Replies to archived posts are not allowed.
From: Marc
Remote Name: 217.233.177.139
Hi Eric,
you must come to Germany one day and go to a big antique market, in Munich or Pfaffenhofen. See, around 1900, the old faience steins were very popular with collectors and therfore very expensive, so a huge amount of repros was produced. Some are easy to spot, from the hinge, for example, or when the painting looks as if done by my son (2 years old now). BUT...there are some as well you almost can't see the difference. About one year ago, I bought three faience steins on one of these markets. The price was horrible, but I had absolutely no doubt they're originals. They even had a signature on the bottom, a 'K' and three points, according to reference books the original signature of some Nuremberg artist (I forgot his name). However, the day came when I found out they're all made in the 'age of repros' - on the back of one of them is a year, 1776 or so. And at that time the above mentioned artist was already dead...a stupid error done by the one who made the stein. But what if he dated it back for some 20 years? What I wanted to say is that some repros are masterpieces of falsification. Signature, footring, old lid (often taken from an original, broken stein) with old pewter mark; they even buried the stein for some time in order to make it look older. So, although your stein looks as if it was original, I would never bet my house on it.
Meanwhile, I have two original faience steins, both bought "by hazard" - they were for BuyItNow on ebay for a very low price and I just gave them a try. Both proved originals. But all the others, bought on purpose... .
Kind regards Marc