A Modern (Rastal) Stein Illustrated by an 1800s Artist

By Steve Breuning

In a 2018 article I wrote for Prosit (The Influence of “Rules of Competition” of German Shooting Festivals (Deutsche Schießfeste) on Stein Design and Decoration) I reference a modern stein that I particularly like. It is a ½ L porcelain stein made by Rastal in 1975 (Picture 1). It shows a festive scene of a Schützenfest. The more I studied the illustration of the shooting festival shown on the stein, the more I was impressed with the realism and accuracy it portrayed. I can look at this illustration and truly project myself back in time.

I hadn’t given the actual illustration much thought until recently when I began to wonder if some dedicated illustrator at Rastal took it upon him/herself to study the events of the time, or if the illustration was based upon some piece of art from the mid-1800s. So, a quest for clarification was begun. Through some internet searching, but more importantly browsing books and resources at the college library, I was able to identify several artists whose art work might have inspired the illustration on this stein.

An artist named Lorenzo Quaglio d.j. (Lorenzo Quaglio the Younger) seemed like a real possibility. Quaglio (1793 – 1869) was born and educated in Munich as a genre painter and Lithographer. He spent as much time as he could traveling through the Bavarian and Tirolian Alps. In 1812 his first lithography appeared, a study of nature. By 1820 his primary interest had become the study of Bavarian folk life, culture, and costume.

As I looked through collections of his works, I found it:  The painting used as the basis for the picture on the Rastal stein.

The painting is titled “Das Scheibenschießen in Bayerisch-Zell” (Target Shooting in Bayrischzell - 1853). There is no question that the picture on the stein is from this painting.

Probably because the stein is modern, and manufactured by a company better known for their high quality beer glasses, rather than beer steins, there has not been much interest or effort to study the inspiration for its decoration like there might have been for the more sought after, older steins. I point out that Rastal was owned by SCI Master Steinologist Werner Sahm (now deceased) and his brother Günter beginning in 1952 after their father passed-away. Werner was also the driving force behind the Westerwald Museum, which remains one of the finest you will ever see for beer steins. With this background it should not be surprising that Rastal made some high quality, accurately decorated, steins. An excellent review of The Rastal Collection is available in the Reading area of this site.

In looking at the art of Quaglio, I saw many paintings and lithographs which may well have been used on other steins. Pictures 3 (Ein Königsschießen im Hochland - A King’s Shooting in the Uplands), 4 (Kartenspielende Bauern - Card Playing Farmers) and 5 (Tanzdorfgasthof in einem Dachauer - Dance Village in a Dachauer) are three examples. (Click any of these images to see a larger view.) Any collector who has steins with unidentified scenes from the mid to late 1800s may want to look at the work of Lorenzo Quaglio d.j. Also, the decorations on other Rastal steins may warrant a closer study as well.

Ein Königsschießen im Hochland                                   Schützenfest am Tegernsee (1849)
A King’s Shooting in the Uplands                                             Shooting Fest at Tegernsee  

 
                Kartenspielende Bauern (1860)                                       Tanzdorfgasthof in einem Dachauer (1846)
       Card Playing Farmers                                                             Dance Village in a Dachauer