Seeking whereabouts of antique family pewter.

[Katharine75]

Hi all. I found a reference to some pewter that was still in family possession in the first half of 20th century. The owners had a son, who to my knowledge did not have children. I think I found some information that indicated he (or his wife) left his sister in law as executor of estate. That was around mid century.

Does anyone have any ideas for tracking down the family pewter? Are there records for antique sales that might be searchable?

Thanks, Katharine.

[Sandblown]

https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

Assuming Your request is directed to the UK, did You locate the Grant of Probate from the above Link ?

[aghadowey]

Was there a Will? if there was a Will then the first step might be to have a look and see if the pewter was mentioned.

[Katharine75]

Hi all. Thanks for replies. Yes I will have to go back through my paperwork to see if there was a will. I thought there might be a pewter society or other organisation that might have auction catalogues or something that it could appear in.

[Sandblown]

https://www.pewtersociety.org/about-pewter/pewter-eating

The above Link, is a useful guide, to the use and history of English Pewter, and potentially Who, You might need to contact.

With respect to Auctions, it is speculative as to whether Your Family Pewter was sold, or retained. There could be a number of scenarios. For instance, if of little historical or rarity value, then Pewter would most likely be sold for scrap value. On the other hand, if the collection had rarity value, then it could have been disposed of via an Auction House, or Specialist Dealer.

Auction House Notices do appear in Newspaper Archive's, and that might be the only method of tracing the potential sale, of a substantial collection. Ideally, if You have paperwork, detailing the Pewter Collection, and the pieces were of Historical, or rarity value, then the Pewter Society, Linked above, might be of some assistance in tracing the current whereabouts of said, collection pieces.

[aghadowey]

Was there a Will? if there was a Will then the first step might be to have a look and see if the pewter was mentioned.

Even if there was a Will things don't always go according to plan. OH''s grandfather was left the family home but lots of items went 'missing' which later turned up in the house of his sister's daughter. I only learned this when I came across an inventory of the estate and asked what happened to the grandfather clock, etc.

[Katharine75]

Thankyou for replies. I have contacted the Pewter society given on the link and they will publish something in their journal to see if any members know their whereabouts, or have them in their collection.
Other than that I will investigate the wills, but as pointed out it does not necessarily mean they ended up in the right hands if they were mentioned!