pewter - {pue'-tur}

Pewter is an alloy of tin mixed with a small proportion of another metal, generally lead but sometimes copper, antimony, or bismuth. Silver gray in color, it is a comparatively soft metal, worked by casting, hammering, and turning.

The origins of pewter technology have not been determined, but it has been in common use in Europe since the Roman period. Pewter was used extensively to make household utensils and ecclesiastical vessels until the mid-19th century, when it began to be replaced by new alloys (Britannia metal and German silver), which were more durable and suitable for silver-plating, as well as by cheaper and more practical industrial pottery and glassware. A revival of decorative pewterware, however, occurred in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. As a decorative art, pewter reached its European zenith in the 16th century in the work of Francois Briot of Montbeliard, France, and with the German Edelzinn style. The 17th- and 18th-century styles reverted to plain, functional forms but were nonetheless handsome and well proportioned. The ancient British tin mines of Cornwall produced most of the tin used in Europe. This led to the establishment of a major pewter industry in Britain, which by the early 18th century had a worldwide export trade, particularly with the American colonies.

— Betty Elzea —

Bibliography: Hornsby, P.R., Pewter of the Western World, 1600 to 1850 (1983); Michaelis, R. F., British Pewter (1969); Montgomery, Charles F., A History of American Pewter (1973); Nadolski, D., Old Household Pewterware, trans. by M. Stanton (1987); Thomas, John C., ed., American and British Pewter (1976).