The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-05-08
REAL PEWTER SCARCE.
TFrom the Chicago Chronicle.1

IFrOm the chicago CnrOnlcIe.I
1t has been the fortune of a few peo-
pie to dine off gold plate on some great
state occasion. Rather more people
have sat at a meal when the plates and
dishes were of silver; but only a small
circle. it is quite safe to say, have been
at a dinner when every article upon
the table was made of pewter
To the ordinary person the word
pewter means the metal, or rather
the alloy of metals, which go to form
the ordinary beer tankard in an inn
The collector of pewter, however, knows
very differently, and most people will
be surprised to hear that real old pew
ter is extremely rare.
The modern public house tankard, al
though it may be known by the generic
title of pewter" is not pewter at all,
but a much cheaper and less interesting
mixture of metal known as sand pew
ter
In fact, the old art of pewter making
is almost entirely lost, and no modern
makers have been able to produce
combination of lead and tin equal to
that which was current 100 or more
years ago.
Experts on the subject say that in
all probability the famous pewter
makers, Hobhouse, Jarmyn and the like,
possessed the secret of a third 1ngre-
dent which is not now known. When
the improved process of glass making
made glass vessels extraordinarily
cheap, pewter making fell into disuse
and with its fall its secret persisted also.
For the collector of pewter this is a
most happy circumstance, for it makes
his objects rare and valuable. Probab bly,
the best known pewter collector in Eng
land is Frank Jackson, the well known
artist, and the secretary of the London
Sketch club.
1t was owing to him that the first
dinner was eaten entirely from pewter,
and it was through him that the pew
ter dinners" have become an artistic
function, to which many amateurs of
the curious in life would give a great
deal to be invited.
The originator of the idea began to
collect pewter some time ago, in frag-
ments. He would come across a dish
here, a plate there or a fine tankard in
some country tavern. AS the collectlon
grew it became his ambition to have
complete dinner service for at least six
people, a thing which, as every collector
knows, is extremely difficult of achieve
ment.
Gradually the set grew. The fine col
lection of tankardS belonging to one of
the smaller inns of court came into the
market and was at once bought up.
Some wonderful tureens and basins of
pewter were found in Rome, the re
mains of the table service of a cardinal
in the middle ages.
The greatest difficulty of all was ex-
perienced in the search for liquor
glasses of pewter. The artist was de
termined that nothing should be want
ing in his dinner service and that it
should be complete down to the smallest
detail
Eventually, strange as it may seem,
the liquor glasses were picked up in
AIgiers. They are of very rare and
curious workmanship. Pewter seems SO
thoroughly an English product that one
finds it difficult to imagine it of Moor
ish workmanship.
The knives were discovered at the
sale of an old country mansion with it's
effects. The handles are of thick pew
ter. 1t is curious to find how difficult
it is to eat with pewter spoons after the