Beer stein

The ceramic mug with a tin lid was for a long time an indispensable attribute of the beer drinker until the clay was replaced by glass. The first half of the 19th century saw a decline in beer consumption, an alcoholic beverage that had been extremely popular for centuries. The number of breweries also declined. Their liquidation, especially small, rural enterprises, was due to the development of distilling, and distilleries of large landowners handled vodka production. In 1849, there were 304 breweries in operation in West Pomerania, of which only 51 (17%) were in rural areas. On the other hand, 463 small, non-professional rural breweries, making beer for their own needs and the needs of their immediate environment, were recorded*. The presented mug dated 1804 comes from when beer still occupied the top among alcoholic beverages drunk by peasants. To make it, the potter would first prepare clay with low iron content and mould it into the desired shape on the potter's wheel. Next, planning rich ornamentation, he would fire the mug in a potter's kiln to biscuit and then glaze it. After it cooled down, his wife (or daughter) would paint it, and the mug was fired again. The glaze fused with the metal oxides at high temperatures, creating a durable, even glossy surface. The final stage was the assembly of the lid, made to the potter's order in the pewter workshop.* According to Bogdan Wachowiak, Pozarolnicze działy gospodarki wiejskiej [Non-agricultural branches of rural economy], in: Historia Pomorza, vol. I–II, part I, pp. 310–314, Poznań 1993.

Iwona Karwowska