A circa-1780 French aiguière (ewer) holds tulips. The container in the foreground is 18th-century, and the forks and spoons, mid-19th-century; all are French.
Photo:
Howard L. Puckett
Pewter is tailor-made for patina. Because its malleable composition causes it to show wear easily, the nicks, dents, and scratches it accumulates (in some cases over centuries) translate into platters, pitchers, spoons, and tankards that nonchalantly flaunt their age. Because of this, antique examples can be at once casual and elegant, with sophisticated forms married to a charmingly humble substance. That versatility is the key to pewter’s popularity. It is ideal for table settings and convivial entertaining in interiors that run the gamut from traditional to contemporary.
The soft, lustrous sheen of a pewter plate carries the mystique of history: The material has been used in domestic forms since early antiquity. The Greeks employed the metal (an alloy that normally consists mostly of tin and can also contain bismuth, antimony, and small amounts of lead), as did the Romans, who in the early Christian era discovered in their colony of Britannia an ample source of its primary component. After a brief lull in the Middle Ages, pewter production again flourished in the 15th century and was demanded by a wide audience well into the 1800s.
“It’s a mistake to think of it as poor man’s silver,” says expert John Davis, a former curator and author of Pewter at Colonial Williamsburg (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2003, $70). “Certainly silver had its demand in the upper classes, but so did pewter. In late 18th-century America and later, it was a metal to which most people aspired.”
Similarly, in 17th- and 18th-century France, where silver had been conscripted to fund the many wars of Louis XIV and thus was not used as often in the decorative arts, pewter became a major medium for tableware. “Even though the metal was base, the clientele was grand,” says New Orleans-based antiquarian Patrick Dunne, who sells French pewter in his shop, Lucullus. The vogue was for objects as well-designed as those they replaced. “The lobbed edges on the plates and the finely drawn spouts on the teapots mimicked the shapes of the old silver,” says Dunne. “Examples from that era have a lightness and a fanciful quality.”
The arrival of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s contributed to the decline of pewter; new technologies led to an increase in competition from porcelain and earthenware, which offered greater variety and color. The growing middle class also turned its interest to silver plate, which provided the luster of the coveted commodity at an affordable price. Design reflects that: Shapes that had been lilting and poetic turn clunky and utilitarian. But because of its popularity at the time -- which made it plentiful -- 18th- and early 19th-century pewter is now not only highly prized, but also very accessible.
English and American pewter are most commonly collected, and typical forms include plates with single-bead edges and porringers (shallow bowls with single handles). Because a large amount of pewter was created in England for sale in the United States, British export pewter is widely available here, and something like a late single-bead plate can be had for about $150. “Export wares are quite amazing, and English collectors are astounded that so much survived here in such good condition,” says Davis.
