Pewter pictures and hallmarks...

[pdragon]

Got burned this weekend. We were out of town and hit some garage sales,saw some candle holders that had a sticker that said "pewter made in India". Was in a hurry gave $3 for two lbs of some kind of pot metal. Then got a hallmarked candle holder for $1.35 that the wife fell in love with but she promised to find me some pewter to replace it. The search goes on.

[imashooter2]

I have never seen genuine pewter from India.

[konsole]

Yesterday I picked up the pewter figurines. They where made by a company called "Unique Creations Ltd." in Taunton, MA. Its a whole mess of stuff. The guy I bought it from said the owner of Unique Creations had passed away and so this guy got it an auction or a cleanout or something like that. The guy I bought it all from said this pewter company had its hay day back in the 60's. It certainly hasnt been in business for a while because the figurine price guide looks quite aged, the bags some of the figurines where in where in rough shape, and there was just an accumulated dust on all the stuff.

If my calculations are correct I estimate around 160-lbs in figurines, about 2/3 are stamped pewter, and most of the rest certainly has a pewter look to them. The figurines are anywhere from maybe 1 to 5-oz and 1/4" to 2" in height. My guess would be somewhere around 1,000 figurines give or take 100 or 200.

Now the question is what to do with them all. 160-lb of pewter figurines is $1,600 in alloy (providing they are lead free), which is way more then I paid for them. I certainly have no desire to sell them off individually or in small lots. Selling a batch of maybe 50 together would be ok I guess, but I'm not sure I want to get involved with picky collectors that cant see exactly what they are buying and then end up wanting to return it. Selling it all together to a pewter collector would work, but where would I even start to see who wants a large collection of pewter figurines? Another option would be to sell it to boolit casters in like 10 or 20 pound lots, but would casters prefer the figurines unmelted, or melted into ingots? Obviously if I sell it as scrap pewter to boolit casters then any chance of collector value is certainly gone.

[mold maker]

Making a profit above metal price, is a lot of personal work.
If your not willing to check out each piece, just lump together flat rate boxes, and sell at your price per lb. Let the buyer have the pleasure of the research.

[imashooter2]

Selling it all together to a pewter collector would work, but where would I even start to see who wants a large collection of pewter figurines?

And therein lies the problem with "collectables." Yeah it's worth $500K, but only of you can find the guy willing to pay the coin.

Another option would be to sell it to boolit casters in like 10 or 20 pound lots, but would casters prefer the figurines unmelted, or melted into ingots? Obviously if I sell it as scrap pewter to boolit casters then any chance of collector value is certainly gone.

I know a guy that has made a buck or two selling scrap pewter.

His customers generally like small ingots and pictures that give them some idea of what they are buying.

[62chevy]

I know a guy that has made a buck or two selling scrap pewter.

Gee I wonder who that could be???

[Mitch]

I have been looking for pewter for some time now i finaly scored 2 mugs of english pewter with glass bottoms.they were at the thrift store for .55 cents each.they weigh in at 1lb 4 oz with the glass still in.i was happy to finaly find some.just might be the start of something here lol.

[imashooter2]

Welcome to the game Mitch!

[Debo]

Pardon me for not reading all the posts, but I have a small collection of pewter items. What's the process for melting them? Straight melt into ingots or is any fluxing needed?

[Mitch]

It is all a fun game looking for all the right stuff and man is there a lot of stuff needed lol.one needs to be retired to play well.the 2 mugs i found are like the ones in the first post of this thread.i am going to wait to melt when i have more and need tin right now i am good on tin.it seems there is not much pewter aroud this area but who knows know that i have finaly broken the ice.

[imashooter2]

Pardon me for not reading all the posts, but I have a small collection of pewter items. What's the process for melting them? Straight melt into ingots or is any fluxing needed?

I melt my pewter in a 10 pound electric furnace and flux by stirring with a wooden paint stirrer before casting small ~2 ounce ingots. That said, several folks here just weigh their items and add them straight into their casting alloy.

[DonMerlin]

I melt my pewter in a 10 pound electric furnace and flux by stirring with a wooden paint stirrer before casting small ~2 ounce ingots. That said, several folks here just weigh their items and add them straight into their casting alloy.

+1 I weight my alloy pucks and stamp the mix and weight in grams on them. All of my pewter pieces are weighed and the weight in grams written on them with a sharpie. Using grams makes the math easier when I want to figure how much pewter to add.

[DonMerlin]

Today's finds. The tankard is 1058 grams. $2.50

[Yodogsandman]

Yea! I finally found my first hallmarked pewter at a yard sale! A water pitcher that weighed 1.61 lbs for $4! BTW, also found some 1 lb rolls of 50/50 solder for $1 each. Only bought one because the rest were for caming stained glass and I worried about zinc.

[imashooter2]

If the solder was on commercial rolls and marked 50/50 then there was no danger of zinc at all.

Nice score on the pitcher.

[imashooter2]

Said it before and I'll say it again... Love those large trays and plates! This one is 12.5 inches and weighs 2 pounds 7.2 ounces. Plus it's got a neat Eyetalian hallmark.

[mold maker]

I cast mine in a mold meant for 45-70 boolits. Makes it easy to add small amounts to alloy, and
is easy to ID.

[DonMerlin]

Paid to much for this one, but I think the over all cost averages out. 380 grams $6

[imashooter2]

Thanks for the new hallmark! You're still way under the price of virgin solder or tin.

[DonMerlin]

Went to look at a China hutch with the wife today. They agreed on a price about the time I saw these 4 chargers. I said how about adding these in on the deal. The guy said, " sure I can do that." A bit over 4 thousand grams!