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.