Italian pewter

Italian pewter boasts a very long handicrafts tradition and, since the '700's, china and crockery made out of this metal, cheaper than silver, but just as beautiful and striking, were commonly used in all homes, from the most aristocratic to the less well-to-do.

Trade in tin can be traced back to Phoenician times and Venice took up the Phoenician heritage in this type of activity because large quantities of the metal reached its port from the Middle East. This continued until, in the 15th century, cheaper tin from Cornwall arrived at the Paduan plains.

In Italy the use of Italian Pewter was limited due to the local lack of tin mines, the main component of its alloy. In fact, tin was mainly used in central Europe and traded therein, because it was extracted in England, Bohemia, Hungary and Saxony. Although many able Italian craftsmen, at the end of the 18th century, had to emigrate to other European zones to find work. So the great Italian manufacturing ability was placed at the service of foreign producers. A good portion of the precious items in pewter present in the European museums can therefore be attributed to Italian manual labour. About italian pewter, it was Venice which took on the role of leader, in the production of pewter crockery and the creative and manufacturing capacity of the pewter manufacturers became as popular abroad as in Italy.

As far as the style of the italian pewter objects for domestic use is concerned, it must be revealed that these kept the forms dictated by tradition for a long time, since the moulds where the metal alloy was fused were rather costly and were therefore handed down from generation by the craftsmen.