Hand-crafted Pewter
Our Story
Harold & Donna Frizzell returned to their native roots on Cape Breton Island in 2000 after living and working in various locations across Canada and Europe for over 20 years. After a career in the busy and challenging world of Information Technology Donna discovered a quieter lifestyle of gardening, beekeeping and working with pewter. She spent 6 years working with previous owners – Jim & Lorna Tompkins – designing, casting, finishing and mold making.
Piper Pewter Inc. began as a small family-owned company in 1991 and slowly grew to include a successful wholesale business with customers across Canada and the USA and then a retail shop at Indian Brook on the Cabot Trail. In 2010 Harold and Donna became the new owners/operators Piper Pewter Inc. (2010).
Today, as always, Piper Pewter specializes in lead-free pewter products such as Celtic and Scottish jewelry, kilt pins, letter openers, clan crests, bookmarks, Christmas ornaments, candleholders and many other gift items. Each piece is skillfully cast, filed, painted, antiqued, tumbled and finished by hand in our workshop at Indian Brook, Nova Scotia – located on the world famous Cabot Trail in Cape Breton.
What is Pewter?
Pewter is a wonderful metal with a long history. Modern pewter contains about 92% tin and added to this are small amounts of antimony, copper or bismuth to give additional strength. Tin is in fact a precious and expensive metal has been mined and used to make objects both decorative and utilitarian for over 3000 years. It’s the 4th most precious metal in common usage after platinum, gold and silver. Perhaps the most well-known pewter object is the Oscar trophy presented at the annual Academy Awards.
