1380, 59, 60
Midhurst, Communion Flagon
from, frontispiece ; plate xxi,
ii ; 30. J53

176

INDEX

Milk Jugs :

English ; late eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXVI, iii ;
109

early nineteenth century ;

plate xcn, i ; 126

Miscellaneous objects, 162

Moncel, Isabel de, a French
craftswoman, 1395, 61

Mons, a Belgian centre of the
craft, 58, 67

Mont St. Michel, early pewter
plaques found in coffins at, 53

Monteith, James, a craftsman,
1649, his claim for making
bullets, 101

Montpelier, composition of pew-
ter there in 1437, 13 ; refe-
rence, 65

Montrousti, Jehan de, supplies
pewter to Isabella of Bavaria,
63

Moulds : list made by Mr.
Welch, 33 ; new names ap-
pearing in a further York list,

Moyes, Mr. James one of the
last Edinburgh pewterers, 118

Mugs:

Mug, early nineteenth cen-
tury ; plate cm, iv ; 142

William IV. ; plate cm,

i ; 142

with handle, English ;

early eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXIV, iii ; 106

Mustard Pots :

Mustard Pot ; plate vii, iv ;
10, in

English ; seventeenth

century ; plate LXV, i ;

English ; early eigh-
teenth century ; plate
xcvii, iii ; 133

eighteenth century ; plate

LXXIX, i ; 114

late eighteenth century ;

plate LXXIX, iii ; 114

Mustard Pots— cont.

Mustard Pot; marked with a
figure floating in the air ;
plate xc, iii ; 125

Mustard Pots ; plate vm, v,
vi, vii ; 10, in

seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries; plate
LXXX, i-vi ; 114, 161

NEWGATE Street, Rat-tailed
spoon found at ; plate xix, ii ;
28

Nightingale, Rev. J. E., " Church
Plate of Norfolk," reference,
100

Northampton, Lord, his pewter
in 1614, 97

Northumberland, an Earl of,
in the habit of hiring pewter
vessels, 40

Norwich, Seal-headed spoon
found at, plate xx, viii, 29

Nuremberg, composition of pew-
ter at, 1576, 13 ; marks the
most reliable, 127 ; refer-
ences, 57, 126, 127

OLD Half Glass Measure. See

Measures
Oriental Dagger. See Dagger

PARLIAMENT Street, Whitehall,
Measure found in ; plate xxx,

iii; 45

Paten. See Church Vessels, &c.
Peg Tankard. See Tankards
Penny, Edmund, gives a Church

vessel, 1609, 95
Pepper-Boxes and Pots :

Pepper-box ; plate vii, ii ; 10

eighteenth century ; plate

LXXIX, iv ; 114
Pepper-boxes ; plate vm, i, iii.

iv ; 10, in

Pepper-Pot, English ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
xcvii, i ; 133

177

OLD PEWTER

Pepper-Boxes and Pots — cont.
Pepper -Pot ; English ; early
nineteenth century ;
plate xcvn, ii ; 133

seventeenth and eigh-
teenth century ; plate LXXXI,
i-vi ; 114, 161

Pepys, Samuel, buys a pewter
cistern, 1667, 105

Pewter : its disuse for domestic
and other purposes, 3 ; deri-
vation of the term, 7 ; com-
position of English " fine pew-
ter," ii ; its composition
according to Harrison the
historian, 12 ; rough and
ready tests for ascertaining its
quality, 16 ; tests used by
French pewterers, 17 ; how
it was wrought, 24 ; all the
metals employed home pro-
ducts, 32

Pewterers' Company oppose
" Crooked-lane men," 105

Pewterers' Hall, 1640 the earliest
date on " touch " plate pre-
served there, 100 ; the last
" touch " registered there in
1824, 118

" Pied de Biche " specimens.
See Spoons

Pirley Pig of Dundee : date ;
description ; use ; loss, and
recovery in 1839, 94

Pitt and Davley, their mark ;
plate ix, iii ; 12

Plates :

Plate, one of six ; English ;
eighteenth century ;
plate Lxxn,iii; 103, 160

one of a set of six, English

eighteenth century ;
stamped with initials
ICB and IBB ; plate
LVIII, iv ; 82, 160

Wavy-Edged, English ;

late eighteenth century ;
one of a set of six ; plate
LXXIII, v ; 104, 1 60

178

Plautus, reference to pewter, 45
Pliny, his reference to tin, 31
Plumbum candidum, the ancient

term for tin, 31
Plumbum nigrum, the ancient

term for lead, 31
Pocket Communion Service. See

Church Vessels, &c.
Poitiers, Henry de, Bishop of

Troyes, his pewter, 59
Porringers :

Porringer, French ; probably
seventeenth century ; plate
xxvin, iii ; 42, 1 60

Porringers ; plate LXX, i, ii, iii ;

100, 160
Poullett, Sir Richard, his " sallet

pewter dishes " of 1618, 34
Protective safe-guards of the old

craftsmen, 38
Purling, Major, his invention

called Silvorum, 103
" Puritan " handle. See Spoons
Pyx. See Church Vessels, &c.

IUAIGH, 132, 136
>uarter-gill Measure,
sures

See Mea-

" RAT-TAIL " pattern. See
Spoons

Read, C. K., references, 46, 48

Regulations of the early crafts-
men designed to protect the
purchaser and to insure good
workmanship, 24, 25 ; the
old regulations summarised,
26 ; days and hours of manu-
facture, 37 ; lids of stone-
ware vessels, 80 ; apprentices,
1564, 82 ; sale of goods, 39

" Revue des Arts Decoratifs,"
early post-Roman Chalice, now
destroyed, reproduced in, 52

Rheims, Archbishop of, his be-
quest, 1389, 6 1

Rhynd, Janet, her generous gift
to the Edinburgh Trade In-
corporation, 78

INDEX

Rice-Boiler ; French ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate LVIII,
iii; 82, 162

Richard Cceur de Lion, Church
plate melted to procure his
ransom, 53

Richard III., King, reference, 90
Roman pewter, divergent results
of analysis, 9 ; the discoveries
at Appleshaw, Icklingham,
Sutton, and Colchester, 45 ;
conjectures as to date, 49 ;
effects of the Roman with-
drawal on the industry, 5 1
Rouen, references, 58, 60, 63
Ruprecht, Sebaldus, German
craftsman, 1389, 61

SACRAMENTAL Cruets. See Church
Vessels, &c.

Sadware, how fashioned, 36

Sadware men. See Hammermen

St. Cyr, pewter at the convent
of, 68

St. Eloi, the patron saint of
Scotch Hammermen, 75, 84

St. Martin, pewter at the Cis-
tercian convent of, 68

St. Michael's Mount, reference,

St. Stephen's, Coleman Street,
London, pewter vessels in use,
1467, at, 67

Salt-Cellars and Boxes :
Salt-Box ; plate ci, ii ; 138
Salt-Cellars ; plate LXXXIII,
ii ; 117, 161

plate LXXXIV, i-v ; 117,

161

marked with crowned

X ; plate vm, viii-xii ;

10, III

Salt-Cellar, English ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
L, ii ; 74

eighteenth century ; plate

LXXIX, ii ; 1 14

Cromwellian ; plate

LXXXII, iii ; 116, 161

Salt-Cellars— cont.

Salt-Cellar, English ; plate
LXXXII, v ; 116, 161

English ; Georgian ; plate

LXXXII, vii ; 116, 161

Salver, Wavy-Edged, with feet,
Dutch ; late eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXIII, i, 104,
1 60 ; salver of Nuremberg,
1611, a reproduction of Briot's
Temperantia salver, 95

Sampson, Patrick, references,
no, in

Sandarach, or Callitris quadri-
valsis, used for coating moulds,

Schmitt, Peter, a German crafts-
man, 84

Schoper, Harman, " Treatise on
Industries," quoted, 84

Scotch Pewter: Scotland's ad-
vance in the craft retarded
by the absence of native tin,

69 ; manufacture first re-
corded in Edinburgh 1496,

70 ; arrangements of Guilds
differ from those in England,
ib. ; first recorded incorpora-
tion of Hammermen at Perth,
I5I^» 75 ; at Cannongate,
1535, ib. ; St. Eloi the patron
saint, 75 ; first recorded in-
corporation of Glasgow Ham-
mermen, 76 ; earliest ordi-
nances of St. Andrews Ham-
mermen, 77 ; James V. per-
suades foreign craftsmen to
settle in Scotland, and ratifies
the " Seal of Cause " of the
Cannongate Hammermen, ib. ;
measures reimposed, 1543, to-
secure competent craftsmen „
78 ; the Edinburgh Corpora-
tion become owners of the
Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen,

78 ; Perth apprentices for-
bidden to play on the Inch,

79 ; Church plate of St.
Giles', Edinburgh, removed for

179

OLD PEWTER

Scotch Pewter — cont.

safety, 81 ; Perth apprentices
wishing to become masters
present a football to the Guild,

8 1 ; disappearance of much
pre- Reformation Church plate,

82 ; marks enacted, 1567, 83 ;
Dundee stoups ordered to be
officially marked, ib. ; first
" Seal of Cause " granted to
Aberdeen Hammermen, 84 ;
James VI. grants charter,
1581, raising crafts to the
level of merchants, 85 ; first
record of the Dundee Incor-
poration, ib. ; records of the
Stirling Hammermen, 1596-
1620, more than usually im-
perfect, 89 ; continued growth
of the craft in Scotland during
the sixteenth century, 92 ;
date, description, and use of
the Pirley Pig, 94 ; its loss
and recovery, ib. ; Hall-
marking ordained, 1614, by
Dundee Guild, 96 ; effects
of the Revolution of 1617 in
the Church of Scotland, 97 ;
first appearance of the " laver,"
ib. ; no pewterer in St.
Andrew's Guild until 1619,

98 ; effects of the Church
troubles in 1638 on the craft,

99 ; marks made compulsory,
1641, 100 ; pewterers not
mentioned in Glasgow records
before 1648, 100 ; James Mon-
teith's claim for making
bullets, 101 ; penalty in Edin-
burgh for using bad metal,
103 ; effects of the Restoration
on the craft in Scotland, 104 ;
Act to prevent the craft from
encroaching upon the trade
of plumbers, 105 ; interesting
Ordinances issued by the Aber-
deen Guild, 105 ; quarrel be-
tween pewterers and plumbers
of Edinburgh, 106 ; effects of

1 80

Scotch Pewter — cont.

the accession of William III.
on Church plate, 106 ; white
iron-smiths admitted to the
freedom of Aberdeen Guild,
107 ; decline of the craft and
threatened absorption by
white iron-smiths, no; en-
rolment of the last pewterer
at the Cannongate, in ;
craftsmen of St. Andrews and
Perth fail to preserve their
monopoly, 112, 113; efforts
of Edinburgh white iron-
smiths to found a distinct
craft, 114; Dundee corpora-
tion enrols the last pewterer,
115; Perth hammermen com-
bine with other trades, ib. ;
effects of the Presbyterians on
the craft, 116 ; last pewterers
enrolled at Aberdeen and
Perth, ib. ; white iron-smiths
openly make pewter articles,
ib. ; St. Andrews pewterers
outnumbered by tin-smiths,
117; Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth,
and Stirling Hammermen still
hold meetings but have no
executive power, 119 »_

" Seal-headed " pattern. See
Spoons

Shakespeare, pewter mentioned
by, 87 ; reference, 139

Sharpe, Dr., his Calendar drawn
up for the Corporation of the
City of London, 58

Shaving- Pot ; English ; plate en,
i ; 140

Shoe Buckles, A pair of ; no
marks ; plate xcvi, ii, iv ; 133,
162

Shokotu, Empress of Japan,
reference. 51

Silvorum, Purling's new inven-
tion, 103

Skeat, Professor, references, 7,
28

" Slip-top " pattern. ~ See Spoons

INDEX

Smith, Samuel, London, breaks

advertising rule, 116
Snuff-Boxes :

Snuff-Box ; no marks ; plate
xcvi, v ; 133

no marks ; eighteenth

century ; plate xcvi, i ;
133, 162

English ; middle eigh-

teenth century ; plate
xcvn, iv; 133, 162

Scotch ; no marks ; plate

xcvi, iii ; 133, 162
Soignies, reference, 60
Soup Ladle. See Ladles
Soup Tureen, Russian ; Arch-
angel mark ; plate LXXV ; 108,
161

Spanish Pewter, statutes and
regulations drawn up, 1406,
at Barcelona, 63

Spice-Box, French ; eighteenth
century ; plate xxix, ii ; 44,
162
Spinning, a method of working

pewter, 37
Spoons :

Bronze, found in the City of
London; fourteenth cen-
tury ; probably French :
plate xn, ii ; 16, 148
found in London ; fif-
teenth century ; plate
xii, vi; 16, 148

stem of diamond section,

found in London ; fif-
teenth century ; plate
xn, vii ; 1 6, 148

found in London ; fif-

teenth century (mark,
same as No. 2) ; plate
xn, viii ; 16, 148

rat-tailed ; seventeenth

century ; plate xix, viii ;

28, 151
Dutch ; plate LXXXII, ii, iv,

vi, viii, x ; 1 16
Laton, found in the Thames

at Westminster ; four-

Spoons — cont.

teenth century ; plate
xn, i ; 16, 148

Laton French ; fourteenth cen-
tury ; plate xn, iii ; 16

found in the Thames in

London, stem of dia-
mond section ; early
fifteenth century ; plate
xn, iv; 16, 148

found in London ; early

fifteenth century ; pro-
bably French ; plate
xii, v; 16, 148

plated with pewter ;

found in London ; late
seventeenth century ;
plate xix, vii; 28, 151

plated with tin ; seven-

teenth century ; plate
xvin, iv ; 26, 151

with remains of tin

plating ; seventeenth
century ; plate xviu,
v; 26, 151

plated with tin ; handle

" Pied de Biche " (mark
same as No. 5 ) ; plate
xvin, vi ; 26, 151

with remains of tin

plating ; handle " Pied
de Biche " ; seven-
teenth century ; plate
xvni, vii ; 26, 151

rat-tailed ; plated with

tin ; handle " Pied de
Biche " ; seventeenth
century ; plate xix, i ;
28, 151

rat- tailed, found in York

Road, Westminster ;
plated with tin ; seven-
teenth century ; plate
xix, iii; 28, 151

rat-tailed, found in York

Road, Westminster ;
handle "Pied de Biche " ;
seventeenth century ;
plate xvni, viii; 26, 151

181

OLD PEWTER

Spoons — cont.

Laton, seal-top, found in Lon-
don ; seventeenth-cen-
tury ; plate xvn i ;
24, 150

seal-top ; seventeenth

century ; plate xvn,
ii; 24, 150

seal-top ; seventeenth

century ; plate xvu,
iii ; 24, 150

seal-top, found in Lon-

don ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xvu, iv ;
24, 150

seal-top, found in Lon-

don ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xvu, v ;
24, 150

seal-top, found in Lon-

don ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xvu, vi ;
24, 150

seal-top, found in Lon-

don ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xvu, vii ;
24, 150

seal-top, found in Lon-

don ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xvu, viii ;
24, 150

seal-top, with remains of

tin-plating, found at
Norwich ; seventeenth
century ; plate xx, viii ;
29, 150

slip-top, plated with tin ;

found in London ;
seventeenth century ;
plate xvui, i ; 26, 151

slip-top, found at Ber-

mondsey ; has re-
mains of tin plating ;
seventeenth century ;
plate xvi, v ; 22

slip-top, found at Ber-

mondsey ; seventeenth
century ; plate xvi, vi ;

22, 149

182

Spoons — cont.

Laton, slip-top, found in Lon-
don ; has remains of
tin plating ; seven-
teenth century ; plate
xvi, vii ; 22

slip-top, found in Lon-

don ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xvui, iiij;
26, 151

spoon, found in London ;

stem of hexagonal sec-
tion ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xiv, mf;
20, 150

spoon, with Apostle topr;

seventeenth century^;
plate xiv, iv ; 20, 150"

dog-nose gravy spoon,

plated with tin ; seven-
teenth century ; plate
xx, ii; 29, 150

Pewter, found in London ;
sixteenth century ; plate
xiv, i ; 20, 150

seventeenth century ;

plate xiv, ii ; 20, 1 5 1

found in London ; seven-
teenth century ; plate
xiv, vii ; 20

found in London ; late

eighteenth century ;
plate xx, i; 29, 152

found in Bermondsey,

late eighteenth century ;
plate xx, iii, 29, 152

with Apostle top, found

in London ; sixteenth
century ; plate xiv,
viii ; 20, 150

rat-tailed, found in New-
gate Street ; handle
" Pied de Biche " ;
seventeenth century ;
plate xix, ii; 28, 151

rat-tailed, found in Ber-

mondsey ; seventeenth
century ; plate xix, iv ;
28, 151

INDEX

Spoons — cont.

Pewter, rat- tailed, found in Ber-
mondsey ; seventeenth
century ; plate xix, v ;
28, 151

rat-tailed, seventeenth

century ; plate xix, vi ;
28, 151

rat - tailed chocolate

spoon, found in the
Wandle, at Wands-
worth ; seventeenth
century ; plate xix, ix ;
28, 151

seal -headed, hexagonal,

found at Bermondsey ;
sixteenth century ; plate
xiv, v; 20, 150

slip-top, found at Ber-
mondsey, stem of hexa-
gonal section ; fifteenth
century ; plate xin, i ;
1 8, 149

slip-top, found in Lon-
don ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xin, ii ;
18, 149

slip-top, sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xin, iii ;
i 8, 149

slip-top ; seventeenth

century ; plate xin, iv ;
18

slip-top, found in Lon-
don ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xin, v ;
18, 149

slip-top, found in York

Road, Westminster ;
sixteenth century ; plate
xin, vi ; 1 8, 149

slip-top, found in Lon-
don ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xin, vii ;
18, 149

slip-top, found in Lon-

don ; seventeenth cen-
tury ; plate xin, viii ;
18

Spoons — (cont,) :

Pewter, slip-top, found in York
Road, Westminster ; six-
teenth century ; plate
xv, i (same mark as No.
6) ; plate xin ; 21, 149

slip-top, found in Lon-
don ; sixteenth cen-
tury (same mark as
No. 6, plate xin) ; plate
xv, ii ; 21, 149

slip-top, the same as No.

2 ; plate xv, iii ; 21,
149

slip-top, found in Lon-
don ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xv, iv ; 21,
149

slip-top, sixteenth cen-

tury ; plate xv, v ; 21,
149

slip-top, found in Lon-

don ; sixteenth cen-
tury (same mark as
No. 2) ; plate xv, vi ;

21, 149

slip-top ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xv, vii ; 21,
149

found in Bermondsey ;

sixteenth century ; plate
xv, viii ; 21, 149

slip-top, found in Lon-

don ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xvi, ix ;

22, 149

slip-top, found in Lon-

don ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xvi, viii ;
22

slip-top, found at Ber-

mondsey ; sixteenth
century ; plate xvi, i ;
22, 149

slip-top, found in Lon-
don ; sixteenth cen-
tury ; plate xvi, ii ; 22,
149

slip-top, found at Ber-

183

OLD PEWTER

Spoons — COM/.

mondsey ; sixteenth
century ; plate xvi, iii ;
22, 149

Pewter, slip-top, found at Ber-
mondsey ; sixteenth
century ; plate xvi, iv ;
22, 149

slip-top, found at Ber-

mondsey ; seventeenth
century ; plate xvm,
ii ; 26, 1 5 1

Sacramental Spoon. See

Church Vessels, &c.
Table-Spoons, three, marked
John Yates, &c. ; plate
XI, v ; 14, 152
Tea Spoon, marked Ai &c. ;

plate xi, vi; 14, 152
Stannaries, Edward I. confirms

Charter to, 56

Steele, Richard, reference, 139
Students' Beer Jug. See Beer

Jugs

Suetonius, his reference to the
substitution of pewter for
silver vessels, 45
Sugar-Basins, Castors, &c. :
Sugar- Basin ; English ; early
nineteenth century ;
plate xcn, ii ; 126

Belgian ; plate en, v ;

140

Sugar-Box and Cover, Dutch ;
dated 1751; plate xc, ii ;
125, 162

Sugar-Castor ; plate LXXXIII,
iii; 117

marked with Cupid, &c. ;

plate viu, ii ; 10
Sugar-Sifters ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXXV, i, ii ;
118

Sugar Sprinkler, Belgian ;
plate en, ii ; 140
— Sprinkler, Belgian ; plate
cii, iv ; 140

TABLE Plate, 161

Table Spoons. See Spoons

Tankards and Cups :

Cup, on lid 1721, &c. ; plate
XLII, i; 62, 156

inscribed Johannes

George Reichel, &c.,
1693 ; plate XLII, iii ;
62, 156

German Guild, seven-

teenth century ; plate
xxxn, ii ; 48, 156

Scotch ; eighteenth^cen-

tury ; plate XLI, i ; 61,
156

Loving Cup ; English ; plate
xxvm, i; 42, 153,
156

eighteenth century ;

plate XLI, ii ; 61, 156

Peg Tankard, Danish ; with
engraved decoration in -
scribed Kleinreide, &c. ;
plate XLVIII, i ; 70
Tankard ; late eighteenth
century ; plate cm, iii ;
142, 157

engraved with IAM be-

neath an anchor, &c. ;
English ; eighteenth
century ; plate ix, iii ;
12, 157

English ; early eighteenth

century ; plate LXXIV,

i; 106
English ;

century

v; 106
English ;

century ;

eighteenth "
plate LXXIV,

eighteenth
plate xcin,
11 ; 128, 157
Flemish ; seventeenth
century ; plate x, i ;

French ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate x, iii ; 13

German Guild ; dated
1645 ; plate XLIX, iii ;
72, 157

184

INDEX

Tankards and Cups — cont.

Tankard ; German ; eighteenth
century ; plate XLVII,
ii ; 68, 157

Scotch ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; marked " Gal-
braith Glasgow " ; plate
XLIV, i; 64, 157

Cup, Swedish, 1844 ; marks,
Arms of Sweden, &c. ;
plate XLVIII, iii ; 70,

157

Tankards, German Guild ;
plate LII, i, ii, iii ; 76

German Guild ; seven-
teenth to eighteenth
century ; plate LIII, i,
ii, iii; 77, 159

German ; seventeenth

century ; plate XLVI,
i-iv ; 68

German ; seventeenth

and eighteenth cen-
turies ; plate XLV, i, ii,
iii ; 68

German, A Pair of,

eighteenth century ; plate

LI; 74, 159

Wine Cups ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; no marks ; plate
XLI, iii, iv; 61, 156
Taper-Holder. See Candlesticks
Tappit-Hen. See Measures
Tea-Pots :

Tea-Pot ; eighteenth century ;
plate xciv, ii ; 130

early nineteenth century ;

plate LXXXVIII, i ; 122,
161

early nineteenth century ;

plate xciv, i ; 130
Dutch ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXXIX, i ;
124

English ; plate xcm, i ;

128

. English ; early nine-
teenth century ; plate
xcn, iii ; 126

Tea-Pots— -cont.

Tea-Pot, Flemish ; eighteenth
century ; plate LXXXIX,
iii ; 124
Temperance salver by Briot,

references, 79, 95
Tests for ascertaining the quality

of pewter, 17, 16
Tin : reputation of English
pewter due to its superior
quality, 30 ; early Biblical
and Classical references to,
30, 31 ; craft in Scotland
retarded by its absence, 69 ;
mentioned by Shakespeare,
87 ; London Company privi-
leged to charge royalty on,
1598,90
Tobacco-Boxes :

Tobacco-Box ; no marks ; plate
xcvui, iii ; 133

eighteenth century ; plate

xciv, iii ; 130, 162
English ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXIV, vi ;
1 06, 162

French ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate xcv,iii ; 132,
162

Toddy-Ladles. See Ladles
Torigny, Robert de (1154-1186),
early pewter plaque recording
his name and title, 53
Tottenham Court Road, Wine
Taster dug up in, plate LVII, 80
Trays :

Tray ; eighteenth century ;
plate XL, ii ; 60

or Salver, Dutch ; plate

LXXVI, ii ; 109, 162
Triflers, workers in the metal
known as " trifle," 27, 28 ;
in 1612 included hollow-ware
in their output, 96
Troyes, references, 59, 60

URNS :

Urn, Dutch; plate LXXXVII.
i ; 121, 161

OLD PEWTER

Urns — cont.

Urn, Dutch ; plate LXXXVII,
iii ; 121, 161

French ; plate LXXXVII,

ii ; 121, 161

Uvedale, Lady Elizabeth, her
bequest of pewter, 1487, 69

VEGETABLE DISH ; English ; late
eighteenth century ; plate
LXXVI, i ; 109, 161

Vessels and Dish, Roman, found
by Rev. C. H. Engleheart ;
plate in, i, ii, iii ; 4, 47, 48, 49

Victoria and Albert Museum,
Gloucester Candlestick at,
plate iv, 5, 54 ; specimens of
decorated pewter at, 80 ; Nu-
remberg Salver there, a re-
production of Briot's Tem-
perantia Salver, 95. See also
frontispiece and plates ix, xxi,

XXII, XLVIII, XLIX, LIV, LVII, XC

Vinegar Cruet ; plate LXXXIII,
iv; 117, 161

Waltham Abbey Church, pewter

purchased for, 80
WANDSWORTH, rat-tailed pewter
chocolate spoon found at,
plate xix, ix; 28
Water-Jugs :

Hot- Water Jug ; Dutch ; early
eighteenth century ; plate
LXV, ii; 94

Water-Jug ; English ; eigh-
teenth century ; plate
LVIII, ii; 82, 159
English ; eighteenth cen-
tury ; plate LXXVI, iv ;
109

English ; late eighteenth

century ; plate LXXIII,
iv ; 104

Welch, Mr., "History of the
Pewterers' Company," 26 ; list
of moulds, 33 ; reference,

Westminster, spoons found at :
plates xn, i, 16 ; xni, vi, 18 ;
xv, i, 21 ; xvin, viii, 26 ;
xix, iii ; 28

Weymouth, reference, 32

White iron-smiths, their absorp-
tion of the craft, 107, no, 112,
113, 116, 117

William III. compelled to strike
part of his coinage in pewter,
1 08 ; reference, 106

Wine Measure. See Measures

Wine Taster, English ; seven-
teenth century ; dug up in
Tottenham Court Road ; plate
LVII, i ; 80, 1 60

Wolsey, Cardinal, plate belonging
to, 91

Woman, A, belongs to the craft
in the thirteenth century,

Wood, Mr. Ingleby, "Scottish
Pewter-Ware and Pewterers,"
reference, 26 ; " Church Ves-
sels before and after the Re-
formation," reference, 133 ;
references, 69, 76, 81, 89, 98,
124, 125, 131, 158

Wright, James, of St. Andrews,
reference, 117

YATES, JOHN, his mark on

Spoons and Ladles, plate xi,

iii, v ; 14, 152
York, the principal trading place

for the North of England in

1419, 64, 77
Yorkshire, Patens from a Church

in, plate xxn, iii; 32

Printed by BALLANTYNE &* Co. LIMITED
Tavistock Street, London

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