Mettlach Beer Steins

Mettlach beer steins, or lidded stoneware beer mugs, take their name from the village in which they were made. Antique beer steins have a long history predating the Golden Age of their production in Mettlach during the 1890s, by Villeroy and Boch, a well known German pottery manufacturer.

Antique Beer Steins were originally produced in stoneware with lids, and this remains the standard method of production. Legend tells us that lids were first added to beer mugs, or steins, during the Great Plague which swept across Europe in the 16th century. Any measures to stop infection were used, though unfortunately to little effect. Whether or not this is the real reason for the introduction of lids, the beer steins became a popular item produced all over Germany in many different designs and materials. The lids were usually pewter, though sometimes silver was used for special hand-painted Steins. Often the lid had a stoneware inlay to match the design of the mug itself. It is important to collectors that the lid remains intact and attached to the antique Stein.

Antique Beer Steins carry many designs, from battle scenes to oriental patterns to jolly rural scenes. These designs are occasionally hand painted, but more usually printed onto the stein. Some are in relief. The beer stein may be made from many materials such as stoneware, earthenware, crystal, even wood. The most popular material for the lid is pewter. Most Mettlach Beer Steins are either 1 litre or a half litre in volume, though they were produced in other sizes.

Mettlach Beer Steins were first produced by the famous German pottery company Villeroy and Boch in their factory at Mettlach in the Western German region of Saarland. They proved so popular that they began to be produced in other factories but still carried the name Mettlach. The Golden Age of the Mettlach stein was from 1885 until the First World war broke out in 1914. Stein were individually marked, making them easily identifiable and verifiable for collectors today.

There are several styles of Mettlach Beer Steins, with painted or printed decorative designs, or in relief. The earliest steins produced in Mettlach were “tree trunk relief” with moulded designs encrusting the Beer Stein. These were produced mainly from 1880-85. After this production techniques grew more sophisticated and other types of stein emerged.

The first new development was etched or chromolith steins, with flat colored designs separated by etched black lines which can be felt when holding the Stein. Although mostly pictorial, etched steins were produced in flowing abstract designs, but these are generally referred to as Art Nouveau Steins.

Relief Mettlach Beer Steins feature a design in a lighter colored ceramic in relief over a darker background. Similar to these are steins with a Cameo design, which use a more translucent clay in the relief designs.

A great technical development was the use of lithographic printing to make Mettlach Beer Steins with attractive colored designs . These designs were printed onto paper which was applied to the pre-fired stein, then covered with a translucent glaze and fired again, producing a durably decorated Beer Stein which could be manufactured in large numbers. The technical name for this method of Mettlach Beer Stein production is Print Under Glaze, or PUG.

For special occasions, or on request, hand-painted Beer Steins were produced. These were often painted by artists outside the Villeroy and Boch factories, and each one is unique.

The trademark on a Villeroy & Boch Mettlach Beer Stein is the tower mark, an incised picture of an Abbey tower with a banner bearing the name Mettlach and the initials V B underneath it. This will be on the base of the pot. It will usually also bear a number which identifies both the form and the design, making it easy to check the origin of the Antique Beer Stein.

Most of these highly collectable Mettlach Beer Steins are now in the USA. They became very popular after World War II, when many soldiers returned from combat bearing these attractive souvenirs from Germany.

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