The earliest piece of pewter ever found comes from a tomb in the Egyptian city of Abydos, c. 1440 BC. A malleable alloy of tin, copper, antimony and sometimes silver or lead, pewter became the characteristic metal of tableware in Northern Europe from around the Fourteenth Century AD. Marketed as an alternative to silver, pewter pieces were cast with the same attention to detail as their silver counterparts, sometimes from the same moulds. However, the advent of mass production in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries AD saw porcelain overtake pewter as the tableware of choice – a preference that is maintained to the present day. Pewter survived, however, and a revival in interest saw a number of pewter pieces created in the Art Deco style of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries AD.

Different compositions of pewter achieve different aesthetic and metallurgical properties. Britannia Metal, the most highly-prized English pewter, consists of 92% tin and 6% antimony. The resulting surface is almost indistinguishable from silver, and is often used in its place. Italian pewter, peltrato, is similarly prized. Northern Italy became a centre for the production of pewter tableware, characterised by its often baroque design.

This Italian pewter goblet is characteristic of this production. Rising from a rounded lobed foot, the stem is marked by a large ball collar which delineates the foot from the cup. The cup itself is tulip-shaped, like a robust champagne flute, and covered with intricate decoration. Classical acanthus leaves sprout from the bottom of the cup and reach ever upwards in decreasing size. On the two faces of the goblet, lithe floriate tendrils frame identical images of two putti (from the Italian for ‘boy’). Chubby male children, sometimes winged, putti first appear in the Roman period, on child sarcophagi of the Second Century AD. Revived during the Quattrocento, perhaps by the Italian master Donatello, putti lost their Classical association to bacchic rites, and instead adopted a wealth of Christian meanings, essentially becoming baby angels. The standing putto looks over his shoulder at his kneeling companion. The standing figure has tiny wings, sprouting from his shoulder-blades, whereas the kneeling putto is wingless. Below the rim of the vessel are four lions’ heads, which protrude from the goblet in deep relief, staring out at the viewer like gargoyles. separating each lion from the next are three stars. This vessel dates to the Twentieth Century AD, according to makers’ marks on the base.