The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-12-20
OLD PEWTER.


friends who are delighting them
selves with making a collection of
old pewter, and 1 must confess that,
after having laughed a good deal at
first at such an unromantic fancy as
this, / have become much interest
in the old platters and bowls N.Y.
self. l have been taught to recOg-
nize the dignity of the time-worn
color and shape Of OLD English and
colonial ware, and to be disdainful
Of modern Britannia metal. 1t is 3
humber sort of china craze, but its
interest lies, with me, in. its bring
ing the collector into contact with a
different phase of life among New
England country people. 1t carries
one back, not to the sanctity of the
parlor china-clOSet and the cere-
mony attendant upon having com
pany, but to the hOmely everyday
living; TO the time of wide open fire
places and kitchen dreSSerS, where
the pewter plates shOne like silver
in bright array upon the shelves: to
the middle of the farmers dinner
table held the various ingredients
of a boiled dish, or the pork and
beans, unfanked by side dishes. ex-
cept potatoes, and unfOllOWed by
dessert. In the early New England
days wooden ware was in far more
common use than would have been
supposed, a handsome set Of pewter
was an enviable possession. AS for
china, any amount Of that betO-
kened unusual prosperity. There
was very little money in the farm
ing districts Of New England for
many years, and numerous persons
live in vastly more comfortable
fashion now on the same land which
gave their ancestors bare living
fifty years ago. We can have no
idea what a serious thing it was in
the last century, or early in this
present one, to undertake any new
expense; for instance, sending boy
to college. To raise an extra two or
three hundred ay ear meant that the
men and women both should drudge
early and late, and deny themselves
most cruelty. Any one who looks
closely at the signs that are left us
Of the pewter-plateage in Massa-
chusettS will find much that is inter
esting, and he may discover in the
fields the nameless graves Of many
a hero and heroine, unmarked eX-
cept by a rough lichened stone
gathered from the abundant harvest
of the soil. The building Of so
many mills and the rapid growth OF
the manufacturing villages have
afforded better markets; and beside
the money that the young people
have earned and brought home, the
income Of the farms has been larger
year by year. and the farm house
and the way of living in them
have steadily grown more comfort
able.
The pewter was not all melted
into bullets Wherewith to fight our
foes, but it is fast disappearing in
other wa Us, and my friends collec
ton may come to be in time most
precious. They can tell some anus
Ing stories, as all collectors can,
COOuU IIlClI CCuI III lllO OIlC1
prizes. The beer-mug; with its
clanking cover and many dents and
the portraits of William and Mary
on its side, came from charmingly
quaint house near the sea; and they
like to remember the droll gossip
with which ShreWd and merry old
woman entertained them one show
cry afternoon, when they were
Weather-bound in her house, at last
hunting out from the upper-shelf
rubbish of her store closet the dear
est of their many ancient bowls.
She told them how her elbows used
to ache III the days when her grand
mother (Who was a splendid house
keeper, and who brought her up
used to have the pewter secured.
They had to be very careful not to
scratch it; and indeed there seems
to be general feeling of relief that
the ware has gone out Of fashion, it
was SO hard to keep it looking as it
ought. At any rate, the proper care
of pewter is lost art, | fear; the
great platters were one by one
gathered to rest by the tin-peddlers
when pewter was high in the war
time, and the little plates have been
melted on the stoves by careless
cooks.-December Atlantic.