For centuries, pewtersmiths (and other metal smiths) have used touchmarks as a method of identifying their work. Each smith designs and creates a unique stamp. After cutting out the necessary shape out of a sheet of pewter, my father uses a hammer to strike the stamp into what will become the bottom of whatever he is creating.
His touchmark is his initials – CAH – with crossed hammers and the word ‘pewter’. (Edit – Okay, my father objected to this line because they aren’t exactly crossed hammers. They are a mallet and gad. Here is the explanation from his website: “These are the guild symbol of the miners and smelters dating from the 13th century, and still used by present-day miners and metalurgists. These tools are similar in appearance to the hammers used in pewtersmithing.” I knew this, of course, because I’ve read his website, but the journalist in me figured whatever, no one knows what a gad is anyway and they look like two hammers … never trust journalists.)
His mentor, Doug Shenstone, used the stylized initials ‘Sh’ for ‘Shenstone’ and then had another stamp that said ‘pewter’ and a third that said, ‘Canada’.
When Doug died, my father placed the stamp with his initials in Doug’s pocket before he was buried. He then began to add Doug’s ‘Canada’ to his own touchmark, so you can tell if my father has made something before or after 1992 based on whether that appears on the piece.
My father’s stamp isn’t quite even, however, and requires two hammer strikes to ensure the entire thing is stamped into the metal properly. When I worked for him while I was in university, I never really mastered it, resulting in the ‘H’ not appearing, or the touchmark appearing in double. My father sometimes doesn’t get it perfect either, but if you have some of his older work, particularly a smaller piece, and the touchmark is only half there, it is quite possible that it was actually something I produced.
See? No H,and not much of an A either. When stuff like this happens, my father and I say to eachother, “Well, that’s how they’ll know it is handmade.”
I am better at it now, but marginally.
When I started the first tzedakah box I made, my father pointed out that, as I designed and was creating the box myself, it didn’t make any sense to use his touchmark and suggested I sign it myself. But how?
Some of the stuff I produced 20 years ago I signed myself, such as a lamp I made as a friend’s wedding gift, and a wine goblet I made for myself. I used a rotary tool to crudely engrave my name and the year in the bottom. But my handwriting is atrocious under the best of circumstances, and engraving with a drill bit is not the best of circumstances.
1989! I guess I should be saying, “Almost 25 years ago.” Sigh.
This is a fairly standard way – My father has a teapot Doug made before developing his own touchmark and he did a nice job of signing it (that says 1933, by the way). But at this point, I don’t want my work to look as though a 12-year-old has signed it, so I was reticent to go this route.
The letters and ‘pewter’ stamp, plus scraps where I played around with my options.
It turns out that Doug also had stamps for every letter in the alphabet, so my father dug those up and I stamped my name into the bottom, and added Doug’s ‘pewter’ below it. It isn’t satisfactory as a permanent answer. I will need to figure out my own design. But it works for now. Does anyone have any good ideas about a more permanent mark?
Becoming a Pewtersmith 