Piemonte Tankard - 30 cl - Handcrafted in Italy - Pewter
This small pewter tankard is the baby within a set of three within the classically styled Piemonte range, all handcrafted by Italian pewter craftsmen. This traditional tankard, with its straight sided body, adorned with banding in the top, middle and bottom and scroll handles, is reminiscent of designs popular throughout northern Europe in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
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Until two centuries ago, before the modern glass nonic, dimple mug and shaker glasses became the norm, beer and ale used to be served in coaching pubs, inns and tap houses throughout the British Isles in pewter tankards, which had been the case since the Middle Ages, just like its German equivalent, the beer stein. These tankards came in different sizes, holding capacities such as the gill, half pint, pint and quart, and engraved with the name of the hostelry they were designed for.
Originally made from wood two thousand years ago, with staves similar to a barrel, early tankards were open communal drinking vessels holding several pints, before becoming individual drinking vessels. By the 14th Century, tankards were lidded to prevent the spread of bubonic plagues, but as sanitary conditions improved in the 17th and 18th Centuries, these became lidless again.
Pewter tankards in Britain in the 17th and 18th Centuries featured a glass bottom, and it is said this was to prevent British army and navy recruiting sergeants from press-ganging people by getting them drunk and adding a shilling into their tankard, implying they have accepted the “Kings Shilling” to enlist.
As a low conductor of heat, pewter was the ideal vessel for keeping ale warm or lager cool, and its properties made it the ideal drinking vessel, but fashions changed, glasses gradually became de rigueur, and pewter tankards fell out of favour. However, tankards remain popular traditional gifts for Christenings, coming-of-age presents, for recent graduates and for beer lovers who simply appreciate its qualities, and the handcrafted Piemonte Pewter Tankard is the perfect representation of these time-honoured vessels.
Size: Height 10 cm
Weight: 430 g
Volume: 30 cl
Materials Used: Pewter
Ref: CT0086521
Designers: Enrico Cosi & Sergio Tabellini
100% Lead Free
All Cosi Tabellini Pewter is 100% lead-free, so it is totally food & drink safe, and is both EU and US FDA approved.
Packaging
Cosi Tabellini pieces come gift-boxed with a guarantee card and instructions on how to care for pewter.
