Expert: Martin G Roberts - 9/19/2006

Question
Hi, I have an old set of pewter items ( tea pot, pitcher & 2 trays) they each are imprinted only "CHINA" (all caps) 3 of the items had been my great aunt, she said they were pre- comunist chinese,"pewter on copper" you can see the rim of copper on the rim of one tray- they each  have a hand hammered design - 1 tray has an elephant, the other is in the shape of a duck, with feathers all over- I have been doing searches for similar items and have never found any,Is chines pewter usually over a copper base? ( I know pewter is composed of tin & copper) any idea of age or other info? thanks.  

Answer
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Well yes, pre-Communist, but that's only 1940s. Probably made 1920s or 30s, perhaps a little earlier.

Not sure about the copper bit - this is not something I have seen before, but then I'm not a specialist in oriental metalwares. But this general type of oriental pewter object is pretty common, much of it made for sale in the treaty ports as souvenirs.

By the way, pewter is an alloy principally composed of tin (60-99%), with small amounts of lead (0-40%), antimony (0-10%), bismuth (0-1/2%) and, sometimes, tiny amounts of copper (0-2%). Bronze is the alloy mainly composed of copper and tin.