Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

PEWTER

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 339 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

PEWTER , a See also:

general name used to denote a number of See also:alloys of various metals in diverse proportions, the See also:sole See also:common feature of which lies in the fact that See also:tin is always the See also:chief constituent. The See also:etymology of the word is doubtful, but it is probably an See also:English modification of spelter, which was adopted with more or less See also:local alteration by the See also:continental See also:European nations, who at an See also:early See also:period were eager purchasers of the See also:ware, becoming peauter in Dutch, peutre, peautre or piautre in See also:French, peltro in See also:Italian and peltre in See also:Spanish. See also:Roman pewter, the See also:oldest known, which has been disinterred at various places in See also:England and elsewhere, was composed of tin and See also:lead alone, for the occasional traces of See also:iron are believed to be accidental, in proportions which, though varying considerably, See also:group themselves around two definite formulae, one containing 71.5 parts of tin to 27.8 of lead, the other 78.2 of tin to 21.7 of lead, or one See also:libra of tin to 41 and 3 unciae of lead respectively. On the European See also:continent in the See also:middle ages, some ten centuries later than the supposed date of the Roman pewter found in See also:Britain, when we first get definite records of the See also:composition of pewter, lead remained the chief, if not the only secondary ingredient. In 1437 the pewterers of See also:Montpelier added 4 parts of lead to 96 of tin, when making dishes and porringers 10 parts of lead to 90 of tin for See also:salt-cellars and ewers; those of See also:Limoges used 4 parts of lead to See also:loo of tin; at See also:Nuremberg in 1576 it was ordained that not more than 1 lb of lead should be mixed with every 10 lb of tin; in See also:France during the 18th See also:century a limit of 15% of lead was imposed, while at the See also:present See also:time 16.5 % with a margin of 1.5 for errors is regarded as safe for the storage of See also:wine and consequently legal. In England the earliest known ordinances for the regulation of the See also:craft were See also:drawn up in 1348 and received the approval of the See also:mayor and aldermen. From them we learn that for rounded vessels lead might be mixed with the tin in the See also:pro-portion of 26 lb to each hundredweight, though this quantity appears to have been found excessive, since in 1351 a pewterer was punished because his alloy contained more than 16 lb to the hundredweight, unless this be a clerical See also:error in the contemporary records of the Pewterers' See also:Company. Articles made of this material were to be known as " vessels of tyn for ever " but the alloy soon came to be known as " ley." Another See also:formula, however, authorized in the same document, would appear to have been at that time an exclusively English See also:secret, to which was presumably due the universal recognition of the superiority of the See also:island wares which is so notable a fact in the See also:history of pewter. It was known as " See also:fyne peauter " and used for dishes, saucers, platters, chargers, and for all " things that they make square," such as cruets, chrismatories, &c., which owing either to the rough usage they would be submitted to, or to the sharpness of their angles, called for greater toughness in the material. The See also:recipe for this alloy as originally propounded was as much See also:brass to the tin " as it wol receiuve of his nature," but the lack of precision in this perhaps rendered it difficult to distinguish accidental See also:variations from deliberate See also:adulteration, and in 1474–1475 it was resolved that 26 lb of brass must be mixed with every hundredweight of tin. The penalties for infringement of the rules were severe and frequently enforced, but in spite of them alterations and improvements crept in. The chief and perhaps the earliest of these was the addition of a certain proportion of See also:bismuth, or as it was then called " tin See also:glass." When this was first used is not recorded, but by 1561 it was accepted as a See also:matter of course; in 163o a maker " was found in See also:fault for not sufficiently tempering his See also:metal with tin glass "; and in 1653 it was ordered that 3 lb See also:weight of tin glass at least must be mixed with every moo lb of tin.

See also:

Antimony was subsequently introduced—though there is no mention of it in the records of the Pewterers' Company—sometimes alone as in tin and See also:temper (r.6 to 150 parts) and trifle (17 parts to 83 of tin). sometimes with other metals as in hard metal (96 parts of tin, 8 of antimony and 2 of See also:copper), a mixture very closely resembling that still used under the name of " Britannia metal," and in See also:plate pewter (Too parts of tin, 8 of antimony, 4 of copper and 4 of bismuth). The wares were originally fashioned in two ways, by hammering or by casting, and the workers in each were strictly differentiated, the former, who worked in See also:fine pewter, being known as Sadware men, the latter who used " ley " as Hollow-ware men. A third class, known as Triflers, from the alloy they were limited to, probably at first only manufactured such small articles of domestic use or See also:ornament as did not definitely fall under either of the other headings, but from an authorized See also:list of wares, drawn up by a See also:committee of Triflers in 1612, it is clear that the barrier between them and the Hollow-ware men had been largely broken down. Another method of working pewter which seems to have been introduced later, and never followed to any See also:great extent, was See also:spinning, by which the See also:vessel was shaped in a See also:mould on a See also:wheel by the See also:mere pressure of a olunt See also:tool, the softness of the metal allowing of its flowing sufficiently for this purpose. Pewter first appears in history in 1074, when a See also:synod at See also:Rouen permitted its use as a substitute for See also:gold or See also:silver in See also:church vessels, a concession accepted also at See also:Winchester two years later, again withdrawn in 1175, but once more tacitly adopted some twenty years after. The records of its domestic use commence with the caldrons employed for boiling the See also:meat at the See also:coronation of See also:Edward I. in 1274, though we gather that the See also:trade was even then flourishing in See also:Paris and See also:Bruges, whence during the following century it extended to See also:Augsburg, Nuremberg, See also:Poitiers, See also:Mons and other continental centres. Confined at first to the more wealthy classes, we can trace as time goes on its See also:extension See also:lower and lower in the social See also:scale, until at the end of the 17th century its use was almost universal. Thenceforward its See also:vogue steadily declined. The growing cheapness of glass and chinaware and the invention of more showy metals brought upon it by degrees the fatal stigma of vulgarity, until with very few exceptions its manufacture entirely ceased. Artistically, pewter was at its best when its makers were least conscious of the See also:art revealed in it, thinking more of the durability and appropriateness to purpose of their wares than of their decorative qualities. Though intentionally ornamental vessels may be found earlier, it was not until the 18th century that the pewterers set themselves to slavishly copying the designs and methods of the silversmiths, whether suitable to their material or not, and thereby undoubtedly hastened their own downfall. Of See also:recent years pewter has taken its See also:place among the articles sought after by collectors, and its cost has so materially and rapidly increased that the manufacture of vessels, guaranteed of course genuinely See also:antique, bids See also:fair to become once more a paying See also:industry.

Unfortunately the various enactments compelling each maker to See also:

stamp his ware with a definite See also:touch-See also:mark seem at all times to have been very generally evaded or ignored, and experience alone is therefore the only safe See also:guide to distinguishing new from old.

End of Article: PEWTER

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
PEW (Mid. Eng. puwe, through O. Fr. puya, pui, mod,... 		[next]
PEZENAS

Site © 2006 - Net Industries