Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 145 120. Notes on West-Country Pewterers. — In my researches in connection with my work on " Pewterers and Pewter-marks," which it is hoped to publish when the war is over, I have come across the names of several West-country pewterers and some of their marks which it may be of some interest to readers of this journal to have recorded in its pages. Somewhere about the year 1913 there appeared in D. & C. N. &• Q. a request for information concerning the pewterers of Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, a request which, unfortunately, was not productive of great results, but one of the few replies received, together with subsequent dates gleaned from an entirely different quarter, may serve to show how much may be gained by united effort in a given sphere. On i8th July, 1913, Mr. J. S. Amery wrote Mr. H. Tapley-Soper — names needing no introduction to readers of this journal — as follows : —
- ' Have you Dolbeare as a pewterer in Ashburton ?
I believe Parham, London, was also an Ashburton pewterer, a successor of Dolbeare, as the Parhams had the same house in Ashburton." This information, kindly forwarded to me by Mr. Tapley- Soper, was duly recorded in my notes. Time has passed and still the name Dolbeare remained " awaiting further information " until a few days ago, when Mr. Walter Churcher, of London, the well-known collector and authority on old pewter, sent on to me a rubbing of a mark found on some pewter plates, with the query " Do you know Dolbeare as a pewterer ? " On looking up my notes I find the name recorded, but with no further particulars than those given above. Now, however, one is able to record this maker with full details of his mark (q.v. Plate i). Thus one more small point is cleared up, one more infinitesimal ray of light cast upon the past ! In days such as the present one may ask — Of what moment are such trifles ? The reply must be that at the moment they are of little consequence, but the present conditions are not, we pray, destined to last indefinitely, and a second opportunity of recording this "ray of light" may not present itself. L
