Description: Pewter dish with "H. N. Hitchcock" scratched on the edge on the base. Miss Harriet N. Hitchcock gift to PVMA, K257 (probably), listed as "Pewter Platter". She lived in the Little Brown House on the Albany Road in Deerfield. Another pewter dish from the PVMA collection, HD 64.355, is also identified in the data file as K257; this is probably incorrect. Pewter, a combination of tin, copper, bismuth, and lead, was the most common choice for Connecticut Valley dining table in the 18th century. Although soft and relatively expensive, pewter could be remelted and cast into new forms. Pewter plates were in use in Deerfield, as found in the E. H. Williams 1838 inventory: "3 plates 12 ..... 0.40"; and listed in the original PVMA collection.
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2977 |