Description: This beautifully crafted ceramic beer stein was made by Villeroy and Boch in Mettlach in around the 1850s - 1860s.

This stein is made in a style that is very familiar to many Mettlach collectors - with marbled stoneware and applied. The stein is made in shape of a beer keg or barrel with sculptured staves and applied stoneware relief hoops highlighted with platinum enamel - this is one of very few Mettlach steins that could qualify as "character" steins.

The quality of craftsmanship is simply astonishing - nobody else neither before nor after Mettlach was able to achieve such perfect quality of ceramics.

Please note that Mettlach only used this metallic platinum glaze through the early period which is considered 1840s-1860s.

The stein is enameled with white enamel on the inside. The lid is pewter with a ceramics inlay showing a radish - the favorite beer snack in Germany at the time.

The stein is only marked with 468 model number - there is no Mettlach Mercury or Tower mark. This is an early Mettlach piece - not all the steins were fully marked in the 1860s. However, this model is well-documented.

Excellent condition with no chips, lines or repairs. Please note that this model 468 in 0.5L size with the radish lid comes with no pewter thumblift - the radish bears its function. The smaller version may have a thumblift as well as the on with gnome toppled lid inlay.

It is 6" tall to the top of the thumblift, 0.5 L capacity.