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Excerpt from History of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers of the City of London, Vol. 1: Based Upon Their Own Records
In one respect alone the records are disappointing. They do not include any register of makers' marks, nor do the Accounts contain receipts for registration fees. It is probable, therefore, that this registra tion was of the simplest character, and consisted merely of impressing the maker's mark upon the touch-plates at Pewterers' Hall. Most of the early marks are very small, and contain only the maker's initials, thus making it impossible to identify the mark with certainty, although the list of members of the Company extends, back to the middle of the fifteenth century.
The earliest information of importance respecting the Company is found in their Ordinances for the year 1348, in the middle of the long reign of Edward III. The Company is described as the Craft of Pewterers and the Ordinances deal exclusively with matters relating to the trade. In the ancient oath, which bears every evidence of being at least as old as these Ordinances, there is associated with the Craft the Brotherhood of the Assumption of Our Lady. The main object of the regulations of 1348 was to enforce a high standard of quality and workmanship upon makers of English pewter, a reputation for which it has ever since been the great aim of the Company to maintain. Another early Ordinance for the regulation of the trade was approved by the Court of Aldermen on the 3oth of March, 1438. This was followed, six years later, by an Order of the Common Council grant ing the Company the right to purchase one-fourth part of all the tin brought up for Sale to London.
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