Not currently on display at the V&A

Tankard

ca. 1909-1914
Artist/Maker
Reinhold Merkelbach Factory (manufacturer)
Wynand, Paul (designer)
Place of origin
Höhr-Grenzhausen (made)

Beer tankard (0.5 L) of stoneware with brown iron wash under salt-glaze. Squat cylindrical body with a strap handle. Relief decoration of vertical rice pattern round the top and a band of reeding round the base. Pewter lid with thumb-piece.


Object details

Object type
Tankard
Materials and techniques
Salt-glazed stoneware with pewter lid
Stoneware
Pewter
Glazed
Brief description
Beer tankard (0.5 L), salt-glazed stoneware with pewter lid, designed by Paul Wynand, made by Reinhold Merkelbach factory, Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany, ca. 1909-14
Physical description
Beer tankard (0.5 L) of stoneware with brown iron wash under salt-glaze. Squat cylindrical body with a strap handle. Relief decoration of vertical rice pattern round the top and a band of reeding round the base. Pewter lid with thumb-piece.
Dimensions
  • Height: 12cm
  • Diameter: 11cm
  • Length: 14.6cm (Note: incl. handle)
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'R.MERKELBACH / GRENZHAUSEN' (maker's mark impressed on the base)
  • 'WYNAND' (designer's mark impressed on the base)
  • '2118' (model number impressed on the base)
  • 'K' (impressed on the base)
Credit line
Given by Robin Hildyard
Object history
This beer tankard was designed by the sculptor Paul Wynand (1879-1956) for the Reinhold Merkelbach pottery. The pottery was founded in Höhr-Grenzhausen in 1845 and manufactured tankards for use in pubs and bars. The brown glaze was developed around 1904-8 with the intention of reproducing the sixteenth-century brown-glazed stoneware which had been discovered in Cologne in the 1890s. The V&A's existing collection of Höhr-Grenzhausen salt-glazed stoneware productions are mainly of the type decorated in cobalt blue.
Bibliographic reference
Gaimster, David. German Stoneware 1200-1900: Archaeology and Cultural History. London: British Museum Press, 1997, colour plate 189, centre left.
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
C.220-2014

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Record createdMay 8, 2014
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1292860/tankard-wynand-paul/
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