Pewter Plates with a Royal Feel

EW sent me two scalloped pewter plates, one with a lion and the other portraying a lizard or dragon. Both are pewter, eighty-five percent or so tin with lead and other metals mixed in, a malleable metal used for domestic utensils. Yet these plates elicit a royal feel due to the iconography of the crowns above the animals and the fleur-de-lis punched into the dish of the plates. The lion and lizard are punched from the back, a technique called repousseé.

Used since the reign of Charlemagne (768-814 AD), the lion is drawn from ancient heraldry, the “arms” of a king or a town. The lion stands on one foot, “rampant,” the king of the beasts equals only the eagle in heraldic usage for a thousand years. Little flames surround the lizard, actually a salamander.

Biologists classify lizards as reptiles and salamanders as amphibians. No less than Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) wrote about the salamander, “they have no digestive organs, and get no food but from the fire, renewing its scaly skin, for virtue.” The salamander myth associates the creature with the elemental nature of alchemical fire. A crowned salamander became the heraldic animal of King Francis I of France (1494-1547), the Renaissance monarch responsible for bringing da Vinci to Fontainebleau.

The Salamander Versus the Lion

Francis I, a man of culture and letters, loved artists and scholars. He filled his palaces with thinkers, along with fountains that gushed water and wine. His sworn enemy, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, ruled over four million square kilometers across Europe, the Far East, and the Americas. His titles included King of Germany, King of Italy, King of Spain, Lord of the Netherlands and Count of Burgundy.

Charles V hated Francis I fiercely and challenged him personally to fight. He achieved his wish to personally imprison Francis I in Madrid in 1525. But he was not King of France, like Francis I. These two monarchs waged the Italian Wars against each other, mainly due to a difference in religious tolerance. Charles’ heraldic symbol became the lion rampant, and his motto “Plus Utra” (go beyond). Francis’ became the salamander with the motto “Nutrisco et Extinguo” (goodness stays, the bad put out).

These two pewter plates represent the two opposing forces in the 16th century world, Francis, the monarch of culture, versus Charles, the monarch of power. The conflicts spurred on by both gave rise to massacres of Protestants and ushered in the Reformation. Francis I enlisting the aid of Henry VIII and the Muslim Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Magnificent.  These plates depict the symbolism. But do these two plates of 16th century pewter, date from this historic period?

16th Century Pewter Plates?

We turn the plates over and look at two separate sets of “touches,” maker’s hallmarks, on pewter. Traditionally European pewter came with two stamps, the pewterer’s mark and the touch mark, dealing with the quality of the pewter. The best pewter contained a higher dose of lead, proved by the crowned rose, which we do see on the backs. In use from the mid 16th century this mark denotes high quality. As time and history marched on all control over the use of marks became lost which creates a problem. However, the crowned rose and the other mark, an angel, indicate the pewter may well come from 16th century. Or they may be a very good reproduction, complete with antique pewter markings.

I found the sale of a similar antique repousseé pewter plate with a Crowned Hedgehog and Fleur-de-lis pattern with the crowned rose and angel marks as an emblem of Louis XII. He became the King of France in 1498 and redecorated his Chateau de Blois with emblems of crowned hedgehogs. Thus these kingly heraldic plates are in an early French tradition. The Hedgehog pewter plate from the 16th century. sold for $800. I suggest that since EW owns a pair, the value might goes as high as $2,000.