Sweated Labour

Moreover, it is stated that the good folk of the craft have agreed that no one shall be so daring as to work at night upon articles of pewter, seeing that they have regard among themselves to the fact that the sight is not so profitable by night; also that no one of the said craft, great or small, shall be so daring as to receive any workman . . . if he have not been an apprentice, or if he be not a good workman . . . and can show that well and truly he has served his master for the time assigned between them."

Even more to be dreaded than the punishments inflicted on defaulting members of the craft were those dealt out to " deceivable hawkers . . . who, provided with false beams and scales, go about from village to village, from town to town, and from house to house ... to buy pewter and brass,, and that knowing thieves and other pickers that steal as well pewter and brass . . . bring stolen vessels to them ... to sell, and sell it for little or nought."

Dishonest Traders

Such dishonest traders as these were, when convicted, to lose their beam and stock of goods, as well as to pay 20s. fine; or, if they could not produce the money, to be set in the stocks, there to remain until the next market day was over.

In certain old records the second quality of pewter is sometimes spoken of as made up of tin and peak in the proportion of 112 lb. to 26 lb.; but exactly what is meant by peak is not known, though Mr. Masse, in his admirable handbook, hazards the suggestion charters were granted in 1201 to the Stannaries, or tin-mines of Cornwall and Devon, by King John. The first known reference to a London company of pewterers is found in a petition, dated 1348, from its members to the mayor and aldermen of the City, that resulted in the issue of the ordinances quoted from above, that are supposed to have been to some extent founded on those already in force in France. These will be referred to again in an article on foreign pewter, which will appear in a later part of Every Woman's Encyclopaedia.

A Royal Charter

In 1473 the already long-established Pewterers' Guild received its first charter from Edward IV., that, in addition to confirming the privileges already enjoyed by it, gave to it the right of searching premises occupied by workers in pewter. Long before this Royal accolade was bestowed on the pewterers, however, they had been under the protection of a yet higher power; for they were, in fact, a religious as well as a commercial community. This is proved by allusions to them in certain early fifteenth-century inventories " as the brethered of that peak was lead from the Peak district of Derbyshire. Whether this be so or not, lead of some kind must certainly be meant, the ordinances being quite clear on the point that second-class pewter was to be made only of that material and tin.

Old English Pewter Salt-cellar Old English Pewter Pen-box Old English Pewter Salt-cellar Simplicity of design and appropriateness to the use for which it was intended, were the chief characteristics of old pewter

Inferior varieties of ware that could not be legally called pewter, but were often fraudulently passed off as such, were that called Trifle, which contained a very large proportion of lead and was much used for making mugs and tankards, and the still more unequally mixed Ley, Lea, or Lay metal, the name given to ware which, when assayed, was found below the lowest standard. This the master and wardens of the company had the privilege of buying at a low price, and it was their usual custom to brand it with a broad arrow, and send it to be melted down and recast, with the addition of the necessary amount of lead; but some few pieces bearing the fatal brand have been reserved, and are now, by a strange irony of fate, highly valued on account of their undoubted antiquity.

The exact date of the foundation of the London Pewterers' Guild is uncertain, but

Our Lady thassumpcon (of the Assumption) of Pewterere Craft," and as the " corporacon of the same brethirhode and crafte of pewterars within the City of London under the Kynges Seal and the common seal of the same . . . with the ymage of ]thassumpcon of Our Blessed Lady gravyn theryn of sylver."

Religious Nature of the Guild

This patronage of the Blessed Virgin is reflected in the pots of lilies introduced in the border of the arms granted by the king, and it may be added that the freemen, or yeomanry, of the company had a society of their own under the protection of the archangel St. Michael.

There was, however, no hostility to the masters implied by this formation of a guild within a guild, for all were inspired by a common ambition to produce work worthy of past traditions; and such a thing as a strike amongst those employed in the trade was a practical impossibility. To be continued.

The pictures with which this article is illustrated are all reproductions of specimens in the collection of the writer.