Not sure if this belongs in Cafe Society, but-
I bought a small hip flask like the one shownhere from a charity shop in the UK.
I got it engraved with my friend’s initials and would like to be able to tell her when it’s from. The underside reads- ‘3 OZ’ then a number ‘7’ then ‘War’ (with the ‘a’ and ‘r’ atop a big ‘W’) then a circled ‘92’ a little British symbol and one that looks like a swatch of fabric. It also reads ‘Mad in Sheffield- English Pewter.’
Also, I’ve already filled the thing with gin. Is that safe? How long will it ‘keep’ in there?
Of course, that’s ‘Made in Sheffield,’ though I do wonder…
Come onnn. I’m not just bumping this up, I gotsta know. Can I just tell her it’s from 1892? And will the pewter muddy up the gin?
lieu
December 18, 2003, 7:39pm
4
Here’s a present day pewter flask you can buy, although another sire said don’t keep alcohol in them for more than 3 days.
You could, but it is probably not accurate. Here is an interesting thread on the subject of pewter marks from someone who seems to know what they are talking about at the rec.antiques newsgroup:
The pewter “hallmarks” can not be read as we read silver hallmarks, they can aid to dating and the master (pewterer) yes, but can also be confusing. As the Goldsmiths of the day protested over the use of the pewter “hallmarks” many are hidden or placed in difficult to read positions on the piece in question…
It is a complex subject and most times, requires piece of pewter in one hand and a book in other hand, at the same time being surrounded by mountains of other books and that’s just to date the pieces
If the flask is from 1892 won’t their be fair percentage of lead in the pewter?
What Is Pewter?
Pewter has been made since Roman times. In medieval times and up until the mid seventeenth century, the composition of the pewter alloy was specified by the Worshipful Company of Pewterers in London. There were two grades: Fine pewter and Lay metal or trifles. Fine pewter was used for flatware - plates, chargers etc and also for important flagons and for spoons. Its composition was approximately:
Lay metal was used for hollow ware - measures and similar utensils. The ordinances of 1348 of the Worshipful Company of pewterers laid down that it should not contain less than 80% of tin alloyed with lead. However analyses of hollow ware from the Mary Rose yielded the following composition:
Tin 60-70% Lead 30-40% Tin <1% Bismuth <0.03%
In the mid seventeenth century a new alloy made its appearance and gradually came to replace the older composition of fine metal. This alloy was probably introduced by a Huguenot refugee from France, named James Taudin. In his secret formulation most of the copper was replaced by antimony. This produced a harder more lustrous metal, which came to be known as ‘Hard metal’.
By the end of the seventeenth century, other pewterers were using Taudin’s formulation. During the eighteenth century, hard metal was the norm for the manufacture of plates and chargers. Towards the end of the eighteenth century a new formulation was introduced by James Vickers, and this alloy came to be known as Britannia Metal. By increasing the proportion of antimony in the mix to about 6% Vickers discovered that resulting alloy could be rolled, using heavy presses of the new industrial era, into relatively thin sheets, thereby paving the way for mass factory production - and coincidentally the ultimate demise of traditional pewtermaking
I guess it depends on the quality of the piece, but it appears that by the nineteenth century, pewter was primarily tin and antimony, with only a small fraction of a percent of lead.
AskNott
December 19, 2003, 6:47am
8
WARNING–Highly misleading post, with a risk of surrealism
Piece of pewter in one hand and book in the other, and see which fills up first.