The Early Years 1876-1882
by
John McGregor
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After Max Borho left the Regensbug factory, in August of 1875, he moved to Freising where he established a second stoneware factory on January 1, 1876, with a new partner, Adam Schön. In 1868 Schön had purchased house #62 in the Wörth district, from two couples, Corbian and Cresentia Schlemmer and their daughter Anna and her husband Michael Wimmer. Schön paid 6,300 Gulden, or about 12,600 Marks for house and property. By January 1, 1876 it had been converted into a 7,500 sq. ft. factory. Freising is about 30km NNE of Munich, in an area devoid of the proper clay, so it was necessary, just as it was in Regensburg, to import clay from the Westerwald. The company was called "Schön and Borho". There is reason to suspect Reinhold Hanke's involvement in the establishment of both the Regensburg and Freising factories, and that is the difficulty in identifying which of the factories manufactured certain "altdeutch" (Old German) style pieces. Max Borho had possibly been a modelleur for Hanke, and when he established the Regensburg and Freising factories he used many of the same decorative stamps, roll stamps and applique molds that had been used by the Hanke factory. Did these stamps and molds belong to Borho or Hanke? Did Borho remove them from the Hanke factory without Hanke's permission, or did Hanke suggest that Borho take them to ease the establishment of the new factories? However it actually played out, reasons to suspect a link between Reinhold Hanke and the Regensburg and Freising factories refuse to go away. Even the death of Reinhold Hanke in June of 1886 coincides with the closing of the Thenn factory in Regensburg and the end of steinzeug production by Hauber & Reuther in Freising. Sometime, prior to October, 1876, the same year the factory was founded, Max sold his interest in the company to Albert Hauber and quietly disappeared from the world stage. The Freising factory was productive from 1876 to at least 1907, but little in the way of factory history has survived the intervening years. This article concerns itself with the early years from 1876 to 1882, prior to the factory becoming Hauber & Reuther. In 1877 the Freising factory received some negative press. Shortly after the 1876 German Arts and Crafts Exhibit in Munich, there were published reports that both the Regensburg factory of Zinkl-Thenn, and the Freising factory of Schön-Hauber, produced wares inferior to those of Merkelbach & Wick of Grenzhausen. Among other things, this tells us that in less than one year, the factory ownership had changed from "Schön-Borho," to "Schön-Hauber." We know this from the published reports below.
This criticism was taken to heart, and as a result, I believe a number of "altdeutche" (Old German) style pieces were eventually dropped from production, and the character steins, even though they are not mentioned in the above criticism, were redesigned to bring them more in line with those made by other factories, specifically Merkelbach & Wick. Later events suggest that the pieces in question, already in inventory, were pulled and placed in storage. In 1988 and 1990, there were thousands of ceramic shards recovered from two digs in Freising. These digs excavated two dumps associated with the Freising factory. Among the shards recovered, were fragments of steins, punch bowls, plaques, candle holders, etc.. It was the shards from the 1988 dig that led to our being able to identify steins produced at the Freising factory. I have provided examples from each production period.
These capacity marks were used by the Freising factory prior to 1882. At first they were located on the front of the stein, but by late 1878 they had all been moved to the back above the handle.
The model number on the left is 10 mm in height and was used only in 1876, the one on the right is 5 mm in height and was used from late 1876 on. Note the different font styles.  For the sake of discussion I've called these geometric, or pictorial, stamps Quality Control (Q.C.) marks. These are a few of those used and the most common I've seen is the one on the left that looks like an Edelweiss. These stamps were applied while the clay was still damp and were used from 1876 on.  The Decorator's Initial, for lack of a better term, is a scratched in initial that may belong to the person who decorated the piece. Of those seen so far the "R," "b," "L," and what looks like a "Jc" are the most common. It is quite possible that the decorators were paid by the piece and these initials were tally marks. The initials were scratched in after the clay had dried, prior to firing, and were used from 1876 on.
Maximilian Borho and Adam Schön produced “Old German” (Historismus) style products, similar to those made by Reinhold Hanke, narrow bodied character steins and somewhat contemporary style steinzeug. A large,10 mm, model number was used during this period. In late 1876 Max Borho sold his share in the factory to Albert Hauber.
During the Adam Schön and Albert Hauber period the products remained unchanged, except for the model numbers being reduced in size from 10 mm. to 5 mm.
On August 6, 1878, Adam Schön sold the factory and all of its assets to Albert Hauber for 32,000 Marks. Included in the sale with the property and house #62 in Freising was a potter's kiln with wood shed, business warehouse and yard. The sale of the factory also included the existing inventory that consisted of: "furnishings, forms, models, tools and other items necessary for, or of the service to, the factory operations, together with the entire stock of wares." The factory began to produce truly contemporary Westerwald style blue, manganese and grey steinzeug, and the character steins were remodeled with more robust bodies, similar to those made by Merkelbach & Wick.
In 1882 the factory ownership changed once again, to Hauber & Reuther (HR), but the product line remained essentially unchanged until 1886.  to Table of Contents. |
Copyright © 2002 by John McGregor. All rights reserved.
