Stein Collectors International
Featured Stein: May 2020

Two Student Liqueur Service Steins

By John Piet

Featured this month are a pair of student association pouring steins, or Karaffen (Carafe), from a likör Service (liqueur serving set). The service would usually come with the carafe, six Gläschen (small glasses) and a Tablett (serving tray). It would usually be used for serving an after dinner liqueur or schnapps. Each stein has a capacity of about 0.3 Liters, or about enough to fill eight schnapps glasses.

A student association carafe is quite rare in comparison to a student association stein. This is most likely due to the cost of buying a full service versus one beer stein. A service usually sold for 50-80 Reichmarks, while a stein went for 15-20 Reichmarks. An ad for a student association service can be see below.

There is no decorator's mark on either of these steins, but the knight's helmet style of the lid is very typical of the work of Friedrich van Hauten of Bonn who specialized in decorating steins for the student associations.

The association of the stein on the left is Corps Teutonia Giessen, located at the university in Gießen, known as "Ludoviciana" (Ludwig's University). The association of the stein on the right is Corps Bavaria Würzburg, at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (commonly referred to as the University of Würzburg). The side view of one of the steins showing the unusual handle design and close ups of the helmet lids are shown below. Further below is an advertisement for a liqueur service taken from an early 20th Century Max Lindner catalog. Max Lindner was a Munich decorator and purveyor of various student association articles including steins, clothing, swords, rings and more.

See Chris Wheeler's Steinmarks for more information on Friedrich van Hauten and Max Lindner.