Pewter of the Bronze Age in the Near East. The earliest piece of pewter found is from an Egyptian tomb from 1450 BC. The constituents of pewter were first controlled in the 12th century by town guilds in France. By the 15th century, the Worshipful Company of Pewterers controlled pewter constituents in England. This company originally had two grades of pewter, but in the 16th century a third grade was added. The first type, known as "fine metal", was used for tableware. It consisted of tin with as much copper as it could absorb, which is about 1%. The second type,
Ral Partha Enterprises Partha lines of miniatures. In 2015 and the 40th anniversary of the founding of Ral Partha, Iron Wind Metals reacquired the long unused trademarks and relaunched Ral Partha as a division of the company focused on producing archived miniature lines under the banner of the "Chaos Wars" gaming world. In 1980 Ral Partha licensed select designs to Rawcliffe Pewter a long-time producer of cast metal art. The pewter versions of Ral Partha sculpts were typically bare-metal with a satin finish and decorated with glass jewels. In time, a division of the company called "Partha Pewter" was established to produce directly