Pewter pot score!

[Tripplebeards]

I picked this up for $4 yesterday. It weighs 1 lb 12oz and says genuine pewter on the bottom. There was a vase sitting next to it almost as large for $2.50. I knew it was pewter but it didn’t say pewter so I passed on it. It had two little flowers stamped on the bottom and was dented and tarnished up like my pot. So I would assume there’s lead in this? How and why did people use these for drinking out of with lead content???

[Winger Ed.]

Cool.

I don't think anybody drinks out of them any more.
It's like Grandma's fine set of china.
Its for looking at, not using.

[rancher1913]

if it says pewter there should be no lead in it, just tin.

[Tripplebeards]

if it says pewter there should be no lead in it, just tin.

Pewter is never 100% tin so what is the other 4 to 6 percent of mystery alloy in pewter? I was told the older pewter items that are darker in color like my duck figures contain quite a bit of leads down a lot less pewter.

[redhawk0]

Early pewter contained lead....newer pewter has tin, bismouth, silver, antimony, and copper traces.

[NyFirefighter357]

Early pewter contained lead....newer pewter has tin, bismouth, silver, antimony, and copper traces.

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[Cast_outlaw]

That’s a nice score I’ve been looking lately but coming up empty handed guess I’ll keep looking

[kevin c]

Some types of very old pewter (pre twentieth century) may have been a lead/tin alloy, but modern pewter for food service has none.

If it is stamped "pewter" in English, it's modern (the old stuff had pewterers' touch marks, but wasn't labeled in English for export to the international market like the new stuff is). If it's designed for holding food or drink it should be lead free. And if it's both, then the chance that it has lead in it is pretty doggone small.

I understand some modern pewter gets a bath to chemically darken it so it looks like the really old stuff with age related "tarnish" and/or lead alloy coloration. It's still likely to be lead free.

ETA: that's a good score at a very good price (under $2.30 a pound). Pretty soon you'll be experienced enough in ID'ing unlabeled pewter that you'll be buying those items in confidence (though some, I will admit, prefer to stick to the labeled stuff to avoid any chance to contaminating their hard won stash with something nasty like zinc).

[Tripplebeards]

Some types of very old pewter (pre twentieth century) may have been a lead/tin alloy, but modern pewter for food service has none.

If it is stamped "pewter" in English, it's modern (the old stuff had pewterers' touch marks, but wasn't labeled in English for export to the international market like the new stuff is). If it's designed for holding food or drink it should be lead free. And if it's both, then the chance that it has lead in it is pretty doggone small.

I understand some modern pewter gets a bath to chemically darken it so it looks like the really old stuff with age related "tarnish" and/or lead alloy coloration. It's still likely to be lead free.

ETA: that's a good score at a very good price (under $2.30 a pound). Pretty soon you'll be experienced enough in ID'ing unlabeled pewter that you'll be buying those items in confidence (though some, I will admit, prefer to stick to the labeled stuff to avoid any chance to contaminating their hard won stash with something nasty like zinc).

Yeah, I passed on the vase since I really didn’t need this pot to begin with and it wasn’t as great of a deal as some of my scores. I can literally fill a half pickup truck load full of my pewter thrift store findings over the last couple years of scrounging. This pot looked big and interesting so I grabbed it up. I think the only heavier, one item weighted pewter I’ve found was a modern plate with with time company name etched on it that was 2.2lbs I found for $1.99.

[lightman]

I envy you guys that can find pewter. Its about non-existent around here except for some at antique prices.

[Markopolo]

I would drink out of it... prolly healthy compared to my old drinking bag... Unless it leaks of course..

[kevin c]

Tripplebeards, what markings are on those ducks of yours, and do they have brass accents? The ones I've seen are Asian (Chinese I think) and are dark, soft and easily dented or scratched, are quite heavy for the size, and don't have a pewter stamp. I've never bought one, but did have a Hong Kong vase made of what looked like the same material analyzed. It was mostly lead, with tin and antimony in single digit percentages: a good boolit alloy as is, but not pewter with the high tin composition we expect from European or American production.

ETA: as lightman says, you're lucky to live where second hand pewter is not hard to find and not hard on the wallet. I can find it out my way, but it takes considerable effort and costs more; I consider it reasonable at around $4 a pound and a bargain under $3 a pound, and that's less than half the time when I find it, and I find it only on every third or fourth trip. It's a good thing I enjoy the hunt, and that I'm looking at other items at the thrifts and estate sales like books and tools so that the time is not a complete waste if I come up empty on the casting metals.

[RogerDat]

I sometimes pick up the soft stuff I know is probably pewter but I can't find that written out. One the marks or designs may allow me to track it down as pewter using Google-Fu. Two I often find pewter stamped in some obscure location with a magnifying glass at home. Three if it melts like pewter when hit with a propane torch or a small piece dipped into melted solder I can always toss it into the scrap solder pot when I melt that stuff down. I do scrap solder in batches of several pounds when I do them. I then send sample in for testing so I can find out the tin content. Sometimes that unknown stuff has kicked the solder tin percentage up a good amount, along with adding some other nice alloys.

Can't find pewter on it before purchase I just have to go on what I can tell. Soft, flexible, color, weight, soldered attachments etc. Small purchase = small risk. I have gotten burned once or twice but not often enough to offset the deals.

I think pre-1970 is when one can find lead in pewter items. Really old stuff will turn almost black if it has lead in it. Tin it seems tends to be more gray. Of course some of the black tarnished items might well be a good deal older than the gray tarnished items too.

[Tripplebeards]

Tripplebeards, what markings are on those ducks of yours, and do they have brass accents? The ones I've seen are Asian (Chinese I think) and are dark, soft and easily dented or scratched, are quite heavy for the size, and don't have a pewter stamp. I've never bought one, but did have a Hong Kong vase made of what looked like the same material analyzed. It was mostly lead, with tin and antimony in single digit percentages: a good boolit alloy as is, but not pewter with the high tin composition we expect from European or American production.

ETA: as lightman says, you're lucky to live where second hand pewter is not hard to find and not hard on the wallet. I can find it out my way, but it takes considerable effort and costs more; I consider it reasonable at around $4 a pound and a bargain under $3 a pound, and that's less than half the time when I find it, and I find it only on every third or fourth trip. It's a good thing I enjoy the hunt, and that I'm looking at other items at the thrifts and estate sales like books and tools so that the time is not a complete waste if I come up empty on the casting metals.

I bought them a few years ago and don’t remember if they have any stampings on them or not. Found them on my first pewter hunt. Probably don’t have any stamping on them if I had to guess. Paid .99 cents for one and around $4 for the other one. They do have brass inserts.

[daloper]

I stopped in yesterday and checked for pewter at a local thrift store. Found 5 pieces and price was good. As I am checking out the clerk asked if it was pewter and I replied that yes it was. She asked if I collect it and I said no not really. She asked why I buy it then so I told her I melt it down for the tin. She gave me a funny look and asked why. I told her it sweetens my lead when casting boolets. My wife just smiled at her.

[RogerDat]

I stopped in yesterday and checked for pewter at a local thrift store. Found 5 pieces and price was good. As I am checking out the clerk asked if it was pewter and I replied that yes it was. She asked if I collect it and I said no not really. She asked why I buy it then so I told her I melt it down for the tin. She gave me a funny look and asked why. I told her it sweetens my lead when casting boolets. My wife just smiled at her.

Some shops can be funny about us making a puddle out of those "nice" pewter items. I don't mention it at stores. Some really battered pieces I have responded to being asked if I can "fix" that up that no but "I can melt it down and recast it into something else".

When scrounging lead I tell them I'm making bullets, shot and the occasional fishing weight. Don't want a source to feel like they are being deceived down the line. They view that lead as "scrap" Nice lady at the thrift shop? She doesn't think of that pewter as scrap. Once approved for puddle making by the wife it's all scrap to me.

Well except for the beer mug with the whistle in the handle. Way too cool to melt. And the bean dish I keep pocket stuff in. And... ok some pewter hangs around because I like it. Same with some really cool examples of historical uses of lead or solder. Couple of plates from the early 1800's black as coal from the tarnish not worth a pile of cash (maybe $50) but I figure they survived over 100 years I'm not going to be the one that scraps it.

I do check online for market value when I find something different or unusual. Been a few times selling it wholesale to an antique vendor was worth enough more than the tin so I sold it there. I'm not short on tin so sometimes pewter can become cash for powder, primers, or brass. Could have gotten even more selling it retail on eBay but didn't want the hassle.

[RogerDat]

I do love big pieces such as the OP's pot. Pewter varies as to content and a big heavy piece or two helps make the batch consistent. Plus it fits in my pot better. Plates and platters are a PITA to get in the smaller pot on hot plate.

[daloper]

It was my wife that came to me at the Thrift Store to tell me about the pewter that they had. She really looks after me.

[kevin c]

It was my wife that came to me at the Thrift Store to tell me about the pewter that they had. She really looks after me.

You have quite the wife! Some of us are as lucky, though occasionally some pieces get "diverted" from the stash. The price of approval, I guess.

When asked about the pewter I buy, I sometimes say, "Oh, I have a big collection", and leave it at that. The purpose and fate of that collection I leave to the seller's imagination. Other times I say I'm thinking of getting into casting and that the pewter is one of the base materials, mentioning chess sets, jewelry and figurines as examples. The latter is sort of a negotiating approach on beat up pewter, pointing out that I'm looking for scrap as raw material and don't want to spend much. If the seller isn't unreasonably vested in the piece(s) in question and doesn't think there'll be a sale otherwise (say, at the end of the last day of an estate sale) it sometimes works.

[kevin c]

I do love big pieces such as the OP's pot. Pewter varies as to content and a big heavy piece or two helps make the batch consistent. Plus it fits in my pot better. Plates and platters are a PITA to get in the smaller pot on hot plate.

Roger dat, RogerDat (you have no idea how long I've been waiting to say that ). I have six 3# plates and several serving platters that I may need to cut up in order to melt down.