Pewter pictures and hallmarks...

[imashooter2]

Just finished reading the whole doggone thread. What a slog!

But, I feel much more educated now about what I'm looking at. We'll see if that translates into anything in the yard sales.

Lol! When Comcast took away my free personal page I had to go buy hosting elsewhere. What a chore editing every post for picture links.

[oley55]

I picked up this picture frame today at GW, but from the outset it just seemed too stiff. I can cut a sliver with a knife but as it curls up it sorta cracks. It doesn't bend as easily as I've come to expect and instead of folding it breaks in two, but it certainly has the weight of pewter. Thoughts from the experts??

[imashooter2]

Probably real. I’d break off a small piece and try to melt it in known alloy held just at liquidus.

[Land Owner]

Good day yesterday, and was excited until I got home. Got these finds of a pewter vase 5.35 pounds (one piece 14.5" tall, 8" wide, 95% pure) and two pewter sconces 1.25 pounds each without the glass or candle for a total of $35 and 7.6 pounds ($4.60/pound). My spouse said "No". She wouldn't let me melt them when I got them home. Not my best price per pound (~$1), but reasonable. These would have "spiced" to 2.0% tin a total of 380 pounds of pure lead. Still, they're in the house - "just in case".

[Conditor22]

Married men need to run over their pewter so it packs easier before they take it home.

OK I'll fess up, I do have a collection of nicer pewter pieces in my china cabinet.

I picked up a large (almost 2#) pitcher the other day for $7 (it has a dent on the backside)

[imashooter2]

-snip-
My spouse said "No". She wouldn't let me melt them when I got them home.
-snip-

For some reason, I find the nicer Pewter pieces to be very slippery... I almost always drop it on the way to the car.

[Land Owner]

Happy wife - happy life. Casting continues and I will have something to do when my sister and BIL visit us again to go "antique" shopping. I have a sufficiency of tin, at 2%, for about 400 pounds of WW-Pb alloy right now. That'll make about 56,000 x 50 gr. x 223 Bator boolits, though I don't have that many primers. So a mix of 38 Spc./357 Mag, 45 ACP/Colt, and 380 ACP are expected in that lot. I'll find more pewter. Next time I'll be better prepared and it'll get dropped, dinged, or "accidentally" flattened, though I have to admit, I cannot seem to bring myself to melt these three goblets, each 17.75 ounces of pewter, and each as equally ugly as the next. Lord, give me strength...

[kevin c]

If those ammo cans get filled with pewter ingots, I MIGHT be able to lift one. Lead alloy? No way...

[Land Owner]

Each ingot of alloy was weighed and the weight written on the ingot. The sum of the ingot weights in a single ammo can (up to 20 ingots) did not exceed 58 pounds - so about 3 pounds per ingot. At the time the 58 pound limit (approaching 20 psi - and that's a lot) was all I could tolerate carrying, one handed, by the can's 3/4" steel band handle. Fifty (50) pounds is better. As I age, forty (40) pounds is best. I have a lot of "58 pound" cans, one partial (till depleted) can, and quite a few (now) empty cans, so balancing the load between cans is done when I move a can.

To the above ingots, there is also the continuing resupply mission. As I locate and melt additional wheel weights, 50 pounds of WW's to 50 pounds of pure lead, I add to the WW melt from one of seven (7) remaining cans, each containing 50 pounds of nuclear containment pure lead shielding. I will be shooting cast lead alloy for a LONG-Long time.

[jsizemore]

For some reason, I find the nicer Pewter pieces to be very slippery... I almost always drop it on the way to the car.

Mine fall under my hammer repeatedly.

[pete501]

I bought these Seven 12 -1/2 inch Chargers at a Senior Resident Community Thrift Shop Sale

The price was so cheap it felt almost like I was stealing.

The lady ringing me up knows what I do with Pewter.. Her bio includes being a competitive shooter, now a resident of the Retirement Community.

Over 32 pounds for $5.

Hallmark looks like a Fancy F or FV, 3 Crowns.

The alloy is kind of dark with a dull ring when rapped, like the modern pewter from the Orient. Doesn't look Lead-Free.

I was told a charger is what your plate is served on, not eaten off. There might be more value as a set of Chargers rather than the Tin value.

[imashooter2]

32 pounds for $5 is the best score I’ve ever seen.

[Tripplebeards]

Got this English pewter item at the salvation army the other day for $3.48

[Tripplebeards]

Good day today. Half price day at the thrift store!!!! Got all this for $4.48! Just weighed it all...1 pound 15 oz.

[imashooter2]

Nice score.

[bangerjim]

Just bought the full set of the large 10 Franklin Mint "American's" issued in back 1975. Each is in it's own fitted box with a cert of authenticity.

Got them all for $90. Beautiful details...............and.........I would NEVER melt them down!

NEVER NEVER NEVER

These cost $55.00 each back in 1979!

Signed, hallmarked, and dated.

Going into my BIG collection of antique and collectible pewter items.

Somethings you melt...............others you do NOT!

banger

[Dunross]

I have discovered a problem with this pewter business.

If I should happen to be by myself when I score some pewter I can hide it out in the shop if necessary. But, going to thrift shops has become a family activity. So, if I find a nice piece of pewter two things are likely going to happen.

#1 - My wife will insist it be saved for "emergencies." Theoretically can still be melted down, but only if I have an "emergency need" for it in bullet casting. In plain-speak this means "cannot be melted, but must go on the shelf."

#2 - My daughter (who lives with us) will object that more pewter "only adds to the clutter in the house" which she feels is already excessive.

If I buy that "nice piece of pewter" I am crosswise with one of them regardless.

I do get to go yardsaling or flea marketing by myself once in a while which may now be my best chance of getting it home unnoticed. Found a good-sized lidded pitcher the other day at the Good Will. Per pound price was in my acceptable range, but my wife was with me so there it stayed...

[Tripplebeards]

I have a lot of pewter I’ve picked up the last several years. I have put some of the what I thought valuable stuff aside and tried to eBay it. The only piece I sold was an Octoberfest looking mug that wasn’t marked pewter. I bought it for $4 and sold it for $87 plus shipping. The rest never received one bid on any of it. I have a pewter plate from the 1750’s that I put best offer on and left on eBay for ever a year re listing it constantly with ZERO offers. IMO as soon as the wives try to find out actual value by trying to sell some of the stuff and find out it’s not worth swat they might settle down. I might have to start a thread with the “coolest”pewter scores. I don’t think I have a picture of my mug I sold anymore but I knew I posted it somewhere here years back. Still have a neat German plate called the butcher with two guys holding a cow and one with an axe.

[Dunross]

Went to an area flea market this morning. The wife don't care to go, but my daughters did. We struck a deal on the way up that whatever pewter I bought I wouldn't bring it into the house and if we found anything nice we wouldn't tell Mama!

Had some luck too. Four pounds, four ounces for a total of $18.00 or about $4.25/lb. All hallmarked pewter. I could have doubled that, may be, with electroplate brittania metal, but I'm still not confident in my ability to discern it from the non-useful alloys also used in plating.

I'll wait a month or so before going there again to given them a chance to restock.

The saucer on the bottom is one of those "Currier & Ives" collectible pieces, but surprisingly heavy. Must go close to two pounds. A nice piece for only six bucks, but ugly as homemade sin. I hope someone didn't spend big bucks on it new! The seller apologized for not being able to find the box it came in, but I said I'd manage without it. (wink!)

We made sure Mama didn't see the little tea set pieces!

The girls said this particular market was too full of "old people" stuff so want to try some of the other area flea markets. I just laughed and said, "Sure!"

My eldest is proving to have a good idea for "the pewter look" which really speeds up our search.

[Dunross]

Flea markets are the way to go in my area. Five pounds, fourteen ounces for $35 or a bit shy of $6.00 a pound. Only one small candle holder with a fingerloop will go on the shelf so about 5.25lbs to go into the stash.