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Pewter Fakes

Pewter collecting had begun since the late 1800’s and it became popular among the wealthy British families. However, in time, pewter collecting had become affordable for the middle-classes as well.
Nowadays, we all have the possibility to purchase modern or antique pewter items and start a pewter collection as long as the passion exists.

Pewter collecting was considered an eccentric hobby during the 18th century while the pewter exhibitions appeared only at the beginning of the 19th century. In this way, suddenly a high number of pewter collectors had an interest for purchasing antique pewter items and increase the number of pewter transactions.

Until the late 1940’s the Society of Pewter Collectors included in the code of conduct a condition which forbidden members to criticize or fault other such members. Therefore, there were enough fakers and fraudsters that create fake pewter items and put them for sale.

Even if the fake antique pewter items were sold for cheap prices, these fakers accomplished to make easy profits. Since in those times the antique pewter items were still expensive, these fraudsters manage to make easy money by selling fake pewter items and thus deceiving pewter collectors.

However, it is not easy to create exceptional pewter pieces, copy the pewter marks of another pewterer, applying the marks on an unmarked pewter piece and even date the pewter piece. All these details were created with the purpose to deceived prospect customers.

A similar situation took place somewhere in Europe when one maker became famous for taking an old pewter plate, had cut out the centre which contained the maker’s marks and fitted it as a base for a wine measure.

In this way, the new wine measure was considered “antique pewter item” and had indeed a genuine maker’s mark but it was used for a different purpose.

In conclusion, we all should be careful and aware of possible antique pewter fakers and fake pieces since in 1920’s a mass production of fake pewter items had begun.

Some pewter pieces were indentified as fakes and withdrawn for the pewter market, but there are still some other such pieces still being a subject of pewter transactions. The fake pewter items have a lower price than the authentic ones, but the pewterer’s marks are the most reliable proof.