This "thing" is 9" tall, weighs 10 lbs, and is solid pewter. I paid $40. Is it too valuable to melt down? The more I look at it, the more it grows on me.Attachment 271438
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This "thing" is 9" tall, weighs 10 lbs, and is solid pewter. I paid $40. Is it too valuable to melt down? The more I look at it, the more it grows on me.Attachment 271438
yeah, I wouldn't melt it. You can always find other pewter items. It probably worth a lot more money.
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I sell reclaimed pewter for $8/lb. plus shipping. If you get over $80 for it you come out ahead.
I'd set it someplace to look at, and save it for a last resort situation to melt it down.
melt it already. Softies. :grin:
Doesn’t do anything for me, but art is in the eye of the beholder. Enjoy it. Melt it when the appeal fades.
A nice piece of art. Do not melt it! There are other finer things in life than casting bollits!!!!!!
Would something like that be solid? Seems a lot of candle sticks and such are filled with something and there's not nearly as much tin as you think and you get a stinking mess when you melt it.
I'd just keep it, you can always melt it down later.
Looks like a fantasy figure, so probably modern construction and maybe not great dollar value unless there's a collectors market?
Richhodg66 raises an interesting question. I think pewter candlesticks are weighted with something much cheaper than pewter to make them stable. Is that figurine's base wide all around? Can you see into the bottom? I once drilled into a thick piece of pewter to determine that it was hollow cast; could you do the same to the bottom of the piece?
One thing I've read is that modern non food service pewter can differ in tin content than that used in mugs and teas services, and can even contain some lead.
Or if you like it, then just keep and enjoy!
This is a view from the underside. Attachment 271445
Pretty sure its solid pewter.
Attachment 271446
Yes I have seen the type of candlesticks you speak of. I wont buy any more of those.
Nice conversation piece for your reloading area. She would look good in a flower garden too.
How old is it?
Silly me...i fprgot to a! That important part. Inscribed is '1990 737/1500 and a name I cant quite make out...Mickal Rikoy? maybe.
Melt it .
you never know what some collector might pay for whatever they perceive as art.
ive got this antique pewter candle stick holder holds 5 candles, that's like something you see in old movies weighs at least 6 or 7 pounds. I'll melt out down last when I'm out of other stores of tin and I'm sure that some antique collector isn't willing to pay $15/lb or more for it.
I have a really hard time smashing and melting most of the pewter I have. If it’s damaged, no problem, but there is stuff that was given to me, that I don’t care for, but it’s still difficult to destroy. So far I’ve always had enough tin. Now the wife is cleaning out the barn and says it’s time to get rid of most of it. I guess it’s time to fire up the big propane burner and say goodbye to it and hello ingots.
I'd do an internet search of the info on it before I'd melt it. I'd say it was a piece made in 1990, and limited edition of 1500 pieces,, with this one being # 737.
As noted,, it may be a fantasy character piece,, that a collector may pay dearly to own. (Think of what some of the Star war toys sell for from the early years.) A little time invested may yield a better value than scrap pewter. If not,, THEN melt & use!
She would help guide many bullets to target.......
That looks like one of the goofy statues you can buy in Wisconsin dells. They have Wizards and dragons with emeralds and rubies all over them. I bet you it’s more lead than tin if you test it...if it even is pewter. I would have never bought it because it’s not marked pewter. Reminds me of the old “pewter” ducks “not marked pewter” I have with the gold inscribing on them I got for $1 and $4 dollars that weigh a couple pounds each. I’d melt it for $40...if it is pewter. If it was really pewter you could double your money if melted it down into ignots which is more then imo you would sell it for the way it is. It’s worth a try to Google it on eBay. People sell everything on there. It will then will give you an idea what it is or is not worth. I would not have bought it since it did not say pewter. I stick to dinnerware items since most are mainly tin and no lead.
I have a big box of pewter stuff I have procured over the years at thrift shops, most of it is mugs somebody got for a retirement gift or something I'd have no problems melting, but if it looks like a nice piece, I'm holding onto it. I found a mid 19th century hot water plate with maybe a pound of pewter for a dollar and ahalf once, looked at a very similar on a pewter collector website they were asking $250 for.
I have a steady source of pure tine for free at the moment, it'll be a while before I need to melt anymore of the pewter I have but plain candy dishes or mugs with the clear bottoms show up in thrift stores all the time, no need to melt something nice.
I have a pewter plate from the 1750s I got for six bucks at the Salvation Army. They were losted for $400 on eBay. I tried mine on there for $298.00 and dropped it all the way down to 30 bucks and still no takers so I just took it off and put it up. I also have an old pewter flask with no markings on it.I found picture of one said it appraised for $38,000 I got for six bucks to. I’d like to take it to the old antiques rodeo show. I’m sure with no markings it’s not worth anything.
Tripplebeards, that is exactly what I thought when I 1st saw it. In fact I did walk away. Then I went back the next day and bought it. The texture and look of it just seemed to say pewter and I just could not resist the temptation. SHE HAD ME UNDER HER SPELL.
IF it looks interesting to you, save it for the last resort.
I have a shelf of mugs, plates, etc :)
I have plenty of 60/40, 50/50, and pewter .5oz. boolits so my collection grows
You must be very careful when randomly melting down pewter items you fine in junk stores. While in Germany recently, I was in a shop that had one-of-a-kind lost wax investment cast figurines that were in the many MANY hundreds of $$....all well marked with the artist's info. Other stuff you find is usually carp. I look for modern food service stuff all the time but rarely ever find any. What I usually find, my wife grabs for her antique collection. Many candle sticks & plates hallmarked from the 1700 & 1800's. Never to be melted down for boolits!!!!!!!!
I get all my Sn form the scrap yards.
Makes me think fondly of a certain Leg lamp....
They seem to be listed on eBay for around 125$. Whether they actually sell, who knows:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1991-Michae...-/292620297280
I bow to your superior Google Fu, NikA!
You're right, though: what's asked for isn't always close to what it sells for.
ETA:
The artist filed for bankruptcy 15 years ago and has passed away since. From what I can read and what I see in this and other pieces, his pewter work was a cut above the average. That and the fact that he's gone may mean his surviving work may not have depreciated as much as the more run of the mill stuff, but as the eBay asking prices show, we're talking maybe about one or two C notes, not four figures or more.
If you like it as source metal or for its aesthetics, the OP got a bargain either way.
The only way to know the value of something, is when someone has bought it. It’s crazy what people sometimes ask for stuff on EBay. Especially when right next to it there’s the same thing for 1/10 the price.
I say to stand it on the coffee table until the novelty wears off, then melt it. You will have enjoyed it to it's fullest then. It's nice to have something that you can restore to its full value to you again after a time, by just converting the purpose of it.
It hasn't sold since that ebay item went up for sale on "Jan 23, 2020 10:45:42 PST" or before,
and that's 10 months ago. If it was going to be snatched up as a RARE COLLECTORS ITEM it would have sold by now.
It also looks like no one has made a reasonable offer for it, since there is a "make offer" button and again its not sold yet.
If I had a dollar for every pewter item that people said "don't melt it! its a valuable RARE COLLECTORS ITEM! Sell it on ebay for a fortune!"
I could buy a pallet of Rotometals superhard.
I would like to see every person who says "don't melt it, sell it on ebay for a fortune!"
actually buy said item from the current item's owner for the aforementioned small fortune.
I can see the back pedaling now, like looney tunes :)
Well, most everybody didn't say "Don't melt it!" they said look into what it is before you do, and it looks like he now knows what he needs to know to make a decision about it. Chances are, his life doesn't depend on his casting bullets with it right this minute. No need to be a jerk.
If it were mine, I think I'd put it on a shelf above my reloading bench and she'd be the patron saint of cast bullets for me.
As a few of you have mentioned, i think i will set it on the coffe table or reloading room and admire her till i get tired of her then send her on her way to the silver stream to make me happy all over again.
Sounds like you'll be having your cake and eating it, too.
Just, wow.
Please accept my humble apologies.
I'm sorry I hurt your feelings.