This would not have mattered so much had the rarer material been offered to collectors a straight-sided York flagon by Edmund Harvey, c.1690, offered at £4000-6000 and a mid-18th century spire flagon with double-curve handle by Allan Bright of Bristol, offered at £800-1200 were withdrawn before the sale.
Not that the pewter market has been rendered entirely obsolescent by changing fashions. In fact the difference in price between these two 17th century chargers, right, showed that decorative values are increasingly important in every market. The wrigglework decoration of floral and animal subjects on the 18in (46cm) triple reed charger (hallmarked IG) helped raise the bidding to £1150, but all that was available for the 181/2in (47cm) broad rim charger was a bottom estimate £400, despite the fact that the hallmarks had been identified as John Cave of Bristol.
Pewter feels the decorative effect
LARGE quantities of antique pewter are rarely seen at auction these days but even so, the supply of ordinary material is hardly met with rampant demand. As such, prices were kept down for the majority of the 122 pewter lots that Bonhams had impressively gathered for their Chester sale on 17 January.
