OLD PEWTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19351, 11 December 1924, Page 7

OLD PEWTER.

- ■ • BEAUTY AND CHARM OF CONSTRUCTION. That darkish silvery metal, known of old by a name which enjoyed every conceivable variation of form, from peautre on the one hand to pewdre on the other, now its working days are over, has cast a spell over -modern man from which when once it holds him, he neither can nor will states A. B. Swallow in the Daily Mail. Never once did the humble craftsmen who hammered and cast their simple wares imagine that in a future age they would be valued and cherished as things of exquisite beauty. They were merely supplying the demands of their time, every one of them, from the Roman of old who first wrought in pewter to honest John Yates and Samuel Ellis. In this lies the charm of pewter. Its simplicity and unpretentiousness, with its subtle balances of line and proportion, have an appeal that is not eked out by any sparkle or glitter that literally clamours for notice, nor by any notion of intrinsic worth. All the beauty it possesses comes from its construction alone and not from any added ornamentation. Indeed, the restful, open spaces which this simple workmanship elfects more especially appeal to us to-day, when they are becoming even rarer, whether in architecture cr metal work, though none the less desirable. Of every variety are the articles fashioned from it. They were used in the church and in' the home, in the coffee-

house and in the tavern. Grcmio, in “Taming ,of the Shrew,” concludes hk description of the well-provided houw with the mention of | "Pewter and brass and all things that | belong : e To house or housekeeping,” | and to-day we possess dishes, platef, porringers, knives, forks, and spoons, i&lfg pepper, and mustard pots of pewter ’pipe used in the houses both of nobleman a9B commoner. , 7| The Church too, has seen oa ils 'GoiA munion tables flagons and chalices of pewter, when its gold and silver havi|i gone to pay for the ware; while pewtepr coffee-pots and jugs, tankards, and sures were familiar articles in our inn|) and eating-houses from the time of Elizabeth to the days of the Georges, Sucf. are the treasures which to-day live ip honourable retirement on the shelves op many a proud collector. And, as thp evening closes in and the flickering firelight dances on their sober faces, there sometimes seem to hover near them the shades of the great Elizabethans - dr worthies of a later age, and we wofldpr whether that tankard stood even by the great Shakespeare’s elbow as he dranfe and laughed with Ben Johnson at' the Mermaid. ! __i mmmmmmm-m . 1