PewterErs.org.uk
Title
The Worshipful Company of Pewterers: Home
Description
Livery Companies are guilds whose members have been given the right to wear a livery. In 'The Livery Companies of the City of London', The Princess Royal writes "the core of the Livery's ethos is timeless: fellowship, welfare, education, supporting trade and at all times working in the best interest of the communities in which they operate."
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.
Today the Pewterers' Company is actively involved with the Pewter trade through support for the Association of British Pewter Craftsmen (ABPC). The ABPC was formed in 1970 as an initiative of the Pewterers' Company and its members are required to touchmark their finished products, much as Pewterers were obliged to do in centuries past. The seahorse to the left is the modern touchmark signifying high quality.
