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From: Frank
Remote Name: 32.102.142.13
Tony — The Beer Stein Library probably contains several hundred steins decorated with copies of Defregger paintings, among which his "Zur Gesundheit" is clearly the most popular. Apparently German copyright laws (at least around 1900) offered far less protection than those in the US. Given the number of paintings that German stein modelers (like KB and GT) "borrowed" for their designs, my guess would be that German paintings were not even covered by the copyright laws of the time. In any event, different steins that appear to use "identical" images for the central decoration were all created individually and not built from any sort of "stock" mold that was shared between makers. It's always struck me as a little disingenuous for modelers like Beuler and Thinwibel to apply their signatures to steins featuring the uncredited work of another artist, but this was clearly a widespread practice during the "golden age" of steinmaking. - fjl