This may sound dumb, but I'm gonna' ask anyway!

I found a pair of candlesticks this weekend, that I am fairly sure are quite old and hand crafted. They have the lumps and bumps that would lead me to that assumption!

They are also COVERED with a fine(and in places NOT so fine) greasy black film. I'm guessing they were in a building that burned at some point in their lives. Washing with Dawn and warm water created dirty water, but did not clean the pewter. Then I tried the super fanciful humdinger special grease removal Dawn...more dirty water...not too much cleaner pewter.

Now what??????

If they were silver, no problem I have cleaned LOTS of silver, but this is the first time I have ever had to work on pewter. I also got a smallish coffee pot that has a handle that looks like ebony ????, the creamer and a sugar bowl. I haven't started working on those yet :^)

Many thanks in advance for any guidance.

J