Expert: Martin G Roberts - 3/1/2009

Question
Good Evening, Mr. Roberts:

My wife’s great-grandfather and grandfather were upholsterers from Islington who established a shop in Greenwich, CT USA in the 1880’s, and commenced importing English antiques.  Their frequent crossings the Atlantic between 1888 and 1938 reads like a “who’s who” of the great liners, but that’s another story.

We have from their shop a well-worn but much-loved brass rim quart pewter tankard with the following marks:

INSIDE bottom: “JOHN BARNES ● BLACKFRIARS ●” with the name around a circle  from 6:30 to 11:30, and the place (inverted) from 1:30 to 5:30, surrounding a clasped-hands symbol.

OUTSIDE under rim, THREE marks: “V (crown) R” over “389” over “SYB” followed by “QUART” followed by a circular mark with “SURREY” from 8:00 to 4:00 around a vertical “A” over “E”.

OUTSIDE: horizontal Copperplate script “Imperial Quart Measure”.

UNDER BOTTOM:  Again, in extremely worn Copperplate script: “H. F******s” (space) “G(C?)*****lton”.  I assume that the initial and the first long word are the name of a publican, and the second long word is the name of a place.

I assume that this piece was made by John Barnes in London, certified by “SYB” in Surrey, and used at a pub owned by “H. F******s” in “G(C?)*****lton”.   Am I on the right track?  1880’s?  Any help would be much appreciated!

Very best regards,

John Butts  

Answer
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Hello John,

A good question, and some careful research so far - well done.

As this piece was intended for measuring, not for drinking, we should call it a "measure". It will be of Imperial capacity.

The mark you describe is not recorded. I suspect the name reads "JOHN WARNE" - the Warne family were fairly prolific pewterers in the mid-late 19th Century, they worked on Blackfriar's Road, and the most commonly seen marks are those of the two John Warne's. Their marks always use clasped hands as the central device.

In all the variants of Warne marks recorded by the Pewter Society, we have no example in which the word BLACKFRIARS is spelled out in full - it always seems to be abbreviated as "BLk FRs Rd". So it is possible the mark on your piece is an unrecorded variant, in which case I would be most grateful if you were able to send a photo (to me at stynt@btopenworld.com) that I could add to the Pewter Society Database to assist other collectors in the future.

Assuming this is a John Warne piece, it will be the second John Warne, and will date around 1870-80.

The SURREY mark and the VR389 are both capacity verification marks - you can read more about these on my website under the appropriate link. The SURREY mark may have been used by the Warnes themselves; the letters AE are a divisional mark for the parish of Newington (then and now within the metropolitan area of south London, and covering part of Blackfriar's Road), while the VR389 mark would have been applied by a local weights and measures inspector to confirm the measure was of legal capacity. VR of course is for Queen Victoria, and 389 is a UV number for Surrey introduced in 1881 - the SYB is another divisional mark, though exactly what part of Surrey it relates to is not recorded.

The engraved script under the base does usually include the name of the publican at the pub where the measure was in use. The inscription often continues with either the pub name or the address (which may be a street, or a district name), and the G(C?)*****lton part could be either.

The inscription on the front is typical of those found on brass-rimmed measures. Until very recently, these measures with reinforced rims were thought to be dry measures, for measuring goods such as shellfish or bran. This turns out to be nonsense! As the 19th Century progressed, consumer protection measures became gradually stricter, and weights and measures inspection was tightening up. The pewterers, whose wares were often the subject of these inspections, came up with the idea of making reinforced rim measures that could be kept in each pub and used, by the publican, to check the capacities of all other measures. In this way the publicans could be sure they stayed within the law, and that their measures would pass muster whenever an inspector visited. Hence many brass-rimmed measures are inscribed with some variant of "IMPERIAL STANDARD" or "IMPERIAL MEASURE". Such brass-rimmed measures seem to have been made only in London, and probably not before about 1860.

So your measure was made on Blackfriar's Road, London, by John Warne, around 1870, and used in a pub somewhere in Surrey, most likely still within South London, where it was employed for checking the capacities of the pub's other measures, until at least 1881, and probably for many years after that.

Hope that helps.

Martin
www.antique-metalware.co.uk