Antique Early German Faience Beer Stein Frankfurt Factory withButterfly c. 1760s

  
Antique Early German Faience Beer Stein Frankfurt Factory w/Butterfly c. The Frankfurt/Main factory was one of the oldest faience factory in Germany.

It started in 1666 and was in business for over 100 years till 1772. The majority of the faience ware was made imitating the blue on white Delftware (in its turn imitating Chinese porcelain). This small beer stein represents the Frankfurt factory production of the late period - 1750 to 1770. Decorated with flying butterflies over a flower bed, this form of a small pitcher or "Kannchen" in Germany was very common for Frankfurt. The Frankfurt factory was in the close proximity to the Hanau factory - a very large and successful factory that started even earlier - in 1661.

The production of Frankfurt faience was very similar to the Hanau - but still shows some differences - in the shape of the handles, for instance. Some researchers even combine two factories in one Hanau production since they are soi similar. This stein's decorations are very typical for Hanau - the flower bed on the side and the specific "flies" appear on many of the Hanau faienceware.

There is actually a confusion about the term "faience". The early faience - like Egyptian beads and small objects - was made out of silica paste - ground quartz sand mixed with water with coloring metal oxides added. The Renaissance and later faience was actually clay-based earthenware glazed with lead oxide glaze and with tin oxide added to make it white and not transparent, so it covered the clay color and made it look like Chinese porcelain. The later faience was most likely originated in the Middle East than brought to Italy where it became "majolica" because of the island of Majorca, than to France where it became "faience" because of the Italian city of Faenza.

The first Northern European country to produce the faience wares in large quantities was Holland and the city of Delft. They started to make the "Delftware" in the early 16th century making white wares with blue decorations to imitate expensive Chinese porcelain. The production came to Germany in the 17th century. By the early 1700s there were dozens of factories producing relatively inexpensive faience wares for the emerging German middle class. The stein is in a very good shape for the faience that old.

There are some minor glaze flakes and some glaze crazing lines but no structural damage, no cracks that go through the clay. The stein is missing the thumblift - this is a problem, but the body is technically in excellent condition for a faience ware. It is a smaller size - 5 tall, 0.3 L capacity. Condition: Very good - see description.

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