Sweet find...that's about $2.60 a pound too....real good deal
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Sweet find...that's about $2.60 a pound too....real good deal
Picked up this piece today. Is the black handle plastic? Anybody know. It is marked on the bottom "Oneida Heirloom Pewter". Paid six bucks for it. I think the wife wants to keep it.Attachment 224314
That's why I dent my stuff up on the way home.lol
But seriously, I always check the value before I melt. If it's valuable I'll hold onto it and resell it to put towards future pewter funds. If you check a few posts back I sold a 2 lb beer stein that I bought for $4.90 and resold for $80 a few weeks later. Glad I didn't smelt it.
Found this tonight at Goodwill. It wasn’t 50% off so I almost put it back... before looking it up on my phone first. I don’t know if they’re actually selling for this price, and I’m sure mine is beat up a little more than those being sold, but on EBay and Etsy, etc, it seems to sell for around $100! The ones i find are numbered (engraved) on the back, and this one is blank. I’m guessing that’s bad for value, but who knows.
Either way, if it’s worthless, it was still an okay buy $5 for 24 ounces of pewter. -Brad
Attachment 225027
Attachment 225028
Since they're moving mfg. offshore a disgruntled owner probably ditched it. You may be able to sell it on ebay to a foreign rider for $$$.
A little over $3/lb is a good price.
The thin un-marked Napkin rings are going in the melt.
The Napkin Ring with the base is marked "Quadruple Plate Hard White Metal". Seems to be plated pewter.
pete501,
I hope your napkin rings turn out to be the good stuff. You may want to read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_metal
I have found a decent deal on what I believe is pewter, but is marked as Suisses possibly 3 Suisses on the bottom rim. The bottom is marked with a Circle and a P and some dots. It says toxic for food, Ungeeignet Fur Gebrauch and ne pas mettre au contact d'aliment on the very bottom. Only reference I have found is an ebay ad that says its rare pewter.
Any advice on this maker. Would like to buy
Attachment 225201
Part of Tuesday's find:Attachment 225939Attachment 225940Attachment 225941
I've never seen a pewter rimmed bowl like this before, checked on fleabay before whacking with the hammer, they are out there and going for not much money--so the big hammer it was! 2 lbs. 7 oz for a buck is pretty good.
Attachment 225942
Tuesday's complete find, an exceptional day. ~ 9 lbs. for less that $10.
Got to go traveling more often.
That's a really good haul. I had to pass on a bunch of the ceramic/pewter bowls and platters because of cost. I have been able to purchase a few. Good stuff. I found a few with a formica and glass center and rimmed with pewter. A large stack was from a local pizza joint that served drinks with them.
Keep up the hunt.
I've seen wooden platters with pewter rims, and pewter mugs with wooden bases. The first were mostly wood and I couldn't weigh or guesstimate the weight of metal. The mugs were Southeast Asian pewter with relatively small glued on wooden disks as bases that I did buy at a good price for the size of the metal part of the mug. From later researching I found that just about all types of wood are no more dense than water, and measurement of the bases for the volume of wood showed the calculated weight to be trivial compared to the pewter. I'm still not sure about the platters, though.
I've also seen those fancy ceramic beer steins with pewter lids, but the amount of metal is small compared for the price, and the steins looked too nice/collectible to take apart for just the lids, even if they were cheap.
I got a couple pieces of Italian "pewter" laying in the yard that ain't. If you see writing CAST on the surface then most times it's not pewter or anything that we can use. About all pewter markings or touchmarks are stamped or scribed into the surface. This rule isn't 100% but if you see it you need to look very close. If it has a large smooth surface area and doesn't have dents from banging against other stuff or bend with mild hand pressure then I would pass.
A couple examples of cast pewter with different touch marks.
Attachment 226399Attachment 226402
This first is a vase that is marked in Swedish "gjutet tenn" which means "cast pewter/tin". Heavy, fairly thick and hard. The surface is textured as though it is "as cast".
Attachment 226400Attachment 226401
The second is US made. The touch mark is for Hampshire Pewter, whose website states that they use a lead free form of "Queen's Metal", which Wikipedia describes as an alloy of nine parts tin to one each lead, antimony and bismuth (that's 75.0 and 8.3% each respectively) in the original formula that was for the British Royal family only, and is described as between pewter and Brittania metal in hardness. My piece is harder than typical pewter, but does scratch with a brass key, doesn't bend to hand pressure, and actually rings when tapped. Also heavy, and has a smooth, turned finish, though cast in one piece per the manufacturer. I emailed the company asking for the exact composition, but haven't gotten a reply.
ETA: per the Hampshire Pewter Company, their alloy has about 2% Cu, about 1% Bi and 3 to 4% Sb, the balance being Sn. So, really, not at all like the old queen's metal and more like modern pewter.
Are these real pewter? Only thing on the one I have is Americana Art China Co. Sebring OH and 2157
Got some miniature molds and have been on the hunt for pewter.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Bi...MAAOSw37BaW6cd
Unless it says "pewter" I don't mess with it. Found out the hard way after buying things looking like pewter!
I have one I got from the neighbor about 5 years. Everywhere I can find them, they all say pewter. But being my first time needing pewter I want to get it right.