The use of pewter dates back hundreds of years with utilitarian wares such as candlesticks being produced in the 1600’s and 1700’s. Most of the pewter candlesticks found today are from the 1800’s. Britannia, another form of pewter, became available during this time. This was made up of essentially the same alloys but without lead so it was safer and easier to manufacture. Pewter resembled fine silver but at a fraction of the cost and this made for a widespread acceptance of its use.
Pewter was cast into molds that could be used over again and because the molds were costly, they were used for producing more than one object. This is the same concept of why glass candlesticks can be found with matching bases to lamps. Therefore, it is not uncommon to find matching lamps and candlesticks made of pewter as well. It is also interesting that the molds for producing pewter could be mixed and matched to create a wide variety of pieces. Notably, these would be the base, mid section (stem), upper socket, and lamp fonts. Many times you can notice a candlestick stem being used as a lamps mid section.