A tankard is a form of drinkware consisting of a large, roughly cylindrical, drinking cup with a single handle. Tankards are usually made of silver or pewter, but can be made of other materials, for example wood, ceramic, or leather. A tankard may have a hinged lid, and tankards featuring glass bottoms are also fairly common. Tankards are shaped and used similarly to beer steins.

Pewter is a malleable metal alloy consisting of tin (85–99%), antimony, copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. In the past it was an alloy of tin and lead, but most modern pewter, in order to prevent lead poisoning, is not made with lead. Pewter has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C (338–446 °F), depending on the exact mixture of metals. The word pewter is probably a variation of "spelter", a term for zinc alloys.