 March
2003 - from Lindsay
After coming to Stein Collectors International for nearly the last year
seeking
information on steins, etc., I thought it was about time I shared with
all you
great people in the world of stein collecting how I came around to
collecting
steins in Australia. First of all though, I would like to thank
everyone at SCI
that has given of their time in helping me in this great hobby, beer
stein
collecting.
I have always been a bit of a collector but had no real direction and
really
enjoy anything with a bit of age. I have a lot of Brass and Bronze
items, some
very nice old clocks and a lot of English Toby Jugs. I did have a few
beer mugs,
(Japanese, ssshhh, who said that?), but nothing any good. Anyway,
I had,
over time, noticed lidded steins when visiting local trash and treasure
markets
in our area and what I also noticed was that these steins were jumping
out at
me. I mean, I started to notice the bold colours of the cobalt blue,
the reds,
the yellows and the patina of the pewter lids on the older steins, the
mix of
scenes displayed on these steins of groups of people all having a ball.
The first stein I actually picked up was a large musical stein by Wick
- Werke
(as I was later to discover). It has a beautiful old music box in the
bottom and
the tune was crisp and clear when I picked it up and it started
playing. What I
did notice was the weight of the thing, I was amazed at how heavy it
was. Once I
got home and placed it on the shelf with the rest of the mugs, I knew
one thing
for sure, and that was that my drinking vessel collection was about to
shrink
from about 15 of those mugs I mentioned earlier to one Musical Stein.
It shamed
the other items I had no end.
I remember asking Ron from SCI about the mugs I was going to get rid of
and
remember his reply, and I still laugh today about it. I asked the
question at a
time when Australia was in the grip of some pretty fierce fires, some
which had
been lit by arsonists. Ron informed me that a part of the punishment
for
starting the fires the arsonists should be made drink out of the mugs I
had.
Well that done me. Off they went. And, with that, my search for German
steins
began and I have sought them out ever since. Over time I have gathered
some nice
steins together, a lot are only contemporary but they really do appeal
to me. I
do have some nice older ones as you will see as you browse the pictures
and 2
sets that I am very proud of, one is the Marzi and Remy master stein
with its 6
original drinking steins and the other is my Cider set made by Werner
Corzellius.
I have steins by Thewalt, Gerz, Marzi and Remy, Wick-Werke, Reinhold
Merkelbach,
Eckhardt & Engler, Theodore Weiseler and Goebel.
We do it pretty tough finding good Steins in Australia and when some of
the
better ones turn up on eBay, etc., they are snapped up by buyers
outside
Australia, mostly because of the buying power of the US dollar against
the
Australian dollar. But that is only online, we still find nice steins
at garage
sales, Trash and Treasure Markets, and some of the live auction houses.
My pride and joy is the Marzi and Remy master stein and drinking
steins. Not
only because it is a cracker, but also because there is a story behind
it. I
first noticed the master stein for sale on eBay Australia; I followed
the
auction through to the end and ended up getting it for $70.00 AU.
The lid of this master stein was engraved as follows, “L K C C The
Kurringyup
Cup 1952 Sid Briggs, Net 68.” It was a trophy awarded to this man for
winning
a golf tournament. I was later to find out that this is a very
exclusive club
opened only to members and only overseas guests. It is a course the
Australian
open has been played on. Then 2 weeks after I purchased this master
stein, 2
drinking steins turned up for sale. These steins had the same pictures
and
designs that the master had, so I purchased these for $40.00 AU.
When I got them, sure enough, they were by Marzi and Remy. They had the
same
pictures, marks and everything. After this, I emailed the seller and
asked him
if he had any more of the drinking steins and he informed me there were
4 more
but they had been sold to a buyer from the US. After getting the
contact
information for the buyer, I emailed him and asked if he would like to
sell the
steins as they were part of a set that had a lot of Australian history.
After a
bit of begging, he agreed to sell them to me at a cost of $125.00 AU.
All up, my set cost me $235.00 AU,
but best
of all I was able to keep a bit of Australia’s history at home.
2 years on, and I am a collector of German steins, which I am proud of,
and have
now started to talk to other collectors in Australia in the hope of
setting up a
chat group (this is in progress) for Beer Stein collectors across our
wide,
brown land. One never knows, a Stein Convention in Australia? Get the
bar- b-que
out and get a banger on the barby and bust out the beer.
Hope this has been of some interest to you. Cheers from down under!
Lindsay
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