Pewter, a the beautiful metal. What do we know about it tho? I did research to find out about it. I hope it helps shed some light on pewter for you too!

  The first written records of pewter  in more modern Europe are of the ninth century A.D. in France: slightly later, but with more specific records haev been found in England, where things such as candlesticks, chrismatories, and cruets were mentioned. However, the history of pewter goes back to the Roman invaders when, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, plates, small cups and ewers were made. Germany, Holland, Belgium, and even Spain were known to have craftsmen working in the 14th century.

   The Anglo- saxons made small items such as brooches, and beads of a poor quality pewter. Various small plates have appeared in excavation, one from a site dated 1290-1300. Of the same date are 2 relief-decorated pewter cruets.

   Pewter spoons have been made at least from the 13th century. In Britian the "Golden Age" of pewter, when some of the finest examples were produced, was in the 16th and 17th century, and on the continent perhaps a century earlier. About this time the guilds both in England and elsewhere began to lose control of their members and, as a result, the quality of the products declined. Pewter, which was a necessity in the home, was being replaced with pottery, porcelain and even silver.

   Despite the decrease in home trade, an expanding market was opening in the colonies: not only was pewterware exported in large quantities but pewterers themselves emigrated to the new countries, taking their moulds and skills with them. Among the first settlers of the American Colonies in the 17th century were pewterers trained in England. The principal source of tin, the main ingredient, was Cornwall. The English, wanting to keep the American pewter trade for themselves, put such a high tariff on tin that Colonial makers could not afford to buy it and compete successfully against their English rivals. Faced with this problem, local craftsmen had to use worn pieces with raw material , often trading new for old and allowing 50-60% of the cost to obtain it.It is a small wonder that most of the pewter found today in america is English. There is enough American pewter available to interest a collector, but not enough to make it common!Without a guild, such as the London Co, colonial pewterers were not required to mark their wares, but every pewterer had at least 2 sets of marks-1 for large surfaces which included his name, the town where he worked, and sometimes a set of hallmarks: the other for small surfaces, usually his initials. Sometimes they stamped the name of their sales agents on the pieces sold by him.

   Most marks before the Revolution were derived from English symbols, the rose and crown, the rampant lion, the full-rigged ship, etc. Shortly after the beginning of the war, they were replaced with the eagle, symbolizing the New Republic. It helps to know this when dating pieces. One of the intriguing mysteries is who designed and cut the dies of the marks.

   In the Massachussetts Bay area, at least 50 pewterers worked before 1825, a dozen before 1700. Very early pieces are rare. In Rhode Island the first craftsmen worked in Newport around 1730-50, the earliest being  Lawrence Langworthy. Thomas Danforth I moved to Norwich in 1733 and made pewter in the Connecticut Valley. The Dansforths and Boardsmans remain an essential part of American pewter. The pewterers of New York and Albany have left us the most important group of hollow-ware that has survived. Peter Young and George Coldwell were a few of the makers. Heyne and Colonal William Will were makers in Pennsylvania in the 18th century. John Brunstrom and Parks Boyd were excellent craftsmen as well.

   The earliest marked American pewter is a spoon by Joseph Copeland of Chuckstuck, Va (c 1675), but very little was produced south before 1800. The few known examples dated before then are some plates.

   Pewter is an alloy, composed mostly of tin to which copper or lead are added in different proportions. As early as the 14th century it was realized that the lead content of pewter could cause bad effects when in contact with certain foodstuffs. About this time, the guildsand organizations that were set up to assist and control the pewter craft began to lay down precise regulations as to the alloys to be used for particular commodities and purposes. On the continent, especially in Germany, , an alloy known as test pewter was widely used.

   One of the largest tin producing areas today is the far east, with some good pewterware produced in Malaya and elsewhere, but there has recently been something of a revival of Cornish tin mining and both English and imported tin is being used in the production of modern pewterware. Thus there has been, in England at least, a continuous use of pewter for commercial purposes now for at least 17 centuries.

Repairs and Maintenance: Most pewter if it has been exposed to cold, damp conditions will have deteriorated in colour and become duller and darker by the formation of oxide on the surface. This may often only be slight and may be cleaned off easily with ordinary metal polish, but more frequently if a piece has been stored away, unhandled for many years, it can form a hard, dark and ugly scale of oxide which is difficult to remove except by drastic treatment.

   However, any radical cleaning of ealry and rare pieces is unwise. A thin coating of wax furniture polish will preserve them after cleaning.

Fakes and Forgeries: Reproductions of pewterware may be classed in at least 2 categories 1) those pieces made in exact replica of old and rare examples, artificially aged to deceive-many also bearing copies of marks used by known makers, and 2) examples not necessarily of old form, but some parts of which have been cast from old moulds, the complete item produced purely as an ornamental reproduction for decorative purposes. In both cases some of these pieces have now acquired up to 40 years of age in theor own right, and will become increasingly difficult to recognize as time progresses. Pewter collecting in England reached a popular peak in the ealry 1930s, and most faked examples dae from about then but there are, even today, some modern pewtering firms producing good reproductions, which they will sell as such, though some unscrupulous persons are still prepared to add the touch of age by battering, scratching, and discolouring.