Pewter

(2 photos)

1547

We walked around Gstaad, Switzerland, then just outside town we stopped at an antique store. Just to keep the record straight, Jim is the first to see most of the antique stores we visit, but Emmy wonders how many he sees and ignores. Jim says he points out the ones that are closed, or with no parking space. That way he looks like a good guy, and it’s the cheapest and quickest way to do it. However, Emmy insists that when we get home, Jim has purchased more fleas than she has.

This time Emmy found a pewter-looking tall (19”) heavy, interesting-looking coffee pot. It's made of what they called “old zinn,” and is very thick and heavy. The girl said it was maybe 100 years (or was that days) old.

In Locarno, Switzerland, we stopped at the store where we had purchased the large decorative brass scale a few years ago, and talked to the lady about the zinn pot. She looked at it and said it is old, and is made of ”Antique Zinn,” and that is different from “New Zinn.” We looked at some pots in her store that are made from the New Zinn, and they do look different.

Later that year as we crossed the border from Poland to East Germany, the East German customs officer spent well over an hour checking pillows, and looking under the kitchen stove trying to determine what we were trying to hide from them. He knocked on walls, and in general looked every place that didn’t have much chance of hiding anything.

In Venice we bought several Venetian glass necklaces and bracelets; in San Marino we acquired coral necklaces; a belt in Florence; and numerous other small objects, all of which we had stored in this large pot. When the customs man found it behind our hanging clothes, he first seemed to accuse us of trying to hide it, until we were able, with sign language, to ask if he could find any other place in the small RV where it could be stored.

At his direction, Jim unloaded the small packages and handed him the empty urn for close inspection. He wanted Die Rechnung (the receipt) which we could not find, but we showed him the entry in Emmy’s diary concerning the purchase. The pot was still wrapped in the plastic bag with the name and address of the store in Gstaad, so finally he returned the pot to Jim who replaced the small packages and returned it to its “hiding” place.
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1493

In the town of Montleul, France, we visited an antique store where Emmy bought a pewter mug, supposed to be from Napoleon’s time (will check for his fingerprints). Jim hopes this isn’t the start of a large pewter collection.