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From: Walt Vogdes
Remote Name: 24.19.109.15
Date: 10/28/2009
Time: 03:47:19 PM
Let's work our way through this. The 1526 form number and the Mettlach Mercury mark indicate that the body was made by Mettlach. "The Mettlach Book" lists and depicts many 1526 bodies which, like yours, do not have a decoration number. Mettlach assigned decoration numbers to facilitate their being listed in Mettlach's catalogs. Unlike the broad target audience for the catalogs, many of the steins without decoration numbers were produced for a targeted or restricted market, including Elks Club, NY National Guard, Yale, Princeton, Bartholomay's, Elbschloss, Humbser Brewery, Tosetti, Braumeister Verein, Atlantic Garden, Rochester Brewing, Genessee, Quilmes. If in fact Mettlach decorated these steins, it was very probably by special order, which would eliminate the need to assign a decoration number. At the same time we have to recognize that Mettlach produced blanks (most commonly 1526 and 1909) for finishing by other firms. In that regard, many of the steins seen in The Mettlach Book were decorated by van Hauten of Bonn, and the majority of student association steins would have been decorated by a firm which was local to the pertinent university. Consequently, if a stein does not bear a Mettlach-assigned decoration number, without some other evidence we cannot say with certainty who decorated it. It's entirely plausible that some of these steins were decorated in the U.S.! Gary Kirsner has been compiling his information for many years (the first edition of The Mettlach Book was published in 1983) and his records are presumably more complete than any other source. Even so, Gary has listed a number of steins without decoration numbers in The Mettlach Book which are known to have been decorated outside of Mettlach. Now to your Erlangerbraeu stein. Whether decorated by Mettlach or by someone else, it was undoubtedly in response to a special order. The fact that it is apparently undocumented neither adds nor subtracts from its value. It has some broad appeal to today's collectors simply because the body was made by Mettlach, and it may have some special appeal to someone who knows of or has some personal connection to Erlangerbraeu, if you can find that person. Value will be generally consistent with other similar steins in The Mettlach Book. As to age... who knows.