Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
CRAZE FOX PEWTERS
Antique Specimens Rank
Highest, Of Course.
BUT MODERN WILL DO
INTERESTING LORE OF THE
WARE RECALLED.
Manufacturers Now Make Both the
Old and the New
Shapes.
BUT MODERN WILL DO



The revival of interest in pewter orna-
ments and household vessels has put the
wooden wedding out of fashion. Up-to-
date couples celebrate the fifth as the pew
ter wedding anniversary The innovation
is one which is profitable to the house
holder, for antique pewters are valuable and
modern specimens are handsome we'll
as fashionable. Old tea sets handed down
In some families from colonial days are
rare prizes and fortunate is the woman
who has an elderly relative who can be-
stow such gift upon her. The engraved
Invitations for the pewter weddings are
sent out much in advance of the date of
the fastivty. This is to afford friends am
pie time to look in out-of-the-way places
for rare tankards, platters or bowls
Since pewter is playing so important a
part in social life and in household decora-
ton every one wishes to know something
about it. Unfortunately there seems 10 De
no authoritative source of information. Inc
study of the collections of plate is ABOUT
the only means of enlightenment. Collect
ors claim to recognize old pewter partly by
the quality of alloy and partly by the
shapes of the vessels. The latter, however
is not very reliable test, for so many lml-
tations of antique forms are being made
that it is sometimes difficult for even the
expert to thus distinguish the genuine.
tin combined with lead zinc. bismuth. cop
per or antimony. The commoner quality is
said to consist of four parts of tin to one
of lead. Manufacturers and collectors rec
ognize three grades of pewter-plate, trif1e
and lev Plate, the hardest and brightest
alloy, is used in making household articles;
trifie, an inferior quality of pewter, Is gen
orally nodded into beer mugs; ley, the
cheapest kind. is found in wine measures.
Most pewters are nodded, but some are
hammered into shape very much like brass
vessels
In Pewter Lore.
Much interesting lore is connected with
this ware In colonial times pewter plate
was imported from England, the tin which
entered so largely into its composition be-
ing supplied by the famous mines of Corn
wall. China dishes, with tea sets and
spoons COMPOSED of other and more durable
allows. in time took the place OF the old
fashioned composition. Pewter teapots,
sugar bowls. cream jugs, water jugs, plat
tiers. Candlesticks and porringers were then
tucked away in the attics or country
houses from which they are now being
disinterred by enterprising granddaughters
and Observation-Disclosures Junk shops
also are being ransacked for specimens,
and when good one Is found IL commands
an eXorbitant price.
The new pewter plate which is shown In
the shops is an imitation of the vessels
common in the days of the last Tudors. 1t
was tndTleS II. with his Soui I,
that popularized silver in England. Be
fore his time the great lords had their sill
yer or gold services, but the middle classes
Contented themselves with wooden, clay
and pewter vessels. In the time of the
Piantagenet kings of England pewter chal-
ices used in churches. Huge pots de-
signed to hold the yeomen's generous drafts
OF ale were the earliest forms in which the
ware appeared. Consequently fine old tam
kard is prize for the collector. Now and
then a genuine antique of the kind Is picked
up in England. but the pewter tankards
found in American curio shops are with
out exception modern. The Elzabethan
drinking vessels, like everything pertaining
to the reign of the virgin queen, are splen-
did specimens of workmanship. They have
lids like stems and are composed entirely
of metal embossed with scrolls and flowers.
The so-called Tudric tankards simpler
than the EliZabethan ones and are without
covers. Dutch tankards wrought with fine
ly embossed patterns have high lids slender
handles and broad bases, supported by and
iron-like feet These vessels were filed for
the drinkers from an immense jar similar
in shape and known as the can"
The Old CandIesticks.
Next in interest to tankards are the
candlesticks. The Oldest kinds have square
bases for the support Of the tapers and high
columns like Corinthian pillars. Such can
dlesticks are rarely to be seen outside of
historic collections. Pewter candelabra to
hold several lights are not often met with
in this country, perhaps for the reason that
the humble folk who used them in colonial
days did not waste more than a single
candle at time. The great variety of de-
signs makes this branch of pewter collect
ing worthy the entire collection of the con-
Eoisseur. The older pewter caudlestcks are
SO lustrous that in some instances it is
difficult for the amateur to distinguish them
from silver.
There is the tradition that many of the
loyal followers of Charles l melted down
their silver to supply him with funds in the
dark days of the English revolution. AS
pledge that the Stuarts would replace the
ware, he Is said to have had duplicate pew
ter sets cast. When Charles lost his head
and many of his cavaliers fed to America
doubtless some of this pewter came, too. for
none of the lOyalists doubted that the Stu
arts would again come into their own and
redeem the promises made In other DAYS
Among the historic plate of the south there
may be many handsome vessel whose sill
Yer originally helped equip a company of
cavalry or infantry that fought at Marston
Moor.
When China Came In.
The French made handsome pewter, and
doubtless some of it may still be found In
old creole families. Louis XIV, to pay his
debts. is said to have melted down all the
pewter he could lay his hands on though as
he sacrificed many masterpieces of the old
metal workers, his economy is not appar-
ent. The courtiers followed the example
of their master and substituted china iur
pewter, so that after the reign of the grand
monarch its popularity declined. and fine
specimens became rare in France. For this
reason old French pewter is very valuable
Exquisite pieces are the old Dutch and
Flemish vessels. They are as elegantly dec
Grated as silver and almost as bright Now
and then a handsome bowl of pewter is
found in an old Knickerbocker family or
CLEANS Unexpectedly upon the shelves of a
descendant OF the Pennsylvania Dutch
Genuine Dutch pewter is like the French
ware-quite rare
Modern pewter is nodded in all shapes.