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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Worthless, but reeeeeeally cool! Post your favorites!

« on: September 09, 2015, 12:49:29 am »

I purchased this "Pewter Railway Mug" (that was the label on it in the shop) not knowing what all the markings meant. I got quite an interesting schooling from some well-informed "chaps" from "the other side of the pond."

The mug at one time resided at the "Forest Gate Railway Tavern" (which still exists though in a different building) and other markings on the bottom indicate that the mug was made by Robert Pringle Limited sometime between 1863 and 1879. In one of the photos you can see the initials CK emblazoned large on the front of the mug. A well-informed Englishman informed me by e-mail (with links to prove it!) that in 1885 the Forest Gate Railway Tavern was owned by a man named ... (drum roll please) ... Charles Knowler! Most likely the man whose initials are on the mug. I cannot find much else on him. Evidently, he was no more famous than I am. But I have his mug, which somehow, some way, made it to America. The Englishman who discovered all this for me (I had e-mailed him photos) speculated that it was probably stolen and brought here!

He said there is not much of a market for these old items as it was common for people to have THEIR mugs at THEIR favorite pubs where they would hang out. But at least I have the story on this one.

And the last photo, close-up of the stamp, indicates that the mug was made sometime during the reign of Queen Victoria, 1837 to 1901. I only regret that I scoured it to get all the patina off so I could drink from it. NOT proud of that and WILL NEVER SCOUR again, but it is still one of my favorite items.

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Antique Questions Forum / Stamped English pewter tankard: Legit?

« on: September 08, 2015, 10:01:15 pm »

Found this in one of my picks. Haven't bought it yet. Sales tag claims it is "1700s English Pewter" and I am wondering if that is true. Bad new is that I do not know my English pewter stamps. Good news is there are a few here, which might provide good info for those stamp aficionados.

Even if the sales tag is accurate, I am not terribly interested in purchasing pewter with a high lead content, and I would have to test this item first.

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: HEAVY brass-plated cast iron dish!

« on: August 12, 2015, 12:30:01 pm »

Sounds like you don't see the plating. Granted, it is quite faded and I do not have the best camera. Does this closeup of the large plate help?

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: HEAVY brass-plated cast iron dish!

« on: August 12, 2015, 10:00:13 am »

No need for “plating” a serving piece with tin.

Photo from my own collection. All copper plated with tin, though the plating is fading on two of the items. The large plate is Turkish, the mug was made in England and the small plate is (according to the seller) U.S.-made.

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: HEAVY brass-plated cast iron dish!

« on: August 11, 2015, 02:10:03 pm »

Very nice to know that it is safe to eat from, because that is why I got it. I think it's BEAUTIFUL, and seriously, this thing must weigh at least 10 pounds. No joke. So the "keeping meat hot" theory makes a lot of sense: lots of thick metal to retain that heat.

Any idea how old it might be? I do a search for "brass plated iron" and come up with very little.

Also, why coat something with brass, rather than tin? I don't see brass as a plating very much these days except in cheap little modern day bracelets, watches and other accessories. I have NEVER before seen it on heavy cast-iron, but here it is! I am hoping someone will read those questions and have an answer that might include a date or location. As in "Oh, you have brass-plated cast iron? Well they were doing that in the XXXX region of XXXX during the late XXth century."

In this forum, you never know. There is a wide knowledge base here.

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: HEAVY brass-plated cast iron dish!

« on: August 10, 2015, 09:39:02 pm »

Mart, here is your side view. By the way, it feels VERY heavy like iron, and since that first post I have managed to get small magnets to stick to it, even the heavily-plated areas, so there is iron or steel in there someplace.

Kevin, I would be thrilled if it were gold plating, but I just can't see my luck being that good. LOL

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Antique Questions Forum / HEAVY brass-plated cast iron dish!

« on: August 10, 2015, 05:57:53 pm »

I like brass and copper so when I saw this large (12.5 inches across) cast plate that appeared brass and was EXTREMELY heavy, I bought it. It has obvious pitting from a sand casting, and I presumed that it was solid brass. Magnets do not stick to any of its surface -- except the b.b.-sized pit (seen here in an extreme closeup) which was big enough to be tested with a tiny magnet. The magnet stuck.

So my question is: Who the heck puts brass plating on a cast iron serving dish and why? Usually, brass isn't used as plating on anything is it? Or is the coating some sort of paint which would come off with paint thinner?

The only reason I do not think that the coating is painted on is that (lacking any paint thinner in the house at the moment) I have scrubbed a small sample area VERY VERY vigorously with steel wool and no paint is removed. The only effect is that the metal becomes brighter where I scrape it with steel wool.

And here is a really really silly question: This isn't gold plating is it? The only reason that I consider asking is that in the antique and thrift shops I haunt, I don't recall seeing brass as a plating metal.

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Is there a "one-stop" means of testing pottery to see if it safe to drink from?

« on: August 05, 2015, 10:39:33 pm »

KC, it's just a shade over 5 and 3/4ths inches tall. Would not mind using it, if not for the HIGH lead content. Nice piece though, eh?

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Is there a "one-stop" means of testing pottery to see if it safe to drink from?

« on: August 05, 2015, 10:59:19 am »

I agree with Cogar. I don't think it is that old either, which is why I hesitated posting it here. But I figured that if there was a safety test for pottery, someone here would know about it. I think the water testing idea is probably my best bet.

And I do have the 3M lead check kit. I have used it on many of my metals.  The only thing that tested positive for lead (in a HUGE way!) was this small pewter pitcher. I was told it was made in the early 1800s (before lead content was regulated in the U.S.)  and I can't be certain, but 3M check certainly indicated heavy lead content. The swab turns pink when it touches lead and for this vessel, it went from pink to dark pink to black! And this was on a portion of the vessel that I  thoroughly washed and rinsed, so that blackness was not from patina.

There are makers marks on the bottom, but they are so faded as to be nearly illegible.

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Is there a "one-stop" means of testing pottery to see if it safe to drink from?

« on: August 03, 2015, 09:52:58 pm »

Another one. Signature on the bottom is kinda hard to decipher.

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Is there a "one-stop" means of testing pottery to see if it safe to drink from?

« on: August 03, 2015, 09:46:44 pm »

Sure. Here they are. Whether or not this is even an antique is highly debatable, right? That's why I hesitated posting photos. But the knowledge base here is soooooo broad, I was hoping someone might know pottery glazes or how to test them. Maybe what I really need to do is just store some water in one and test the water, because even the local hardware store has chemical testing kits for water.

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Antique Questions Forum / Is there a "one-stop" means of testing pottery to see if it safe to drink from?

« on: August 02, 2015, 09:08:11 pm »

I have my eye on a large pottery pitcher that could be 200 years old or it could be 20. I am wondering how safe it is to drink from and would like to know if there is a test for this. It is probably not terribly old, but in this case I am more interested in safety than I am in age. (I like the primitive look of it.) I have posted it on imgur and not gotten an answer to the question of how to test for safety. There are lead tests, like the ones you would perform on metals, but any number of different items can go into pottery glaze and have not found a "catch all" test for pottery.

I have also found that people who comment on imgur don't seem to be very serious, as you will see if you read some of the comments I got. Here is the imgur link in case you are intersted. http://bradley7777.imgur.com/all/

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: what is this??

« on: July 20, 2015, 11:49:38 am »

If you look at this Bing search page, I think you will absolutely come to the conclusion that this is a metal drill press of some sort. I am not an expert, but I recognized it vaguely from my metal shop class in middle school in the late 70s.

As to what it is worth and precisely WHEN it was made, well ... good luck there. But at least this is a start.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Drill%20Press%20made%20in%20Switzerland&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=drill%20press%20made%20in%20switzerland&sc=0-21&sp=-1&sk=

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Antique Questions Forum / Re: Copper bowl, marked "XAP 1832" -- real or repro?

« on: July 09, 2015, 08:05:33 am »

Number 3 it is then! LOL

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Antique Questions Forum / Are the 3M Lead Check kits reliable for testing lead content in metals?

« on: July 08, 2015, 11:45:28 am »

I have my share of pewter and brass drinking and dinnerware (Plates, mugs, etc.) and wonder how reliable these kits are. (Brass is SUPPOSED to be an alloy of copper and zinc, but I have heard that lead can be added to the mix) I have certainly read the on-line reviews, but have no idea how accurate those are. Call me cantankerous, but I would not be surprised if such review blogs were flooded with paid employees posing as legitimate customers raving about the product. I work in tourism and people put up fake reviews all the time. It's called Tripadvisor. (Ohhh, don't get me started on that!)

I used the 3M product and I am gratified by the negative results I got for the item I tested, but I want to know how legitimate that test really is. I don't know which product reviews to believe.