History of Pewter



Posted: Monday, March 07, 2005

by
Online Discount Mart Home & Garden Decor

Pewter ranks somewhere between good old tin, and the classier silver goblet that most people think of when someone mentions medieval banquets. The truth is, that pewter was in much wider use than anything else, back in the golden days of knights and chivalry.

Tin and copper were used in Sumeria almost 4500 years ago, to produce bronze. Egyptian tombs have yielded up pewter items as well, dating them as 3500 years old, and artifacts recovered in China and Japan, proved to be 2000 and 1100 years old, respectively. Pewter, which is an alloy of tin and small amounts of other metal, primarily lead, was likely also around in the time that Romans occupied England.

Pewter usage for plates and cups was widespread in Europe by the Middle Ages. While peasants were still eating off bread or wood trenchers, the nobility enjoyed the luxury of pewter tableware. As it became more popular, and available to the lower classes, guilds sprang up to monitor its quality and the manner of goods that were made from it. The first ordinance regulating the manufacture of pewter in London, was granted in 1348, after which it was subject to assay, the same as gold, and carried the mark of the maker.

Dishes at that time were produced on slow turning lathes, while other items were made though casting or beating. Pewter came to America with the colonists, but only as finished products, because Britain was jealous of their industry. Most of that pewter ended up being melted down for ammunition during the Revolutionary War and the craft in America, blossomed afterwards. But it would fall into a decline in the 1800s, with the availability of pottery and ceramics.

Still, pewter ware did not fade away entirely. And in the 1950s, a new method of centrifugal casting allowed for the production of intricate decorative items such as chess sets and candleholders.

Today, pewter is extremely popular in home décor and gift stores, where you can find picture frames, oil burners, goblets, sun catchers, bookmarks, place card holders and more. It has even to a certain degree, ousted pottery/ceramics as the favored material for figurines, including Christmas ornaments.

For collectors of “series" or character memorabilia, pewter has become the classic casting material. Fantasy figures are frequently made of pewter, as are the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars figurines produced by the Rawcliffe Company of Rhode Island, who have been turning out such items for over a hundred years.

The nature of the alloy produces a color that is not as brilliant as silver, nor as dull as lead. But the finishes applied to modern pewter products make them every bit as attractive, and first choice of those who appreciate an “antique look".
Lorien1973 writes articles about home decor and garden decor for such sites as Online Discount Mart.
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