Tudric pewter - Liberty & Co.

The world renowned department store Liberty, was originally founded in 1875 as a furniture and drapery shop in Regent Street, London and was known as "East India House".

It was opened by Arthur Lazenby Liberty (1843-1917). As the original name of the shop suggests, there was a strong emphasis on Oriental & Moorish objects, furniture and fabrics as well as more traditional European items. Under the heading of "curios", he also sold Japanese bric-a-brac of all kinds.

East India House was one of the first major shops to stock extensively products of the Arts and Crafts movement. Goods subsequently produced for Liberty showed both Oriental and Arts and Crafts influence.

In 1884 Liberty opened a costume department and in 1885 a wallpaper department.

Liberty commissioned leading designers of the time to create carpets, ceramics, clothing, furniture, silver and wallpaper exclusively for them.

In 1889 Liberty opened a branch in Paris which was instrumental in exposing Europeans to English Art Nouveau style.

Liberty registered their own silver hallmark in 1894 and released a range of silver objects under the name "Cymric", an Art Nouveau interpretation of the Celtic style.

In 1903 a range of pewter of similar design was released under the name "Tudric". Apart from its interesting designs, Tudric pewter differed from other pewter as it had a high silver content. It was produced for Liberty by William Haseler of Birmingham.

From 1898 onwards, Liberty retained the services of Archibald Knox (1864-1933). Knox designed much of the Tudric Pewter and Cymric silver as well as textiles.

Pieces with a Knox attribution tend to be the most sought after by collectors, and command a premium in price. Particularly desirable are those items with strong Celtic Motifs and brightly coloured enamelling.

Liberty still trades from Regent Street, London.

Known as "the poor man's silver", English pewter dates back to the 10th century, but it wasn't until after the Restoration, and the re-establishment of the monarchy with Charles II in 1660, that it came into general use. Even then, the average householder was too poor to replace his wooden utensils with pewter until around the middle of the 18th century. For almost a hundred years thereafter it became the material for every day utensils and commodities.

The main constituent of pewter is tin which generally comprises 85% to 99% of the metal, the balance being made up by copper, antimony, silver and occasionally lead. The grade and type of pewter being produced determined the proportion of each constituent.

The appeal of pewter comes mainly from its good proportions and functional design. It was used in homes for basins, bowls, candlesticks, tankards, inkstands, spoons, flagons, plates, mantle ornaments and snuff boxes. In churches it was used to make alms dishes, plates and sacramental vessels.

Decoration on pewter is not very ornate and is only a small part of the overall presentation. Ornamentation which has been carried out with a lining tool or punch is known as chased.

There are no hallmarks on pewter, although some pewter items have a touch mark, applied by a punch and which usually include the names or initials of the maker. Touch marks have no particular value apart from interest and a guide to the maker. A touch mark bears no relation to the quality of the alloy, and does not carry the same authority as the hallmarks used on gold and silver.

When a date appears as part of the touch mark it represents the year of registration with the London Guild and not the year of manufacture, so it can't be used to date the article. However, if the manufacturer is known the piece can be dated to a certain period, somewhere between the date of registration and death of the maker.

Sometimes the makers added touch marks resembling silver hallmarks, usually four in number. These faux hall marks were not recognised by The Worshipful Company of Pewterers or supported in law.