Image from The Beer Stein Book
Faience stein - earthenware, coated with a tin oxide glaze for the white background. Other metallic oxides were used for the colors in the decoration elements. Once fired, the colors (glazes) fused together.
Stein comfortably holds approximately 1.4 liter.
Information below was gathered from some excellent articles in the SCI Prosit archives, which were written by William Hamer.
Faience steins from southern Germany were straight-sided (walzenkrug shape) with a flared base. A pewter ring is fitted over the flared base of the stein body. The ring, in most cases, only fits around the edge and does not cover the stein bottom. Some southern German faience steins may have a lid ring around the top of the body. Unlike northern German faience steins, southern German pieces did not have an indentation around the top rim.
The Bayreuth factory (1714-1835) was located in the upper plains of south Germany. Bayreuth faience steins may occasionally have a full pewter base and most will have a pewter lid and lid ring. The typical Bayreuth handles are wide and flat, tapered from top to bottom, and have a rounded or slightly pointed end at the lower end of the attachment. The Amberg factory, also in the upper plains, has a very similar handle design.
Many Bayreuth steins are marked, but I was unable to locate one on this stein.
Many Bayreuth faience steins, regardless of the subject matter, are decorated on the sides with sponge painted trees 3 to 4 levels high. This side decoration, or ones very similar, appear on many Amberg faience steins as well. Decorative clouds created by two half circles, usually (but not always) with a small dot or circle above the half circles, is a good indicator of a Bayreuth faience stein.
The style of the central decoration on this stein appears very similar to other faience pieces created during a period when the artist Johann Martin Anton Oswald was in charge of the Bayreuth factory (1767 - 1788).
The lid is personalized "A.M.K." and is dated 1800.
There is a virtually identical Bayreuth faience stein, with a date estimate of late 1700's, listed on page 57 of The Beer Stein Book 3rd Edition by Gary Kirsner.
The hollow ball thumb lift and large closed 5 ring hing are appropriate for the time period.
View the collection of Andrew Ives
| type | stein | material | earthenware |
| producer | other | mold | - |
| designer/decorator | |||
| capacity | 1.4 L | ||
| design date | Late 1700's |
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