Pewter & Brass Tankard, Marked; Where & When, Please?

As I mentioned before, my main interest in pewter is early American (18th and early 19th century). But I have accumulated a fair number of English tankards simply because I sometimes buy out mixed boxes or lots where no one knows what it is or I see one for a couple dollars at a thrift store. Because there are a lot of English measures out there compared to early American work, I’ve ended up with maybe a dozen English measures of various sizes.

Because of that, I have spent some time becoming familiar with these verification marks. And yes VR is for the reign of Queen Victoria, up to 1901. ER is reign of Edward VII, 1901-1910. GR is George V, 1910-1936. Sometimes you’ll see more than one verification on the same vessel, e.g. VR and ER. Most of my measures are VR, and the pot belly style which was popular before the brass topped straight sided style became popular. I guess I should get mine out too, since I haven’t looked at them since figuring out what they were.

Earlier verification marks varied more, but during the Victorian era they became more standardized, and the number under the crown and monarch is for the location in England where it was marked. That is how the pewtersociety was able to say the op vessel was from London. (The paper I linked to earlier has the info in it to decode the location; unfortunately that paper is not well organized and would benefit from a good edit.) At some point, I read, the year was also added to the verification mark, which I believe is the number below the location number, but i don’t know what year it was added so I’m not certain that is what it is until op gets his email back.

 

Interesting! Thank you for the comment.

 

Agreed, I suppose...but, so what? 'Tis what it is.