A while back, Ron Fox sent me some photos of the stein in figure 14 and said he was curious as to how I would classify the stein, as a Saeltzer, or an HR. Well, faster than Br'er Fox (no relation to our editor by the way) could fling Br'er Rabbit into the Briar patch, I was having a philosophical discussion with myself on that very subject. The nice thing about these discussions is that I get to pose the questions, provide all the arguments and decide the outcome. This is a very satisfying process and if done in a constructive manner, actually provides greater insight and understanding of the subject matter. As a result, my thinking has changed slightly concerning the source of some "HR" marked, enameled pieces.

All August Saeltzer decorated steins are August Saeltzer decorated steins, that is a given, but should all August Saeltzer decorated steins be bundled together as a single group and then simply be called "August Saeltzer" steins? The answer to that question, arrived at after many years of consideration, that culminated in the philosophical discussion mentioned above, is NO they should not.

August Saeltzer was an earthenware manufacturer and a decorating workshop located in Eisenach. (See Ron Fox's article, "The August Saeltzer Factory," in the December 1998 issue of Prosit.) Saeltzer purchased stoneware bodies from at least seven factories; Reinhold Hanke, Reinhold Merkelbach, Marzi-Remy, Duemler and Breiden, A. J. Thewalt, Regensburg, Freising and probably others that I haven't been able to verify so far. All of the bodies purchased, decorated and signed by Saeltzer artisans should be considered "August Saeltzer" steins. See figures 1, 2 and 3.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

The problem of attribution arises when we find factory marks other than Saeltzer's on the steins, such as those of Regensburg and Freising. See figures 4 (Zinkl-Thenn), 5 (Fritz Thenn) and 6 (Hauber & Reuther).

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

How can you attribute a stein with the mark of another factory to Saeltzer? This would be the same as attributing a stein marked "HR" to Merkelbach and Wick (figure 7), or S. P. Gerz (figure 8), simply because they made the body.

Figure 7

Figure 8

It is obvious that both the Regensburg and Freising factories, in addition to selling blanks to Saeltzer, commisioned Saeltzer to decorate steins they could sell under their own banner. They purchased the services of Saeltzer to enhance their own products. These steins are the ones with the Regensburg and Freising factory marks, that should be referred to as Zinkl-Thenn, Fritz Thenn, Freising, or Hauber & Reuther rather than August Saeltzer. Perhaps the best description would be "Hauber & Reuther, model 15, decorated by A. Saeltzer."

A couple of other examples would be steins marked "TW" seen in figure 9 and those marked "LB&C" as seen in figure 10. We identify these as Theodor Wieseler and L. Bauernfreund & Co. respectively, NOT as Hauber & Reuther, the company that actually manufactured them.

Figure 9

Figure 10

A number of Regensburg catalogs have survived the intervening years. Catalogs of at least four distributors of Regensburg factory steins were found in a private Regenburg collection; Johann Laifle, H. Herbst, P. Schindler and Eugen Friedrich Wiedemann, two of which illustrate Saeltzer decorated steins. Figure 11 below, is a page from a Johann Laifle catalog that shows Saeltzer decorated steins with Regensburg factory assigned model numbers of 500 to 554. Note that the "ZT" and "FT" steins above are numbers 532 and 519 respectively. The second catalog page, in figure 12, is from H. Herbst and illustrates two pokals. Both are model number 685, but while otherwise identical, they have different subject matter in the central cartouche. The model number is followed by a letter designator. Model 685a has a portrait in the cartouche and model 685b has a verse in the cartouche. Note: While these are the "standard" catalog pieces, Regenburg had Saeltzer decorate the random piece on occasion, perhaps due to a special order, such as models 176, 183 (figure 18), 220 and 246 (figure 19).

Figure 11

Figure 12

Although the Freising/HR factory had showrooms and sales personnel in Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Amsterdam, London and a permanent booth at the Leipzig Fair, no catalogs are known to have survived, so we must construct our own. In 1980, SCI published Mike Wald's "HR Steins" and since 1993 I have been building upon Mike's data and now list 875 varieties, of 341 model numbers, including 62 character steins. I have photos of 639 of the 875 varieties.

Figure 13

Figure 14

Figure 15

Figure 16

Of all those varieties, I have recorded only five Saeltzer decorated model numbers marked "HR." They are model numbers 3 (figure 13), 15 (figure 6), 20 (figure 14), 29 (figure 15) and 79 (figure 16). Model numbers 3, 20, 29 and 79 are known from single examples only, the model number 15 is available in sizes from 1/2 liter to 3.0 liters. Also, number 15 is found as both HR (figure 6) and Saeltzer (figure 17) signed pieces. They are dirivatives of the Freising/HR model numbers 104 and 208. It also appears that the full color HR character steins (figure 18) were also desorated by Saeltzer

Figure 17

Figure 18

So, now we have reviewed Saeltzer decorated steins with both Saeltzer and other factory marks. To the best of my knowledge the Regenburg and Freising factories are the only two factories with their marks on Saeltzer decorated pieces. How do we classify unmarked, Saeltzer decorated steins from Regensburg (figures 19 and 20) and Freising (figures 22 and 23)?

Figure 19

Figure 20

Figure 21

Factory marks from Regensburg are rarer than hen's teeth. Over the years I have collected about 70 Regenburg factory pieces and not a one of them has had a factory mark. The two pieces illustrated above in figures 4 and 5, with the painted "ZT" and "FT" marks, plus a photo of an incised "FT" mark (figure 21) Ron Fox sent me, are the only factory marks I have ever actually seen. Therefore, what I'm proposing, is that any Regenburg pieces decorated by Saeltzer and left unmarked, should be considered "Regensburg" steins.

Figure 22

Figure 23

The same holds true for any Freising stein manufactured before 1882 when the Hauber & Reuther partnership was formed. Prior to that, no factory logo was used at Freising, so any pieces decorated by Saeltzer for the Freising factory would be left unmarked, simply because there was no factory mark to apply. So, as with Regensburg, any Freising manufactured pieces, decorated by Saeltzer, without any markings, should be considered "Freising" steins.

I know there will be some that disagree with me on this, so if you have a better solution to this question, let's see it in Prosit.

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