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Vol. 4, No. 1 – April 2014 Editor & Publisher Walter Swett Randy Satterfield has agreed to host our next meeting, May 17, 2014 that will be held at Rocco’s Pub, 1477 Roswell Rd., Marietta, GA. Watch for additional details from Randy or contact him at randysatterfield@earthlink.net. On February 22, the Dixie Steiners had our first meeting of 2014 in Greenville, SC. Thanks go out to Don and Angela Strack for hosting the meeting at the Bavarian Pretzel Factory. Don Strack made a presentation of “One Reason I Collect Steins” where he shared several of his favorites steins and the stories behind how he acquired them.

This milk glass stein is one of the rarest in Don’s collection and it dates to 1811. The image on the front is of a man preparing for a duel. Don believes the original owner may have been a duelist. His initials are engraved on the lid.

The second stein Don shared was a stoneware regimental from the 8th

Infantry Regiment, Metz, named to Reservist Private Mener. The lid has a

prism and there is a Stanhope of the Kaiser in the eye of the lion thumblift.

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One of the rarer steins in Don’s collection is this .5 liter Maschinengewehr Comp., Infantrie Regt. Nr. 118, Worms (Machine Gun Company, 118th Infantry Regiment, Worms) and is named to Reservist Mees. Each of the four side scenes features machine guns and it has a rather unusual shaped handle. The 3d Edition of Gary Kirsner’s “The Beer Stein Book” features a similar stein on page 283 which is named to Reservist Wollstäter. An interesting note is the fact that Wollstäter’s name appears on the roster of Don’s stein.

The oldest stein in Don’s collection is this small faience stein which dates to the 1790s. It is

believed to have been manufactured in Nuremberg, one of many cities where faience steins

were manufactured. It was purchased for $24.95 in a shop in Braselton, Georgia. The seller had

mistakenly identified it as a Capodimonte because of the “N” mark on the bottom.

One other special stein in Don’s collection is a Schierholz frog. Don reported that most of the

frogs are not especially rare, but very popular. Don was at a stein convention once and Les Paul

was giving a presentation on character steins when he held up one just like Don’s. Les asked if

anyone could tell the difference between his and any other Schierholz frog? No one raised their

hand and Les explained the difference was that his was the only one he had ever seen with

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glass eyes. Upon conclusion of the presentation Don approached Les and said “now there are

two of them”, because his frog has glass eyes as well. The rest of the frogs have ceramic eyes.

Here are a few steins that were offered at the steins for sale table:

The Show and Tell theme was “The Best Stein I Ever Purchased”

The first stein was from Walter Swett, his Cold War Regimental stein from 1977 - 1978

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when he was assigned to the 536th Military Police Company, Grafenwoehr Training Area, part of

the 7th Army Training Command. The front scene is a set of cross pistols above a MP bage.

One side scene is of the 7th Army Training Command unit patch and the other side scene is of

the coat of arms from the City of Grafenwoehr. Walter explained this was his best stein ever

purchased because it was his first.

Next up was Martin Hettich who shared a recent find from a Florida flea market that he is trying

to learn more about.

Martin described his find as “similar to a Regimental Stein in that it has its owner’s name around the top and a list of individuals on either side of the handle, but in this case, the owner, Miss Betty Nicholas, was a teacher and the roster was her students. On the front of the stein above a crest is “Class of 1969” and below the crest is “Frankfurt American High School.” So far he has learned that Miss Nicholas retired from Department of Defense schools on December 1999 after spending 43 years abroad as an educator where she served as a high school English teacher, assistant principal and language arts curriculum coordinator. After retirement she coordinated a high school student foreign exchange program in the Sarasota area. She died in 2010 at the age of 80. Martin is anxious to learn if this stein was:

1. presented to Miss Nicholas by her students; 2. presented to all teachers at the Frankfurt American High School; or, 3. if the stein was available for purchase by the students and the teacher as a memento of their time at this school?

If you can help Martin in his research, please drop him a line at m.hettich54@gmail.com.

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Don Franz, who specializes in collecting Patriotic themed steins, shared this beauty with us:

Nick Griffin shared his story of this blank Mettlach 1526. Last fall, The Carolina Steiners met in

Sanford, N.C. Nick and his wife Cheryl arrived early, and toured the antique shops of nearby

Cameron. That is when he came across this blank stein that he immediately recognized as a

Mettlach 1526. Nick, who has several undecorated blanks, has found this to be a very

affordable niche for the collector on a budget to get a quality piece.

This one was pretty nondescript except for the lid with the monogram of “NG” – his own initials –

so this made it a must have. After a bit of haggling he was able to purchase his new stein for the

paltry sum of $35.00.

One never knows what treasures may be waiting just around the next corner.

One other great aspect of this stein was the radish, fork and wurst thumblift.

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Jerry Berg shared a couple of steins with the group. The first was a 2.25 liter monk stein that he

purchased on eBay. The listing provided enough information so he was able to deduce that it

was a stein by Fritz Thenn. There was nothing in the description to provide a clue of it’s size; no

estimate of capacity; no indication of height or diameter; and nothing in the photo to help

establish scale. Jerry explained he thought he was bidding on a 0.5 liter stein. When he

received his new acquisition, he was surprised to see what he had won. He wrote to the lady

who listed the stein and told her that her listing had given him no indication the stein was so

large. Her response was curt, “all sales are final.” So be it!

The second stein Jerry shared was a 0.5 liter Franz Ringer design illustrating the Nuremberg

Funnel. The Nuremberg Funnel is a humerous way of depicting a mechanical way of teaching

and learning. Jerry explained how he “gets a charge out of most of Ringer’s whimsical designs.”

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Here are additional photos of some of the other steins brought in to share.

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We are always looking for articles. If you have an idea for one, or something fully developed,

please contact the editor at wms2905@aol.com and we will get it published in an upcoming

issue.

We also need someone to host the Fall meeting. If you are interested, let me know!

WANTED: New members for the Dixie Steiners. If you know someone that might be interested,

please share this newsletter with them.

Visit the Dixie Steiners Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Dixie-

Steiners/169519776400162