Pewter




  Pewter is a spelter. This became peautre in French, and many other languages.

Properties

Traditionally, there were three grades of pewter:

  • fine: for eatingware, with 96-99 percent tin, and 1-4 percent copper
  • trifle: also for eating and drinking utensils but duller in appearance, with 92 percent tin, 1-6 percent copper, and up to 4 percent lead
  • lay/ley: not for eating or drinking utensils, and may contain up to 15 percent lead

Modern pewter mixes the tin and copper with bismuth rather than with lead.

Physically, pewter is a bright, shiny metal that is very similar--if not identical--in appearance to casting will give excellent results.  

Uses

Use of pewter was common from the Middle Ages up until the various developments in glass-making during the 18th and 19th centuries. Pewter was the chief tableware until the making of china. Mass production of glass products has seen glass universally replace pewter in day-to-day life. Pewter artifacts continue to be produced, mainly as decorative or specialty items. Pewter was also used around East Asia. Roman pewter items are very rare, although some are still in existence. Pewter gradually stopped being used and by 1850, it was just about gone. By the 20th century, however, the craft has been brought back into existence.

Unlidded mugs and lidded tankards may be the most familiar pewter artifacts from the late 17th and 18th centuries, although the metal is also used for many other items including porringers, plates, dishes, basins, spoons, measures, flagons, communion cups, teapots, sugarbowls, steins and cream jugs. In the early 19th century, changes of fashion witnessed a decline in the use of pewter flatware, but increased production of both cast and spun pewter tea sets, whale-oil lamps, candlesticks, etc. Later in the century, pewter alloys were often used as a base metal for silver-plated objects.

 

Today, pewter is mainly used in decorative objects, namely collectible statuettes and figurines, replica coins, pendants, etc.

Contrary to urban legend, the use of lead-containing pewter tableware was unrelated to the mistrust of tomatoes as a foodstuff in Northern Europe during the Middle Ages[1].

See also
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pewter". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.