Many Thanks To Jim's Father Peter,

for taking the time and trouble to send us this fascinating insight into the collecting of steins,

in case you do not know steins have been used by beer and ale drinkers for over 500 years, they have been made of ivory, porcelain, stoneware, faience, silver, pewter, wood, or glass in sizes up to nine gallons, steins by the nineteenth century were primarily European-made of stoneware and had pewter lids, some were made by Mettlach, Meissen, Capo-di-Monte, but many were produced by smaller less well known factories, by the way the words Geschutz or Musterschutz on a stein are the German words for 'patented' or 'registered design,' not company names,

but back to Jim's father Peter, he has a huge collection of them and has contributed to the Stein Collectors International Prosit magazine, I have posted a couple of pages from his article above and below,

I really had no idea that the hobby was so large,

I was even more amazed when I looked through the The Stein Auction Company's catalogue to see over 570 lots in just one sale, again many thanks to Peter for sending us the magazines, they are just so fascinating, Prosit!