AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE PEWTER HALF-GILL 'BALL AND BAR' PEWTER BALUSTER MEASURE

PROBABLY YORK, C.1700-20

maker 'RD' (or possibly ‘BD’, ‘BL’, ‘RL’) partially legible mark on the rim to the right of the solid ‘C’ handle with plain terminal, erect ball thumbpiece on a stalk, the flat lid with an inner and outer incised line but no locating keeper ring inside, plain body with an incised line above the foot, and another on the rim, good 'witness' mark to upper handle

8.6cm high

Provenance

The Carl Ricketts Collection of Pewter.

Formerly in the Michael Boorer Collection.

Catalogue Note

This measure has the smallest known capacities of 1.6 fl oz (a half-gill in the ‘reputed quart’ capacity), which was a popular customary standard in the North of England.

Literature

Illustrated and discussed, ‘Bulletin of the Pewter Collectors Club of America’, ‘Discoveries’, Summer 2011, at fig 4 p.31.

This measure has the smallest known capacities of 1.6 fl oz (a half-gill in the ‘reputed quart’ capacity), which was a popular customary standard in the North of England.