A Double Overlay Glass Stein with an Interesting Lid Inlay

Provided by Ron Hartmann, St. Louis Gateway Steiners

Pictured here is a colorful double overlay glass stein, a clear glass body overlaid first with white and then blue glass. The blue and white glass layers have been wheel cut away to expose the clear glass body to create a beautiful pattern of all three layers of glass. The pewter work is also very finely made. The thumblift mounted onto the lid and the closed hinge indicates the stein would date from the late1860’s A hand painted ceramic insert has been set into the lid.

While this attractive stein was purchased for its fine workmanship, the scene depicted on the lid insert was also quite interesting. The scene shows a woman milking a goat while a tall gentleman stands alongside her drinking a stein of what, goat milk? Not beer? That doesn’t seem very likely. In the background others sit around a table, drinking. The scene is captioned: Dem Einen hilft die Gais, Dem Anderen der Bock. A translation of the caption helped make clear what was going on. Translated, the saying reads: “One is being helped by the female goat (Gais, a variant of Geiß, meaning “female goat) the other the Bock (male goat).” But there is a double meaning here. While a “Bock” is indeed a male goat, in this case it is a play on words and is meaning the dark seasonal beer called Bock beer. It is good to know that these drinkers were enjoying Bock beer and not healthy goat’s milk.

This stein is one of only two such layered glass steins in my collection. More will examples will follow, I’m sure. The various methods used to produce and decorate glass steins are quite interesting. I’m always amazed at the talent and skill of these artist decorators. It is good to see first-hand one of the many techniques described in the December 2016 Prosit featuring glass steins.