Images(15)

Measure

Date1690-1720

OriginEngland

MediumPewter

DimensionsOH: 9 1/2"; Diam (base): 4 7/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1969-34

DescriptionBaluster type pewter measure with bud thumbpiece; half-gallon capacity according to the old English wine standard.
Label TextPewter capacity measures made in a range of sizes were used throughout Britain and her colonies, both for regulating the sale of alcoholic beverages and for food preparation. This one holds a half gallon according to the old English wine standard. It retains an indistinct maker’s mark, “IF,” that cannot be firmly associated with a specific artisan.
Baluster measures are classified by their various thumbpieces. So-called hammerhead specimens (see for example CWF accession 1981-178) are rare in comparison with the bud type thumbpiece seen on this example. First appearing in the 1670s and coexisting with late hammerheads, bud thumbpieces consist of a bifurcated natural form with an opening bud or emerging young leaf to either side. The cover attachment to the hinge is further strengthened by a long wedge-shaped extension in front of the thumbpiece.
Pewter measures in standard sizes of verified capacities have been used in England in the commerce of alcoholic beverages since at least the fifteenth century. Inventories indicate their presence in taverns and households. Most surviving English measures dating before 1800 are of baluster form and are lidded. This particular measure was found in the Ashley River below Doncaster, about thirty miles northwest of Charleston, South Carolina. Pewter was imported to the American colonies in substantial quantities. Forms included dining utensils, tea and coffee wares, and utilitarian forms like this measure. Because of its modest value, pewter rarely survives with its history of ownership intact, but there is little doubt this object was used in the Low Country of South Carolina.

MarkingsMarked in relief on rim to right of handle "IF" with a rosette between with crossed sprigs and a pellet above and below within an outlined circle on face of body below rim to right of handle (Laughlin, Pewter in America II, 585; Peal, More Pewter Marks, 5595). Maker unidentified. Note: Mark is work and almost indistinguishable as of 2015

ProvenanceVendor: Batey & Spence, Sullivan's Island, SC.
The vendors (underwater archaeologists) found this measure and a pewter tablespoon (1969-35), among other things, in the Ashley River below Dorchester, about thirty miles northwest of Charleston, SC

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