Expert: Martin G Roberts - 10/26/2008

Question
Hello!  From a local estate sale, I've just acquired a pewter jug or pitcher.  It looks like a tankard, but has a pouring spout at a right angle to the handle.  There are 2 markings - "1826" over cross-hatched lines (like a portcullis), and a crown over Wm IV over KL.  It is approximately 6" high with the top opening just a tad under 4" across.  I have several questions and appreciate your patience.  I was wondering why the difference in dates - i.e. 1826 being George IV and "WM IV" presumably being William IV.  Does the 'portcullis' mark indicate where it was made ? Also, does "KL" indicate a maker's name?  Is there much interest in these currently ?  Thanks....and regards from the Colonies......

Answer
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Hello Michael,

Good question, with all the information I need to answer it. This is indeed a mug (strictly, "tankard" refers to lidded drinking vessels) that has been converted to a pouring jug - it is quite a common conversion, mostly done by the pewterer, for whom these pourers were an additional line.

The 1826 mark does indeed feature a portcullis. The portcullis was and is a symbol of the City of Westminster (part of London), and was used as one of the capacity verification marks for Westminster. The presence of this mark may suggest the mug was made by a pewterer whose workshop was in Westminster - there were quite a few in that part of London - as it was common practice for pewterers to apply (or to have applied) a verification mark to those products made to a specific legal capacity. 1826 refers to the year in which the Imperial system of weights and measures came into force, rather than the year your pourer was made.

That said, it is not uncommon to find capacity verification marks from more than one regnal period on a single piece of pewter. That is because the majority of such marks are applied not by the makers but by local weights and measures inspectors, confirming that the piece conforms to the legal capacity - in many cases, the inspectors would stamp a mark each time they checked a piece, which might extend over many years. The WIV mark (I suspect it is WIV rather than WMIV) is one such local capacity verification. It does indeed date from the reign of William IV, and the KL stands for King's Lynn in Norfolk, where the pourer was at that time in use in a pub or similar. A great many of the pewter pubwares used in Norfolk were made in London, as there were no working pewterers in the area in the 19th Century, and London could easily supply the area either by land or by coastal shipping. King's Lynn was at one time an important port, though it was of declining significance in the 19th Century.

You can read a bit more about verification marks on the relevant page on my website.

One caveat about the 1826 portcullis mark. There is a fake version of this mark, which is found on all sorts of pewter pubwares, having been applied by nefarious antiques dealers in the first half of the 20th century, and mostly exported through the antiques trade to North America and the Antipodes. But in this case the other evidence is consistent with your pourer being a genuine Westminster product of about 1830, so yours probably is authentic.

As to interest, certainly there are people buying such pieces, though in general, and sadly, pewter collecting is not as popular as it once was. Internet auction sites have affected perceptions of how common pieces like this are, so that prices for 19th Century Imperial capacity British pewter pubwares have fallen sharply in the last few years. And growing awareness of the extent of faking has damaged confidence in some areas of the market.

Martin
www.antique-metalware.co.uk