Chapter XIII

_Pewter or Tin—Vulcan a Pewterer—Tin Armor—Ezekiel—Roman Pewterers and
Vitellius—Tin Idols—Singular Imposture of Durand, a French
Carpenter—Louis XI—English Pewter Ware—St. Peter’s Chalice—Mexican
Pewterers—English Laws respecting Pewter—Cheats, time of Richard
II—Pewter Articles, under Henry VIII—Pewter Money and James
II—European Manufactures, A. D. 1483—Pewter Spoons described—Anecdote
of one—Charles XII—Singular Property of Pewter Mugs—Extension of the
Principle suggested—Authors likened to Cabmen—Brass Spoons—Tinned iron
ones—Tinning—Tin Plate—Andrew Yarranton—Wooden Spoons—Forks—Cutty
Spoons—Relish of Food—Spoons at Work—Dance of Death—End of the
World—The Last Spoon._

Of metallic spoons, those made of tin or its alloys were perhaps the first; but it is not to be supposed that proofs of this can be found in the material or mental relics of a former world. Such things were too easily defaced and too insignificant to be noticed or preserved, where others infinitely more durable and valuable have perished. Before describing _pewter_ spoons, a few references to the employment of this factitious metal in early times may gratify some readers. Its base is _tin_, a white and bright metal, lighter than iron and soft almost as lead. It is generally hardened by the addition of a little antimony, as silver is with copper; and there was no more reason to give a new name to the mixture in one case than in the other. The name of tin is not only withheld from articles formed of it, but given to others only washed with it. That fine material known in commerce as ‘tin plate’ is sheet iron coated with tin. The French distinguish it from untinned plate by the appropriate term ‘_fer blanc_,’ or white iron. Old English writers made a similar distinction.

From the facility of working tin, the low temperature at which it fuses, its ductility, brilliancy, and unquestionable employment in remote ages, we may safely infer that articles were made of it long before the refractory ores were reduced. That implements of iron preceded those of bronze is the uniform declaration of history; but bronze was itself an alloy of copper and tin. The latter is the natural solder of lead, for which it has probably been used ever since the heavier metal was wrought. Tin was among the spoils taken from the Midianites. Articles formed of it were to be melted down and recast; hence the antiquity of the pewterer’s art.

Whoever Vulcan was, or however remote the times in which he lived, he was a pewterer as well as a blacksmith and brass founder. Bucklers, greaves, and other defensive armor were in his time made of and adorned with _tin_. The herd of cattle and other raised work on the shield of Achilles were executed in this metal. The corslet of Agamemnon was composed of alternate bars or scales of gold, steel and tin. The central stud of his shield was encircled

‘With twice ten bosses of resplendent tin.’

In the form of wire tin was also used for binding different parts together; as the lining of Sarpedon’s shield was stitched with wires of gold. Defensive armor of so soft a material may excite the smile of modern soldiers, and induce incredulity in Homer’s statements, or an impression that he is misunderstood; but independent of the remarkable fact of the word used by him to designate tin being the same by which the metal is still known in the East, the material is still used for the very same purpose at this day. The Calmucks, we are told, when equipped for war often protect their persons ‘with armor made of scales of tin.’ Lapland women make ornaments of it to decorate their own and their husbands’ dresses. They produce beautiful wire for embroidery, &c., by drawing the metal through holes drilled in horns or bones of rein-deer; a practice probably dating from the age of Homer. The ‘shining canisters,’ in which bread was served to guests, often mentioned by the father of poets, were very likely the work of the pewterer. Frontlets, anklets, bracelets, and other personal ornaments of tin, still worn in the East, are of extreme antiquity. Pausanias mentions an antique tablet of tin connected with the Messenians.

When Ezekiel wrote, tin was a staple article of import at Tyre, and we have sufficient evidence that its consumption anciently must have been as great as at present. Whether the slabs piled on the docks and in the stores of Phenician merchants in the prophet’s days were drawn from India, Spain or Britain, is uncertain, but within two, if not one century of his death, the greatest navigators of old drew part of their supplies from Cornwall. It is pretty evident that English mines were wrought before iron was known on the island, for pickaxes of stag’s horns, hard wood, and flint, have been found embedded in ore, as well as wooden shovels and buckets; the latter without any kind of hoops. A plate of tin was disinterred in the time of Henry VIII. inscribed with unknown characters, supposed to have been Druidical precepts. In 1635, tablets with strange inscriptions were found, which Stukely ascribed to Britons of a remote age. Posidonius says the ancient Celtæ had pewter platters.

The pewterer’s art was extensively carried on in old Rome, and most articles current a century ago were made there. It would seem from Pliny, (xxx. 7.) that what he calls an ‘instrument of tin’ was the common pewter syringe. From Suetonius we infer that goblets, dishes, pitchers, cups, urns, and other utensils of gold and silver, dedicated to the gods, were imitated in pewter, as such things are now. Vitellius, he remarks, rifled the temples of their treasures, substituting articles of pewter and copper for those of silver and gold. The successor of Otho imitated in this respect another military ethnic, who, wanting money, took a golden robe from the statue of Jupiter, and replaced it with a woollen one, philosophically observing that the latter would keep the deity warmer in winter, and press lighter on his shoulders in summer.

In the dark ages the worship of heathen deities was transferred unaltered to christian saints. The Virgin received the same compliments that her half-pagan adorers previously paid to Diana; whose shrines, numerous as they were, never equaled those of her successor. As the precious metals were not so abundant after the fall of the Romans, tin offered a good and cheap substitute for one of them; and pewterers in Germany, Britain and Gaul, drove a brisker business in making portable idols than ever did Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen of Asia Minor.

The feudal contests of the old barons were a scourge to Europe for many ages. Declaring war against each other at will, arson, rapine and murder, stalked unchecked through the land. The Church launched her thunders in vain; she was unable to correct an evil which kings could not cure. At length a cunning carpenter, named _Durand_, conceived a plan (if indeed it was his own) which succeeded in France, and made the inventor’s fortune. He solemnly gave out that God appeared to him in Auvergne, and commanded him to proclaim an instant peace between all contending parties. For proof of his mission, he exhibited an image of the Virgin, which he had the impudence to say was left with him for that purpose by the Almighty. The astonished nobles accordingly assembled in the City Du Puy, and after listening to opinions of churchmen, hearing the asseverations of the bold artisan, and examining his celestial image, agreed to lay aside their animosities and swear on the holy evangelists to entertain love and peace for each other! As a proof of sincerity and faith in the revelation, they wore “an image of our lady in _pewter_” on their breasts—copies of the one in Durand’s possession, and most likely cast in the same mould—with capuches of white linen on their heads, which articles _the carpenter sold them_!

That son of Apollyon, Louis XI. constantly wore a madonna of lead or pewter in his hat, which he would take off and invoke when about to commit some horrible crime, so as to be sure of pardon beforehand. It is pleasant, says Mazeray, to notice his pranks when his own death drew near—sending all over Europe for relics of saints, to Rheims for the holy ampoule and oil, ordering processions and masses in his behalf, and not forgetting prayers that God would prevent certain winds, which incommoded him, from blowing! But there are people now-a-days who send up official requests to the Virgin for rain or fair weather.

In the Northumberland Household Book are allusions to pewter ware: “Item—to be payd to the saide Richard Gowge, and Thomas Percy for the bying of vj dossen rugh pewter vessels for servynge of my house for oone hole yere, after vj shillings the dossen.” ‘The groom of the squillery is to be careful after every meal to gather into his office the silver and pewter vessels, and before they goe to the scowring or washing certainly to number them.’ [_Brathwait._] In the United States the communion service plate is as often the work of the pewterer as of the silversmith. It was so in the primitive church. Among the relics preserved in St. Lateran’s at Rome, are a wooden altar and a pewter chalice—both said to have been used by St. Peter. Coffins were formerly made of pewter: see accounts of several in Nugent’s travels. Block tin or pewter worms for distilling are ancient. Alchymists used them and denounced leaden ones. Van Sleb mentions pewter mortars in Egypt. Mexican pewterers, like other mechanics, exhibited their goods for sale in the great market. Cortez who mentions this fact in a letter to Charles V. does not particularize the articles. Anklets, bracelets, and other ornaments of tin, have been worn by Negroes, Arabs and others, from time immemorial.

The process of making pewter goods differs from that of working most metals. Articles are formed complete, or nearly so, by running the fused material into clay, brass or other moulds. A spoon, for example, is cast in a moment, whereas a gold or silver one has to be forged into shape. The importance in which pewter was anciently held in England appears from the laws made to preserve its purity, and reputation abroad. As spoons are enumerated we shall notice some of the enactments. Previous to the reign of Henry VII. all articles were to be compared with standard metal and stamped; but the law had been disregarded, since he issued a fresh edict, forbidding under certain penalties any pewter or brass article to be sold without the maker’s name and the assay officer’s mark. In the time of Richard II. the pewterers complained of their business being injured by pedlars and tinkers going round the country and recasting worn out articles, but which they mixed with lead, “so as to be not worth the fourth part sold for.” These pedestrian gentlemen were charged with stealing and encouraging others to steal old brass and pewter, and selling them to go out of the country; thus letting foreigners into the secrets of the trades. They also robbed the people whom they dealt with by using false weights and beams. One of the latter, says the statute, “will stand even with twelve pounds weight at one end, against a quarter of a pound at the other end, to the singular advantage of themselves.” (!) This equals the morality of our old Dutch traders, who, in buying furs by weight from their Indian brethren, are said to have put their left hand into the scale for one pound, and their right foot for two.

The act of Richard was renewed by Henry VIII. with severer penalties, and new sections added. _Spoons_, as well as more important articles, were required to be of standard workmanship and assay—all below them were forfeited. No foreigner was to be taken as an apprentice, or in any way to learn the trade, lest going abroad the art should go also.