A Prankster in More Ways Than One

By John Piet

The first day of this month is widely known as "April Fools Day" where many pranks are played on unsuspecting victims. This humorous salt-glazed, stoneware stein c1900 by Marzi & Remy marked B&C 5884 was not intended to celebrate April 1st, but does exhibit the spirit of the day. The scene on the stein shows a student sneaking up on a night watchman in an attempt to blow the watchman's horn and scare him. This is more apparent in a composite image of the stein shown to the right and the colorized version shown below. The same scene and verse with different body can be found on Marzi & Remy #1829.

The verse across the top ,"Vorlesung über Academische Freiheit von Stud. Spund ", translates colloquially to "Example of Academic Freedom by a student clown (prankster)". Spund is an old German word meaning "bung" (plug in a keg), "spigot", "boy" or "teenager", but not used frequently anymore and can also mean "trick" or "prank" or perhaps "trickster" or "prankster".

The verse on the body of the stein,"Wo Glück und Gunst nicht will, da hilft Weisheit und Kunst nicht viel ", translates to "Where fortune and favor don’t work, wisdom and art won’t help much".

The prankster strikes again in the picture below, causing the stein to
cast a shadow that hides the fact that the chessboard squares
"A" and "B" are actually the same color. If you think I'm fooling you,
click on the image.

Compiments to the Beerstein Library and Translations Illustrated.

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