Posted 5 years ago
EAPGDepres…
(69 items)
So I posted this pewter stize sometime back asking for help with identification. If it wasn't for the reassurance of the members here and a kind gentleman with a vast amount of pewter knowledge It wouldn't be back on here again. I went to a major auction house and was told this was a German stein and they couldn't provide much information beyond that. I wanted to know more so I spent some time researching the best person to ask. I consulted with a gentleman who said it was swiss but he could not locate the maker's marks in his books. I'm not sure if it's ok to mention his information but I will say this. I will be joining the society and paying my dues to access their database in the future. With his information, I consulted one of the larges stein houses on the internet who said my stein had fantasy marks and couldn't date any later than the late 19th c because of the hinges. I almost gave up but decided to trust my gut and leave the stize on my computer. I spent this past month on and off investing my time into learning everything I could about pewter steins. Tonight I couldn't sleep so I decided to revisit the stein after it caught my eye while I was sitting at my computer trying to kill time until my eyes got heavy. This time I'm not exactly sure how but I put the right combination of words in and found a site called pewterbank.com. I consulted their document containing notes on Swiss flagons. I couldn't believe my eyes when I found my mark. So this is just basically a story letting you know if you are fierce and tenacious good things will come to you. Also, the experts are not always right. And it's important for everyone to invest their time and energy in to doing research and learning about these precious gems we come by every day. If you don't you may lose out on a lot. Without this tenacity, I would not have the vast amount of knowledge I do about pewter. I can now make more investments in the future in these items and feel safe doing it. The information and experience that I gained from this are invaluable. And I will tell you it's not the first experience of this type that I have had with the so-called "Experts". Experts are not a means to an end nor do they know "everything". I am not knocking experts either because if it wasn't for one expert I would not have had the bread crumbs to follow to get where I am at now. They are just the beginning of your journey and you should do the legwork if you want to find the answers. Now my research on Abraham Ganting of Bern begins.
Edit: I may have been a bit hasty on the maker. I looked closer and I think this is a Geneva mark meaning it's a different maker. More research is needed.
Good for you! Congratulations:)
Very well said. Research Research Research. Thanks for posting this.