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From: Mark K.
Remote Name: 69.47.84.148
I have a stein that was given to me after my grandmother died in 1986. I was told that she brought it over with her from Germany. I was wondering if any one knows what year it was made and maybe what it is worth. It is 1/2 L. It has the stamped Mettlach trademark of an old castle, the stamped name Mettlach, The stamped blended letters VB, the name ges.gesch.,the stamped number 1394, the stamped roman numeral 2, the number 24 stamped (to the left), the number 00 stamped (to the right) and the number 5 (written) on the bottom of the stein. I will start describing it beginning with the thumb lift. It has a boar on it, above the boar it looks like four playing cards one with a diamond, one with what should be a club except it looks more like a four leaf clover or a plus sign with circles on each end, the other a spade and then a heart on the last one, above that it has a ribbon and inside the ribbon I think it says Prosit!, On the underside of the thumblift there is some leaves and below that is a four leaf clover and on each clover leaf there is another type of playing card. nothing special about the tang, hinge, strap support, strap or shank. The inlay has (from outer ring in) a dark golden ring, a small white ring, a brown ring with white raised beads, a slightly bigger white ring, the center has a brown background and a grape vine with three bunches of grapes. It has a plain pewter ring. Each side of the handle has a fancy design, the best way I can describe it is to say it reminds me of a snake, it looks like several overlapping circles with a bead in the center of each circle, the back side of the handle is brown with gray beads going down the center. The base and freeze band are the same, they have rings of brown, white and golden, inside each white band is a design of golden lines with golden beads. The stein itself seems to have a harvest theme with different plants and stalks of wheat, with four different types of what resembles crests, the first has what looks like a yellow fruit bowl with a key hole in it, the next has a red heart with an arrow in it, the next is a green leaf, the last is a red acorn, All the colors are fall colors. There is a pink ribbon that wraps around the entire bottom and reads "Ob du Verlust hast ob Gerwinn mit leichtem Sinn nimm Beides hin. Any information about this piece would be very helpful. Even what it says in english. Thank you