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From: Walt Vogdes
Remote Name: 68.116.104.205
Date: 12/04/2003
Time: 10:36:16 AM
In general, this term came into use in the latter part of the 20th century when it provided some "cachet" and an implication of careful craftsmanship to be able to claim that an item was "handmade". 200 years ago this term would have been meaningless - what was the alternative to "handmade"? So when did this term come into use? It would not have been during the early stages of mass-production and machine work, because those processes were valued for their consistency and for the ability to produce products for a greatly increased market. It was only after hand work was almost totally displaced by mass-production that the view began to shift and "handmade" became a useful marketing phrase. Of course, there are no records on when the term first appeared on steins, but it certainly doesn't appear on turn-of-the-century pieces (1900), and in my opinion, it indicates a stein produced post-1950.