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From: Herb Fredricksen
Remote Name: 206.149.148.55
Hi Folks, I've recently picked up two glass bodied, pewter lidded, steins with whimsically painted images of people, animals, landscapes, etc. The colors are bright and cheerful, the dress storybook like, the faces round and rosy cheeked. The only identifying marks I've found until yesterday were on the interior of the lid, "Made in W. Germany" around the rims and a BMF over an N inside an inverted pyramid nearer the center of the lid. Body artwork and thumb-lift shapes are consistent. Sunday I saw two painted/pewter lidded glass steins on the way to visiting family in Virginia. The joyous drinking scene was inside an Inn or in a Rathskeller. As the image wrapped around I noticed a small painted mug on the far right table. The initials ER were visible. I bought neither, budget was tight, but they stuck in my mind for next time. Today I pulled down my two to look for such initials hidden in the background and had some success. The 6-1/2" tall, flat lidded, hunting horn shaped stein, of a hunter in waistcoat and tricorn hat, smoking rifle in one hand, effervescent drinking horn raised in a toast in the other, hunting/post horn on belt, Dachshund at his feet, all surrounded by garlands of leaves, flowers and post horns on both sides. I looked as hard as I could but no initials anywhere. However, the other 5-1/2" tall, handsomely detailed spiral lidded, trapezoidal/tapered stein shows a coach full of people and baggage, drawn by two white horses, with a horn blowing coachman next to a waving driver, a Dachsy running alongside, and a village, mountains and a castle in the background. The center and two sides are bracketed in spiral carved post frames, in the left frame hangs a post horn and in the right frame hangs a Bierstein with the initials ER. Ah-Ha! Q1) Can anyone connect me to the artist ER? Q2) Can anyone connect me to a time frame other than that between WWII and Unification? Q3) And how about the lid's construction? The Spiral has a nice old looking darkness to it, handsome as-is, but the flat one was badly tarnished. Mild cleaning with soap and a plastic scrub pad removed the tarnish buildup but exposed tiny spots of a copper toned surface beneath. Its still nicely dark but I didn't expect to go through the surface coating so quickly. Thanks, Herb Fredricksen 301 869-3987