Last Updated 11/11/11

This web site hopes to provide simple and introductory information to those who might be curious about the old pewter that they come across. As a new collector in 2004 I found it difficult to access ’simple’ information, that would guide me into a clearer understanding and enjoyment of pewter plates, mugs, measures and more.

The purpose of this web site is -

To nurture nascent interest in British Antique Pewter, and to leave the reader a little hungry for more, but with good clues where to find it....

The British Pewter Society offers a far more detailed and better informed approach to the subject. www.pewtersociety.org

This web site however has no connection with, or any validation from, the British Pewter Society, whatsoever, other than I am currently a member, and have asked one or two other members for their thoughts on the site as I have put it together.

Because of the international nature of this web-site we have decided to make all the articles easier for the world to be able to read, to this end we have converted them into Adobe PDF file format for easier viewing and printing, in case you can not open the files then please click the Adobe Logo

“New Articles Added Autumn 2011”

This web site offers information about Pewter which is now about the equivalent to 1650 pages of A4 and more than 3000 photographs. Interested web site visitors increased in the third quarter of 2011 to over 218 daily originating mainly from 6 countries but in total from 55. Web site visitors in the 12 months to end September 2011 were over 65000 (compared to end Sept. 2010 of 39000) This web site is possibly the most widely read Old Pewter Publication - ever. There may be no further additions or corrections to this web site until the middle 2012. Some of these new additions are quite large PDF files and you will need to allow time for some of them to download to your PC - depending on the quality of your PC equipment, so please be patient, as the articles themselves, we trust, you will find them interesting.

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Thanks from a web site reader –  ‘’The beauty of Pewter is that a small purchase unravels a whole universe, a mystery story, social history, design etc., it fascinates me, and something we can do on a small budget, so thank you again for your help’’

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Angus Patterson
Curator, European Base Metals and Arms and Armour
Victoria & Albert Museum

Angus has permitted this web site to use the following testimonial -

“I use Pewterbank with increasing regularity. As I work with a broad range of metals and always to tight deadlines I find it extremely useful to have so much information about pewter gathered in one place and clearly organised.”

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This web site appreciates social history. Now, by way of some excellent genealogy, this web site is able to considerably enlighten readers as to the times some Pewterers lived and worked in, and as to their circumstances. Some Pewterers prospered, some did not. Some worked until they died. Some had their sons follow them into business, some gave their sons an education that encouraged those sons to seek a higher social status. Some Pewterers actually retired to live on rents and dividends. Providing this information and other information now, for the web site, has proved to be difficult and controversial, and a number of people who were helpful and others who gave clues, decided not to be named, for many different reasons.

Pewterbank would like to thank all contributors for their contributions in the Autumn of 2011. This web site tries not to take a decided view but simply to report on what is said or written, backed wherever possible by named sources and dates.

There is far more information added this time scanned from old publications. Readers should always cross check the information given with what is known today especially as regards marks. New information constantly arises. Web sites also give the opportunity for revision of views within themselves. You will see here a revised view of Richard Neate – revised from the Spring of 2011!

Just click on the underlined PDF link in column 3 below to read the articles
ARTICLES WILL LOAD IN A SEPARATE WINDOW AND MAY TAKE TIME - PLEASE BE PATIENT

Navigation Bar New Information Added Autumn 2011 Pages of A4 (about 413) Home Page Simple Index for Web Site Contents 5 PDF  Makers & Marks Tudric Pewter with other marks after 1920 5 PDF  Mundeys Hallmarks 34 PDF  The two Samuel Groves and their Cannon by Christine Ellis (Australia) 8 PDF  The CM Verification Mark - Another version 5 PDF  Reproductions and Marks Found 11 PDF  Regional Pewter (Bristol &) West Country Pewterers by H H Cotterell (1917) 16 PDF  Bristol & West Country by H H Cotterell (1918) 49 PDF  Bristol & West Country Pewter - examples 20 PDF  Pewtering in Bewdley by David Moulson and Andy Holding 19 PDF  Interesting Pieces Art Nouveau c1900 - Fishy Business - (not fakes) 10 PDF  Art Nouveau Liberty Tudric Pewter with Enamels 6 PDF  Liberty Art Nouveau - A few other pieces 5 PDF  Two York Acorn Flagons - Carl Ricketts 4 PDF  Reading An Alternative View of Art Nouveau by H J L J Masse in 1904 1 PDF  Key Reasons for joining the UK Pewter Society 1 PDF  Mundey’s Pewter Snippets - Richard Mundey 32 PDF  Collecting Pewter (c 1920) by Charles Rowen 29 PDF  A Pewter Mystery (perhaps) from about 1500 - The sin of Drunkenness 15 PDF  Kayser & Kayserzinn in 1907 (a small catalogue) 32 PDF  Dome Lidded Tankards a talk by Tony Chapman from 2000 66 PDF  Early Collectors of Old British Pewter as recalled by Richard Mundey 19 PDF  Richard Mundey in the 1980s 6 PDF  Pewter Displays The Neish Collection of British Pewter - Publicity Notice for this display 1 PDF  Pewter Outside UK Pewter from New Mexico - USA 4 PDF  Fakes, Repros and Worries Art Nouveau Candlestick - a Kayserzinn faked 6 PDF  Faked Marks and Faked Commemorative Plates and more - Richard Neate - a Reassessment 20 PDF

Articles above without an author named are sometimes mine though many by others, some named with help and comment from many (and all responsibility for them is mine alone) – corrections are welcomed - but unlikely to be made here until early 2012.

I do sell some pewter both privately and on eBay - but not on this web site and only in as much as my collection changes. My e-mail address is (johnstephenbank@btinternet.com). I try to reply to all e-mails, though it might take time. My knowledge is limited, but where I do not know the answer I hope to direct those with queries to where answers can be found.

Why collect Pewter?

It may be the look, the history, or the knowledge that people, maybe two or three hundred years ago, used this pewter on a daily basis that takes your interest.

A 2008 visit to the Auckland War Memorial and Museum revealed a collection of early UK Pewter in their APPLIED ARTS section.

For this web site, Pewter is an ’Applied Art’ - often made by extraordinarily skilled and creative craftsman for the ’yeomen’ of earlier times.

It was perhaps in its prime from 1550 to 1750 but also I enjoy very collectable pieces that can be found, dating from the 170 years following.

In improving my collection I do constantly review my pieces and I do sell some that no longer fit in with my collecting, and also sell some that I had to buy to get others that I especially wanted - and some that I was simply curious about and bought to look at them.

This web site is not, (now), a trading site and is here solely to provide information for those who might begin to be interested. It also hopes to engage those with opinions or views that may be contrary to those expressed herein. Such views will, in time, be given space if expressed clearly with confirming detail and sources and also, where possible,  illustrated.

Copyright Issues

PLEASE SEE Copyright Policy

LINKS

This web site has no financial connection whatsoever with any sites listed below. A link is given because of the range and quality shown. Any other web sites of similar quality will be linked here on request, in similar circumstances and if the link is reciprocated, or if made known to this site.

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The Worshipful Company of Pewterers

The modern iteration of the medieval Guild of old, is still very active today from a fine Hall in the City of London. It has started a new (electronic) publishing venture, The Pewterer, which is an e-magazine devoted to pewter, and in support of pewter and the pewter trade.

The Worshipful Company fully supports the trade and the metal, not least through the Association of British Pewter Craftsmen and the European Pewter Union; but also through its highly rated annual design competition, Pewter Live.

Please copy and paste this link to the Pewter Portal into your internet address bar (or Google - or your search engine). This will allow you access to all the current issues of the Pewterer:

http://web.me.com/alanwilliams4/Site_2/Pewter_Portal.html

 The url of, and giving direct access to, issue no 3 is:

http://web.me.com/alanwilliams4/Site_4._The_Pewterer,_vol_2_no_2/Home_Page.html

 Pewterbank is pleased to offer this reciprocated link, to their web site.

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A Good site to view Antique Pewter

www.pewtersellers.com 

We offer no opinion on values but understand this to be a successful web site.

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A CRAFTSMAN APPROACH TO STONEMASONRY

AND THE SKILFUL MAKING OF FIREPLACES, DOORWAYS, WINDOWS IN YORKSHIRE GRITSTONE CAN BE FOUND AT

 www.stonemason.co.uk

We offer no opinion on values but know this to be highly skilled workmanship.

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Pewter of The Western World, 1650-1800 by Peter R G Hornsby.

I would like to thank Jennifer M Hornsby for allowing me to use her copyright to the text and illustrations in this renowned Pewter book from time to time in articles on this web site. As a thank you to her, I mention here a children’s book she has written ‘The Bogle Wogles’ based on stories told to their children by her husband Peter.

Further information can be found at - www.tudriccottagegallery.com 

and at http://www.originalwriting.ie/_product_35479/The_Bogle_Wogles

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Thanks also to the following for copyright usage permission and hence links to their websites -

National Maritime Museum Greenwich  - www.nmm.ac.uk

Auckland War Memorial and Museum New Zealand – www.aucklandmuseum.com

Apollo Magazine London – www.apollo-magazine.com

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Link to Early English Carvings, Oak Furniture and Related items

www.shawedwardsantiques.co.uk

Shaw Edwards Antiques offers a range of Early English Oak Furniture, Carvings and Related items. The focus of the stock covers late Medieval and early Renaissance examples of carved fragments sometimes as early as the 13th Century together with furniture as late as the 17th Century.

Shaw has been involved with antiques since the mid 1960s and has studied the art of the late Medieval and early Renaissance periods in some considerable depth. He is a member of the British Antique Dealers Association, BADA, the Association of Art and Antiques Dealers, LAPADA, and the International Confederation of Art and Antiques Dealers Associations, CINOA. Shaw exhibits at the BADA Fair in London, the Summer and Winter Fairs at Olympia, the LAPADA Fair at Berkeley Square in London.

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www.pewtergiftware.com

A E Williams, 6 Well Lane ♦ Digbeth ♦ Birmingham B5 5TE

T: +44(0)121 643 4756 ♦ F: +44(0)121 643 2977 ♦ E: sales@pewtergiftware.com

To see pewter being made click on this link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVVUGJaK8Bg

Learn exactly what goes in to Pewtersmithing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVQmjnKLwc4

Added Autumn 2009. Please remember that this web site does not sell any pewter, does not act as agent, does not take any commission whatsoever on whatever you might purchase. A purchase by you a web site reader is a private matter between you and A E Williams. However if we did not admire the work done this information would not be offered here. We can make no comment nor offer any advice (due to lack of experience) as to the prices of newly cast pieces. This link is here because we are grateful for their co-operation, appreciative of their allowing use of the copyright in their photographs and information, and enthusiastic at seeing the process, quality and product - and in appreciating the history represented therein.

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THE PATINA QUESTION AND VALUE – a frequently asked question

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A Disclaimer

Some of my experiments and attempts at renovation have involved personal risk. I tell it as I found it. This is definitely not to encourage others to do as I did. I would advise others to take good advice on matters of electricity, electrolysis, and any products or methods I have used. I do not accept any responsibility for what you might attempt and urge you not to proceed without understanding, guidance or sound information from qualified people.

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PLEASE NOTE WELL.

Writers for this web site generally have no objection to people downloading their pictures for personal use or research and study. Pictures/Photos should not be used in any other publication without copyright permission.


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