Antique Early German Westerwald Stoneware Beer Stein withFloral Motif c. 1840s

  

Antique Early German Westerwald Stoneware Beer Stein Walzenkrug w/Floral Motif c. This beautiful stein was made in the 1840s, it is guaranteed old give ot take 10 years. It is made in a very traditional style of grey stoneware with cobalt-blue glaze. This is a very traditional beer drinking vessel - a type that was produced for over centuries, from mid-1600s to mid-1800s.

The production of saltglazed stoneware beer steins in the Westerwald region of Germany reached the highest quality by the end of 18th century. The stein is decorated with incised drawings of stylized floral design resembling the "morning glory" flower vine. The decorations are etched into the clay with a sharp instrument, glazed with cobalt-blue glaze, fired and saltglazed. The lid is pewter with an urn-shaped (hald-spfere with a spike) thumblift and 3-ring open-type hinge.

The open-type hinges appeared around mid-1800s. The urn thumblifts was mostly used in 1810s-1830s. The lid is engraved with initials H. 11 - this is the tavern number, in old Germany people used to keep their own beer steins in their beloved tavern, the were numbered for an easy access. This tradition is actually still alive even nowadays - in Munich's Hofbrauhaus, for instance, you can see shelves with patron's steins standing on the necks upside down with a lid hanging to expose the number.

It is also interesting to notice that the concentric circles or curves on the bottom appeared when a wire is used to remove the unfired stein from the potter's wheel. Some used a wide knife for this purpose, leaving the bottom smooth, some used a piece of wire, leaving those concentric marks. The steins made in the Westerwald area usually don't have these crcles - they were removed from the wheel with a knife. So, this stein is just "Westerwald type" and was made somewhere else - maybe in the town of Muskau in the East of Germany. The stein is in excellent condition - a very rare occurence with the steins these old.

There are no lines, no chips or any other damage to the body whatsoever. The lid is in good shape with no damage or repairs and is sitting pretty tight.

The stein is 8 tall to the top of the thumblift, 0.5L capacity. Get images that make Supersized seem small. The item "Antique Early German Westerwald Stoneware Beer Stein withFloral Motif c. 1840s" is in sale since Sunday, August 1, 2021. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Breweriana, Beer\Drinkware, Steins\Lidded Steins\Germany". The seller is "beer-stein" and is located in New York, New York. This item can be shipped worldwide.