plates

Description

One of four early 18th century pewter plates; circular; on one side of the rim the letters 'S[?]BUR' and on the other side the crest of the Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon; on the back the touchmark X and the signs of a stamp; rim bent and split. According to Wellstood, 'The Corporation pewter consists of thirty-nine dinner plates, ten of which are damaged, and all bear signs of the good use to which they had been put during the Mayor's feasts and on other festive occasions during the last two hundred years.All are stamped on the rim with a mark of ownership, twenty-four of them having the borough arms with the letters SxxBVR (signifying Stratford Borough) and the remainder with the arms only. On the underside of some of them are the marks of London pewterers; two bear that of William Howard (late 17th century), three that of Robert Jupe (early eighteenth century) and five that of John Shorey Junior also early 18th Century). The remainder are either unmarked or bear illegible marks.'