Hallmark: A close-up of the mark of Sir Thomas Curtis, London's top pewterer in the 1600s
Posted on 11/10/2013 7:36:14 PM PST by SunkenCiv
* Divers spent two years recovering the haul from the bed of the Caribbean
* The unnamed galleon is thought to have sunk around 1540
* It held 1,200 top quality items, bound for Spanish ambassador's mansion
Specialist divers spent two years extracting the pewter plates and bowls from beneath the waves off the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.
More than 1,200 items of the finest quality English pewter were recovered from the wreck of the unnamed galleon which is thought to have sunk around 1540...
It is believed the ship was transporting the incoming Spanish ambassador from Seville to his new colonial home on the island of Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Onboard was thousands of top quality dining sets bound for the tables of his luxurious mansion.
But disaster struck when the ship sunk after hitting rocks on the easternmost tip of the island off Punta Cana.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Hallmark: A close-up of the mark of Sir Thomas Curtis, London's top pewterer in the 1600s
Just beautiful.
Thanks for this interesting post!
My pleasure, I’m impressed by the great condition of these items. Of course, the junk won’t get photographed, either. :’)
It’s hard to believe that saltwater wouldn’t do moredamage than that.
Wow. Thanks for posting!
;’)
My pleasure.
Pewter must be just right. By contrast if a com-pewter spends 450 years submerged...
It’s mine!
Sorry guys, I was rowing over there a few hundred years ago and it sank.
Thanks for dredging it all up and stuff though.
Just gimme the money and we’ll call it even steven.
Wow! What a great find! Thanks for sharing SunkenCiv.
might be a little nit=picky but I seriously doubt that the ambassador was carrying thousands of place seettings for his residence on the island.
At the time, the entire population of Spaniards that an aristocrat would invite to dinner would probably be less than 100
Apparently saltwater preserves gold and just reacts with a lot of the other metals.
Maybe he had a big family. :’)
Punta Cana today has some great high end resorts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
