Section III

Regimental Steins

Thewalt produced three regimental stoneware steins for reservists – form 130 for Cavalry units, form 160 for Infantry units and form 161 for Artillery units. The Cavalry stein had a shield for the military scenes which was framed in relief. The Beer Stein Library has form 130, but the motif is definitely not that of a regimental stein. Obviously, this form was designed to serve many purposes. The other two regimental steins were in relief. Since these reservist steins sold for only two German Marks, they would have been an economical alternative to the fancier and pricier porcelain regimental steins. According to Herr Thewalt, the personalization of the reservist steins could have been done by either the Thewalt firm or a distributor. Thewalt reproduced these and other regimental steins after WWII. For further information on the Thewalt regimentals, see George Schamberger’s article in reference 3. According to an e-mail I received from George, Thewalt regimentals are difficult to find.

Thewalt also sells porcelain reproduction regimentals. These porcelain reproductions were made for Thewalt by Andexer Porzellanfabrikation in Kronach. Armke’s Beer Stein Site, reference 22, has some of these porcelain reproductions available for viewing.

Catalog Page of Regimental Steins

Character Steins

While Thewalt did not make many character steins, they are worth considering for your character stein collection. The Character Stein Book on the Internet states that Thewalt made a few character steins, but neither lists them nor shows any photographs. The Beer Stein Library only shows four old ones and six new ones. Form 175 (9001 for the modern version) is the Rich Man. Form 184 (9002 for the modern version) is the Munich Child. Form 487 (9004 for the modern version) is a Sailor on Barrel. Form 488 (9005 for the modern version) is a Woman on Stump. Form 9003 is a modern version of a Bavarian Woman (Thewalt 182 is the original, see the catalog picture shown below). Form 9006 is a modern version of a Sailor, but the original was made by an unknown manufacturer. Wilhelm Kamp actually designed the five character steins shown below for Thewalt. The newer version of the Herring stein, an old Reinhold Merkelbach mold, is also made by Thewalt. The newer versions of the old steins are easily distinguished by less pewter on the lids and brighter coloring.

The titles in the preceding paragraph are the titles used on The Beer Stein Library. Herr Thewalt provided me with the correct titles from the mold book. Form 175 is named Wurstmeir for the typical well-fed middle classes (bourgeoisie) of the 19th century. In Gene Manusov’s second book on character steins, he updated the information for ECS 201, the Rich Man stein, by stating it is a representation of John Bull, a personification of England or the English. While John Bull is drawn as a rather portly gentleman with a top hat and waistcoat, the waistcoat is usually the Union Jack and he does not appear with a monocle and beer stein. In addition, Herr Thewalt assures me that the designer did not intend the design to be that of John Bull. Form 182 is named Mädchenkopf or Girl’s Head or Zenzi (typical Bavarian girl). Form 487 is named Meier-Gustel for a typical guy. Form 488 is named Hessen Grit for a typical gal. Both forms 487 and 488 are dressed as Hessians. Form 9006 is named Hein Mück for a typical German sailor.

Form 175

Thewalt 182

Form 184

Form 487

Form 488

The original Sailor stein was form 1821, manufacturer unknown. Herr Thewalt found a Sailor mold in a flea market and it was made of porcelain. Since a porcelain mold would have been used for a porcelain stein, Herr Thewalt believes it was probably used in the Thuringia area. Herr Thewalt stated it does not appear in any of the Reinhold Hanke catalogs in his possession. Hanke has sometimes been named as the maker of this stein. I have the Sailor stein that has 1821 incised on the bottom, but it and others that have appeared in auction catalogs and stein books do not bear a manufacturer’s mark and they are pottery steins. The 1821 Sailor stein comes in both dark blue and white and grey and white. Sometimes the word Hamburg or another city/ship may appear on the cap. These were probably special orders for port cities. Thewalt made a new mold from the old porcelain mold, thus the newer version in somewhat shorter than the older version. This shrinkage in size may also be found in some of the reissues of old steins in 1970-1985 with the Grenzau mark. It appears we now have two mysteries – who made the pottery sailor stein and is there a porcelain sailor stein?

There is also an all blue version of the Sailor reproduction, although Thewalt did not finish any of them in all blue according to Herr Thewalt. I was able to examine the all blue Sailor stein and to compare it with my 1821 Sailor stein. The picture below clearly shows the shrinkage in size of the new stein. The all blue one does carry the modern Thewalt mark and the word Germany . Thewalt would have Western appearing over Germany during this period of production. I am convinced it is a genuine Thewalt and speculate that someone obtained some of them before they were finished. I tried using a black light on the Germany mark, but I couldn’t tell if the word Western was covered up. It could be that someone obtained the stein before Western was applied above Germany .

 

Thewalt Copy vs Unknown Sailor 1821

(actual size comparison)

Thewalt Sailor 9006

Paulus & Thewalt Steins

Yes, there are Paulus & Thewalt steins, but they were mostly made by Albert Jacob Thewalt. He and his brother-in-law founded Paulus & Thewalt to make stoneware products for pharmaceutical companies and laboratories. The three steins shown below, 242 (new), 466 (old) and 466 (new), were made to commemorate the 20th anniversary and 25th anniversaries of that firm. The new ones were reproduced in 1970, although they may not be true to the original colors and have different lids.  As previously stated, Paulus & Thewalt never produced steins. Walt Vogdes mentions a third Paulus & Thewalt stein made by Thewalt, see reference 11, but he did not provide a form number.

Form 242 – New

Form 466 – Old

Form 466 – New

The unnumbered stein in Walt’s article actually is form 466 (new), and is the second in the series.

See reference 8 for an article on form 536, originally thought to be the original 25th anniversary stein. Herr Thewalt was not sure why form 536 was made or why the body was changed. Perhaps the initial run was exhausted and additional commemorative steins were desired. Form 536 was made around 1910 and the change in the body may have been due to cost.

Form 536 – Old

Form 536 comes in three versions, the blue and brown background shown, a blue background and a green and brown background shown in Walt’s article.

I discovered a fourth Paulus & Thewalt stein on eBay, but it was not marked and obviously was not made by Thewalt as it was a print under glaze. Since the location was still shown as Höhr, it probably dates prior to 1936.

The Paulus & Thewalt confusion will probably continue for some time as there are books, such as the book on marks I mention in the third paragraph of the Modelers section, and articles out there that attribute the “TP” mark to Paulus & Thewalt.

Form 242 is 0,5L relief stein with a scene of a pharmacist, the banner above him has the following German text: Zur freundl. Erinnerung an den Besuch bei der Firma Paulus & Thewalt. Höhr 1902. (As a kind remembrance of the visit to the firm of Paulus & Thewalt. Höhr 1902.) The stein was produced for the 20th anniversary of that firm. The title in the Thewalt mold book is Apotheker-Seidel, Pharmacist stein. Forms 466 and 536 are 0,5L relief and relief/etched steins, respectively, of a pharmacist, the side panels have the following German text: In mir ist Wahrheit, ich kann nicht lügen. Gift trinkt man nicht aus solchen Krügen. (In me is truth, I cannot lie. One does not drink poison out of such steins.). Below the front scene of form 536 are the words Paulus & Thewalt Hoehr. The steins were made for the firm’s 25th anniversary in 1907. The title in the Thewalt mold book is Apotheker Studiert, the Studying Pharmacist.

My guess is that these steins were special orders, low production runs and intended as gifts for employees and/or customers of Paulus & Thewalt. If you want one of these rare beauties, you will probably need to go to Germany to find it.

SCI Convention Steins

Five of the SCI convention steins were made by Thewalt, see the accompanying photographs. The first one was for the 25th SCI convention held in Chicago in 1991. It is a black stein with a pewter medallion. Frank Loevi did an article on Thewalt’s pewter-banded steins, see reference 9, but the SCI one only has a pewter medallion. You can see the full-color version of the article on The Beer Stein Library, reference 14. The following year a print under glaze (PUG) blue stein with scenes of San Francisco was designed to look like a faience stein for the 26th SCI convention. In 2000, Thewalt made a boot (no lid, so it does not qualify as a stein) for the 35th SCI convention in Houston . Boot drinking vessels are popular in Germany , but this boot is definitely Texan. It features an outline of Texas with a lone star, an oil well, a spur shaped like a star, a long horn steer, cactus and plenty of rope wound around the stein. This was a numbered limited edition of 250. Herr Thewalt attended the convention and made himself available for those that wanted their steins autographed, in gold pen no less. This should make the signed steins a more desirable collectible in the future. A character stein designed after the Wallfahrtskirche (Church of the Pilgrimage) in Steinhausen was made for the 37th SCI convention held in Bad Schussenreid, Germany in 2002. This was a numbered limited edition of 250 steins. There is a pewter cross on the steeple that is quite susceptible to damage, so it may be very difficult to find one in absolutely mint condition. A standard beer stein with a PUG scene of the Queen Mary was designed for the 40th SCI convention held in Long Beach , California in 2005. This was a numbered limited edition of 160.

The five Thewalt convention steins are shown below. If you are interested in seeing the other SCI convention steins, there is a catalog of them on The Beer Stein Library, see reference 14. A membership for that site is required to view their beer stein catalogs.

SCI Convention Steins Made by Albert Jacob Thewalt GmbH

1991

1992

2000

2002

2005

Cooperation Among Stein Manufacturers

The Höhr-Grenzhausen area is a close knit community of pottery families. It was not uncommon for many of the stein manufacturing families to be related as they tended to marry into the many pottery families. Thewalt’s founder married a Gerz. Paulus married Thewalt’s sister, making them brothers-in-law. The Thewalts are also related to the Remys and Eckhardts. Breiden married Dümler’s sister. If you could trace all the stein manufacturing family trees, you would probably find they are close together and touching each other. Being so closely related, it was not unusual to see them assisting each other in the manufacturing process. John McGregor has done a lot of work on researching Hauber and Ruether and discovered a way to tell which firms assisted in making the steins by the type of manufacturer’s mark used. One firm that helped make HR steins was Thewalt. This article can be found on the Stein College web site as shown in reference 21.

Thewalt also assisted Simon Peter Gerz with what is billed as the world’s largest beer stein, which is approximately 45 inches tall, weighs approximately 46 pounds and holds 32L (about 8-1/2 gallons). When Gerz moved to Sessenbach, they were unable to use the new kilns to fire this relief stein after painting and could only cold paint the stein. A stein was sent to Thewalt where they taught the Gerz potters how to paint and fire the stein. Thewalt also did about 40 of these steins for their own account. So if you see one of these large steins and want to see if it was made by Thewalt, be sure to remove the detachable lid and empty all the contents of the stein before you tip it to see the mark on the bottom. Instead of the Thewalt mark you will find it signed by the painter, either Alfons Scheffler or Eberhard Kunzendorf if it was made by Thewalt.

I was initially attracted to this stein when I was researching the world’s largest stein, which I subtitled My Search for a Stein That Will Hold 99 Bottles of Beer. You know the song that you sang to pass the time on a trip in the car. I got about 110,000 hits on the phrase “99 bottles of beer” with Google. I actually found two versions of the song, the one I refer to as the minor version uses the phrase “if one of those bottles should happen to fall,” while the one I refer to as the adult version uses the phrase “take one down, pass it around.” If you are having a senior moment and can’t remember all 99 verses, you can read all the verses at http://www.funnyjunk.com/pages/beer_wall_.htm. You should be warned, however, to only go to this site if you need to or want to see all 99 verses. It also might help if you only do so on April Fool’s Day and have a good sense of humor and a quick wit.

Robert Ripley, of Ripley’s Believe It or Not fame, once collected steins, including this 32L monster. At one time, the Ripley Museum in Niagara Falls displayed this stein in their museum and featured it on their web site. Zöller & Born currently owns the mold and produces the stein in both the 32L size and the 15L size for those with a smaller thirst. The lid, which is detachable, can be found in either a woman or child playing the harp or King Gambrinus sitting on a keg of beer. The Zöller & Born web site is http://www.zoeller-born-bierkruege.de/ if you want to see their version of the world’s largest stein.

Photo from Ken Armke of OHI

(See Reference 22)

While this stein is claimed to be the world’s largest (I am still looking for Dümler & Breiden’s vessel made for a Chicago brewery in 1893) it falls 9 bottles short of the 99 bottle capacity I am seeking. The verse on the lid is: Die Alten Deutschen, which translates to: The Old Germans. The verse at the top of the stein is: Wer diesen Humpen leeren kann, ist fürwahr ein ganzer Mann, which translates to: He who can empty this stein is truly a man.  The verse at the bottom of the stein is: Nach froh verlebten Stunden erscheinen solche Kunden, which translates to: Customers appear as such after happily spent hours. This appears to refer to the scenes at the bottom of the stein, which includes a monkey for over indulgence and a cat for a hangover. The famous §11 symbol, keep on drinking, appears on the top banner. The scene on the body of the stein is a man and woman approaching a village church with a man standing on a barrel playing the bagpipe for several people.

I found several web sites offering the stein that attributed the scene to a painting by Brueghel entitled Flemish Country Wedding (Ken Armke was the first to suggest to me that this painting was the inspiration for the scene on his stein). I was unable to find a listing of that painting on the Internet. In addition, there were at least three artists with the name Brueghel – Pieter the Elder (1525-1569), Pieter the Younger (1564-1638) and Jan (1568-1625), a family of Flemish artists. I believe these references originated with the column The Stein Makers in the September 25, 1971 issue of The Tri-State Trader. SCI member and Master Steinologist Roland Henschen wrote about the World's largest beer stein. He attributes the 32 liter stein to the firm of Simon Peter Gerz GmbH. He adds further that the scene is based on the painting "Flemish Country Wedding" by Pieter Brueghel (the elder). While the Gerz firm was not registered until 1862, he stated that the stein was designed by A. J. Garz  around 1820 over a 15-month period. The Gerz family, however, produced pottery back to the 15th Century. I was unable to verify the spelling and date used for the article, but wonder if the name was a misspelling of Gerz. I couldn’t find an A. J. Garz, but Alois Jacob Gerz co-founded Rosskopf and Gerz in 1901, although he was listed as a businessman rather than a potter or designer. He, however, would have been too young to have designed it in 1862, let alone 1820. It was common in that age to keep the same names or initials in the family line, so there may be a connection there to give credence to a misspelling.

My search using the supposed artist’s name and the title of the painting did not lead me to any paintings close to the scene on the stein. The more I looked at the paintings of Pieter Brueghel, the more I doubted his painting would have been the basis for the scene on the Gerz stein. A bit of skepticism and a lot of persistence finally paid off for me. I finally decided to search using the most prominent and unusual thing shown in the scene, the person playing the bagpipe. A search under bagpipers led me to a web site run by Aron Garceau, see reference 25 that featured paintings of bagpipers. I sent a photo of the scene on the stein to him and he thought it was based on paintings by David Teniers II (1610-1690), perhaps not a particular painting but certainly how he normally depicts the bagpiper standing on a barrel or other such object.

I then searched using that artist’s name, which led me to the actual painting that was used for the stein. Some of Roland Henschen’s information came through oral discussions with the old time potters of Höhr-Grenzhausen. If you ever played that parlor game where one person is given a written phrase and whispers it to the next person and thereafter it is passed verbally around the room until it arrives back to the last person as an entirely different phrase, I think you will understand that the same thing probably happened here. David Teniers the Younger was the son-in-law of Jan “Velvet” Bruegel. While the painting shows a boy holding the lady’s train, leading one to believe it is a Flemish Country Wedding, the actual title is Flemish Kermess (Flemish Church Festival) and is dated 1652.

Flemish Kermess by David Teniers the Younger

(Photo from Reference 23)

One site speculated that the couple in the painting may be David Teniers the Younger and his wife and that the manor in the background may be a manor they rented prior to buying it in 1662. Aron Garceau proved to be my pied piper by leading me to the real artist and painting that was the inspiration for the scene on the world’s largest stein.

 

Other Material

The references below are well-worth reading or visiting the web sites to gain further insight about the Thewalt firm. The SCI Museum also has an article from the November 1967 issue of Made in Europe. The article is entitled A. J. Thewalt Produces Beersteins: Germany ’s Most Typical Souvenir. Unfortunately, the article was a poor copy and I could not use it. If anyone has a readable copy of this article please consider donating a copy to the SCI Museum so it can be made available to your fellow stein collectors.

Herr Thewalt was kind enough to send me some printed matter which I have included in Exhibits I, II and III. Exhibit I was a flyer (in English) printed on the occasion of the firm’s 100th anniversary in 1993. For newer collectors, Marzi & Remy and Dümler & Breiden also printed brochures on the occasion of their 100th anniversaries, but unfortunately they are only in German. Exhibit II is a copy of Thewalt’s 1898 catalog showing form numbers 0 to 110, approximately 80 steins. This is only a selected listing as 37 form numbers are not shown in this catalog. No prices are shown in the 1898 catalog he sent me. The photographs in the catalog are only in black and white. Exhibit III is an undated color catalog showing 17 steins, with prices. Since form 250 is shown in the catalog, I would estimate the date to be 1900 or later.

Update:

Since making this presentation to the Desert Steiners and writing this article, I have come across some additional information on the Thewalt firm. Pat Manusov wrote a seven part-series of articles on the Artists of the Westerwald. The final of the series appeared in the September 1999 Prosit. Pat stated that the current owner of Thewalt was told by his father that Wilhelm Kamp had an assistant named Karl Beuler and that Thewalt form 286, Tanzende Tiroler, or Dancing Tyroleans, bears the initials "KB." It seems odd, or at least unusual, that an assistant would be allowed to put his initials on a stein that was entered in the original mold book in the handwriting of Wilhelm Kamp. Herr Thewalt could not confirm that this was Karl Beuler or that he was the same "KB" that worked for Girmscheid. Herr Thewalt also could not confirm that the "KB" initials appear on form 286 until he examines the original mold. I was unable to confirm the existence of those initials appearing on Thewalt form 286 with anybody.

References:

1.                  Lopez, Liselotte, German Earthenware Steins, Prosit 09/74, pages 233-6. This was a reprint of the article in reference 13.  

2.                  Lowenstein, Jack G., Thewalt – The Old and The New, Prosit 09/80, page 708-9.

3.                  Schamberger, George, Thewalt Regimental Steins, Prosit 09/84, page1220-1.

4.                  Lowenstein, Jack G., New Thewalt Venture, Prosit 06/85, page 1342.

5.                  Sahm, Werner, New from Thewalt, Prosit 03/89, page 1867.

6.                  Henschen, Roland A., The Firm of Albert Jac. Thewalt of Höhr-Grenzhausen, Prosit 06/91, pages 2198-9.

7.                  Henschen, Roland A., Thewalt Firm…100th Anniversary, Prosit 12/93, pages 255-6.

8.                  Gaustad, John M., Confession of a Dilatory Researcher, Prosit 06/96, page 630.

9.                  Loevi, Frank, Contemporary Stein Collector – No. 9 Pewter-Banded Steins from Thewalt, Prosit 06/99, page 973-4.

10.              Berg, Jerry, The Multiple Molds of Thewalt Stein 1273, Prosit 03/04, page1589.

11.              Vogdes, Walter B., Alchemist? No Way!, Prosit 12/04, page 1699.

12.              Toussaint, Barry, American Souvenir Steins Part Two Thewalt, Prosit 12/07, pages 2298-2301.

13.              Lopez, Liselotte, German Earthenware Steins, Spinning Wheel November 1973, pages 22-25. This article was reprinted in the September 1974 issue of Prosit (see reference 1).

14.              The Beer Stein Library, The Thewalt Stein Catalog, http://www.beerstein.net/. Thanks to Frank Loevi for the use of his photos and translations.

15.              SCI Web Site Library, The Elusive “TP” Mark (a compilation of various articles on the subject), http://www.steincollectors.org/.

16.              Northcote Imports, Thewalt Beer Stein Factory Tour, http://www.germansteins.com/Thewalt_Factory_Tour.html.

17.               Beer Steins International, Tour of a Beer Stein Factory, http://www.beersteinsinternational.com/BSI/factory_tour.asp;.

18.              Stein Collectors, Tour a Stein Factory, http://www.steincollectors.com/steinfactory.

19.              German Mart, Factory Tour, http://www.germanmart.com/mainstore/content/products/steins.asp.

20.              Zuhlsdorff, Dieter, Keramik-Marken Lexikon: Porzellan und Keramik Report 1885-1935 Europa (Festland), Arnoldsche, Stuttgart 1994

21.              Albert Jacob Thewalt Mark on HR Steins. http://www.steincollege.com/bsc2hr/p15b.htm.

22.              Armke’s Beer Steins Web Site, http://www.ohiexchange.com/steins/.

23.              Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Flemish Kermess by David Teniers the Younger, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermesse_(festival)

24.              A special thanks to Herr Albert Jakob Thewalt who provided insight, information and materials to make this article possible.

25.              A special thanks to our pied piper who provided a key lead in solving this 37-year old mystery, Aron Garceau’s web site of paintings of bag pipers and of paintings by David Teniers the Younger can be found at http://www.prydein.com/pipes/.