- What do we got there? Beer? No. It's empty. I drank it on the way over. I came to the pawn
shop today to sell an American pewter tankard. I believe it's made
in 1730 to 1750. I'd like to ask $20,000 for it. I think it's worth a lot more. Lowest price I could probably
take is about $13,000. What exactly is this? It was made before the
American Revolutionary War by a very famous pewterer. And it is a pretty
darn rare piece. It is cool, though. I mean, I really do dig it. Tankards became really
popular in Europe and eventually, in the new
world, starting in the 1500s. They were basically
the original beer bong, and they're mostly
made out of pewter. They can be worth a lot of
money depending on where and when they were made. It was the only really
viable metal for dishes besides something maybe
like silver or gold, but that was way too expensive
to make dishes out of. And when immigrants
started coming over here in the
1600s, 1700s, we didn't have a lot of craftsmen. And most pewter stuff, we'd
just import from England. The English sort of discouraged
manufacturing in the states, sort of why we had a revolution. If this is
pre-Revolutionary pewter, it's worth a ridiculous
amount of money. Yes. How much we are going
to get out of this? Well, I thinking
about $20,000. Let me have someone take a
look at it, because it's not that I don't trust
you, it's anything like this from this period is
being faked or has been faked. So let me get it down here,
we'll take a look at, it and then we'll go
from there, OK? - You've got it.
- Hang out a few minutes. I'll be right back. I have no problem with
an expert coming in. This is a genuine piece. There's no question in my mind. So I'd like an expert
to confirm that. If it was actually
made in the colonies, It's going to be
worth a lot of money. So I called the
beard of knowledge to help me figure
all this stuff out. Hey Rick, how you doing? Doing absolutely fabulous. Good to see you. Hi, my name is Mark. Hi, I'm Bill. Bill, good to meet you. OK, we have, this is what
he says is a pre-Revolutionary American pewter tankard. That's nice. Very few early
pieces, especially pre-Revolutionary war pieces
from America, survive today. The standard life span
of a plate or a porringer was only about 10. Years And then it would
get melted down and recast. You mind if I take
a closer look at it? - Please, please.
- OK, it's an interesting piece. When you're looking
at a piece like this, what you want to see is
how much of it is original and how much of it isn't. There's been a lot
of work done on this. The handle least has been
reattached if not replaced. The lid, I believe,
has been replaced. The one piece that is really
the final criteria on this is the touch mark. It appears to be IB. That would be John Bassett. OK. When you're looking
at pre-Revolutionary American pewter, John
Bassett is one of the people that you look for. And he is a highly collected
name in pre-Revolutionary War pewter. Is that what his
mark looks like? Yeah. I did see one other
John Bassett touch mark, but it was in a book. It was a photograph
of a touch mark. Unfortunately on this one,
I cannot tell you that it's an original John Bassett. OK.
Thanks, man. - Sorry about that.
- No problem. Take care. Very good to meet you. When I first looked
at this tankard, I saw that it is touchmarked. But that is one of those
very rare touch marks that I would want to look at
next to another original to see whether it actually matches. I wish I could
make you an offer and this wasn't
so anticlimactic, but thanks for coming in, man.
- OK. - Take care.
- Thank you. Well, I'm feeling a little
disappointed in the fact that he could not
confirm that it was real. I'm sure it's real. He can't be an
expert on everything.
