E OL 562 COUNTRY LIFE-AUGUST 20. 1953 THE STORY OF BRITANNIA METAL By G. BERNARD HUGHES RITANNIA metal, being cheap, containing eventually became countless, but the iugredi no poisonous lead, and being more lustrous ents were approximately 90 per cent. tin, 8 per B than pewter, offered an opportunity for the cent. antimony and 2 per cent. copper. Antimony thrifty 19th-century housewife to dress her table is a brittle metal of a bluish-white colour which with innumerahle vessels possessing much of the does not tarnish or rust and was ohtained glitter and elegance of silver. To-day, the main principally from China. A method of hardening confusion is between old Britannia metal and Britannia metal was developed in 1844 by .T ames pewter, for both tend to mellow to much the Shaw, whereby it was heated in a bath of fat or same tones. But at the height of its success the oil, generally whalc oil. metal had virtually superseded pewter and, Britannia metal ingots were prepared in after about 1820, by improvements in manu two qualities: for rolling and for casting. The facturing technique, could abandon traditional ingots were made by melting the copper, then pewter forms and be presented in all the opul adding part of the tin and all of the antimony. ence of shape and surface ornament then The temperature was then reduced, for the admired in silver and Sheffield plate. melting point of the new alloy was considerably The pewterers themselves, increasing their lower than that of copper. Finally the remain profits at the customers' expense, hastened der of the tin was added and the resulting alloy. their virtual extinction by adding more and when thoroughly fused. was cast into ingots. more lead to their alloy, until the harmful Ingots intended for rolling contained an proportion of 40 per cent. might be present. increased percentage of antimony. An extensive Not· until 1907 did it become illegal to issue TEA-POT AND STAND OF VICKERS variety of goods were manufactured by either vessels made of such dangerous metal: a maxi" WHITE METAL FINELY DESIGNED stamping with dies, casting in moulds or mum of 10 per cent. lead was then specified. AND ENGRAVED IN THE STYLE OF spinning in the lathe. The beginning of pewter's decline may be CONTEMPORARY SILVER. Marked I. Viek- Some cast ingots-in 1840 they cost Is. 4d. traced to 1769, when] ohn Vickers, of Sheffield, ers. Late 1780s a pound-were rolled into sheets of suitable bought for five shillings a formula for making gauge by being passed repeatedly between a soft tin alloy so closely resembling silver in less suggestive of silver than the original heavy polished steel pressure rollers. Thin appearance that the casual observer would Vicl TEA-SET WITH HOT-WATEH JUG MADE FHOM STAMPED BRITANNIA METAL ENlUCHED WITH APPLIED CASTINGS. About 1815 Vickers value his bargain that he at once set up a distinct advance on the pewter which it even shaped by stamping in dies; the parts were workshop to manufacture "Vickers \Vhite tually superseded. When polished, this silvery afterwards assembled by soldering. This compli Metal" goods, thus laying the foundation of an white metal, faintly tinged with blue, becomes cated and laborious process continued in use industry estimated to employ more than five highly lustrous. Standard quality Britannia until about 1820, when it was superseded by thousand people three-quarters of a century metal, if struck with a wooden rod, emits a clear hollow-ware produced from sheets by spinning later. ringing tone, enabling it to be distinguished in the lathe, a speedy process by which fine thin This new alloy, consisting principally of tin, easily from pewter. Britannia metal formul", discs of rolled llIetal were made to take any was possibly the "ne,,, metal in imitation of desired convex or globular form. This was silver, called Silvorum," manufactured in 1652 effected by the application of the ancient by .Major Purling, whom the Pewterers' Com potter's wheel to the plate, a process still in use pany immediately suppressed at a cost to and known as metal·spinning. This is the themselves of £14 49 . 9d. The once-powerful earliest use of the process noted in England, Pewterers' Company for centuries used every although Professor Flinclers Petrie found "evi endeavour to stifle competition. dence that metal-spInning was practised in . John Vickers's first appearance in the Home two thousand yea rs earlier. directories of Sheffield was delayed until 1787, A disc of Britannia metal rolled to a uni when he was described as a "Maker of Bits and form thickness was placen against a shaped Stirr\lpS plated with White Metal. He also wooden block or chuck rev')lving in a lathe. makes measures, tea-pots, caster frames, salt Pressure from a bright steel or hardwood tool, or spoOlis, etc., of the same metal." His output a bloods tone burnlsher, forced the thin plate included sugar-basins, creatn-jugs, tobacco against the wooden form until it took the boxes and beakers. The warc madc from this required shape. Articles made from two or more white metal was finely constructed and cn/{raved, parts were assembled by tin soldering, carried following the shapes of contemporary Sheffield out with the aid of a blow-pipe; decorative plate. Examples are now rare and always mounts were similarly attached. imprp.ssed beneath with the name l. VIC](ERS Complicated articles such as ornamental in small Homan capitals. candlestic1(s, tea-pot handles, feet and decor Shortly after 1790 Vic1 mighl reqllire a mOll Id consisting o f when the letlers were enlarged. After cigh h .·<.m parts alld costi ng as much as IH37 the slllall capitals were reverted £HO. The nlajorily o f l<,a-pots, however, to hv Yicl",rs's snccessors, Hulherford, were casl in pieces and hllilt "l' by Stacy, 'Vest and COlllpany, and the soldering. !'Iales, dishes alld olher words BHITANN1A PI.A CE !-i llEFFIEJ.D were silllplt.~ 'pieces were cast as sillgle added bclow. enti ties . J allies I>i XO II , est ablisl",d a I • t •• • • Arlicles in ilrilallnia 11Ic{,t1, whether Sheffield ill IHOt;, Ili ad" SOli'" ,,[ Lhe sl"n'lll'd, splln in th" I'll he or ""si, w"re Jin est .Brit.allnia lIl etal, illlpressillg it trilllnll'd with sl"d lools, linlil the with the Irlllllpel alld Ira 11 lIer IlIarl<. This IH:lOs slll CONTHASTING VEGETABLE DISHES IN BRITANNIA METAL. (Right) A WINE-COOLEH OF ABOUT IB30