Can I date pewter candlesticks by lack of ATC (i.e. content) mark?

[iamonourside]

I have read an article stating that in 1958, pewter manufacturers adopted the American Pewter Guild metal content mark, called ATC (for Antimony, Tin & Copper).

 I have Stieff candlesticks without the mark.  Can I infer, therefore, that the candlesticks were made before 1958?

On the other hand, didn't the ATC mark arise out of concerns about lead poisoning?  So maybe the ATC mark is never applied to non food wares, like candlesticks.

Anyone have information or opinion about the ATC mark or using it as a dating method?  Or example of a pewter candlestick, any maker, with the ATC mark?

[maxine*j]

The only part of your question that I can answer with certainty is that pewter candlesticks may, indeed, bear the ATC mark. 

Purely for research purposes, here is an eBay listing for Stieff candlesticks with the ATC mark,as just one example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stieff-Pewter-Candlesticks-ATC-/182613786134

 Here are other listings for ATC-marked candlesticks:

https://www.ebay.com/dsc/i.html?_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo=&_sa...

[maxine*j]

Stieff has information on dating its pewter and other wares:

http://www.thestieffcompany.com/The_Stieff_Company/STIEFF_PEWTER.html

http://www.thestieffcompany.com/The_Stieff_Company/Date_Marks_and_Year_Differences.html

It says, at the first link, that they added the ATC mark in 1958 and, "Obviously, those pieces made prior to the 1958 founding of the Guild, will not carry the mark of the American Pewter Guild."