The Worshipful Company of Pewterers
is one of the older Livery Companies in the City of London. It is
number 16 in the order of civic precedence among over a hundred
companies. The earliest documented reference to it is in the records
of the Corporation dated 1348 when the "goodfolk, makers of vessels
of pewter" came before the Mayor and Aldermen asking for approval of
the Articles which they had drawn up for the regulation of the
trade. The inference is that the members of the craft had formed
together into a guild some while before this for, fundamental to the
medieval conception of social organization, was the doctrine of
collective rights and responsibilities, and no trade could rise
above a rudimentary level without assuming some form of association.
It is probable that the Fraternity was originally semi-religious and
the connection with pewter was secondary and subsequent to its
foundation. The Company's own records are extant from 1451.
CHARTERS
Edward IV granted the
first Charter of the Company on 20th January 1474 (1473 in the
calendar of the day). In addition to licensing the Freemen of the
Mistery of Pewterers to found a Fraternity, it allowed the Guild to
regulate the standard of workmanship, the training of craftsmen and
the wages and prices to be set. This Charter granted the Guild the
right of search throughout England to ensure the quality of pewter
was maintained. In succeeding reigns the Company received further
Charters and it is under the provisions of that granted by Queen
Anne in 1702 that the Company acts today. The Charters are displayed
in Pewterers' Hall.
ARMS
The Company's First Arms The earliest
record of Arms in use by the Company is dated 1451. These first arms
include a representation of the Assumption, recalling the Company's
origin as a Fraternity in honour of the Virgin Mary. The Pewterers,
as other Livery Companies, found it politic to eliminate religious
symbolism during the Reformation: in 1533 new Arms were therefore
granted, followed, forty years later by the crest, supporters and
mantling.
THE BEGINNINGS
The history of the
Company reflects that of the use of pewter. The first reference to
'the makers of vessels of pewter' is dated 1348 when they asked the
Mayor and Corporation for approval of articles drawn up for trade
governance. It was much later that Edward IV granted the first
charter in 1473/4. This gave the Company the right to be
self-governing, to hold goods and property in perpetuity and to
govern the trade throughout the kingdom. This last is unlike the
powers granted to the majority of other companies whose jurisdiction
was limited to the City and its environs. Arms were granted to the
Company at the same time.
Groups of tradesmen naturally congregate to discuss matters of
mutual interest. Since in feudal times any gathering was considered
suspect by the authorities, companies usually had a religious
affiliation. Ours was to the Virgin Mary, and her symbol, a lilypot,
appeared in our original arms. This was changed in 1533, during the
Reformation, when the one in present use was granted.
The Company was concerned with trade matters, costs, prices, raw
materials, quality of pewterware and training of apprentices, as
well as relief to the poor within the trade, funeral expenses,
general charity and civic duties. The Company continues to support
the trade, charities and the City as well as meeting together in
Pewterers' Hall.
The first Hall, completed in 1496, was destroyed in the Great
Fire. The second Hall, on the same site in Lime Street, was
demolished in 1932, although from the mid 19th century the premises
were let to a firm of hatters. We do however still own the site. The
present Hall was opened, on a new site, in 1961.
THE HIGH POINT
For two centuries
from 1474 pewter was unrivalled as a material for plates, dishes,
drinking vessels and similar ware. From the 16th century the
indispensable preliminary for a Freeman setting up as a Master
Pewterer and opening his own shop was to record his 'touch' or trade
mark on large pewter sheets retained by the Company in the Hall. The
early touch plates were lost in the Great Fire; the five that
survive today record the marks of Master Pewterers from then until
the beginning of the 19th century when the Company no longer
exercised the power to enforce this regulation. These plates provide
a unique record of pewterers of the period, containing over 1,000
individual marks and are of great historical value. A new touch
plate was introduced in March 2000.
The prosperity of the trade may be said to have reached its
zenith in the late 17th century. Thereafter, partly because
society's drinking habits changed following the introduction of tea
to this country and partly because the industrial revolution
introduced new techniques and the use of alternative materials, the
trade steadily declined. By the late 18th century the number of
those in the Company who actually followed the trade was
small.
