Description: Presented is an early German creamware beer stein made around the 1790s to the early 1800s. The stein was made at the Guischard factory in Magdeburg.

The Guischard factory (1756-1839) received a royal privilege in the Duchy of Magdeburg in 1786 to produce creamware after Leeds examples.

Creamware is a cream-coloured refined earthenware with a lead glaze over a pale body, known in France as faïence fine, in the Netherlands as Engels porselein, and in Italy as terraglia inglese. It was created about 1750 by the potters of Staffordshire, England, who refined the materials and techniques of salt-glazed earthenware towards a finer, thinner, whiter body with a brilliant glassy lead glaze, which proved so ideal for domestic ware that it supplanted white salt-glaze wares by about 1780. It was popular until the 1840s.

The stein was nicely painted by a skillful artist with a picture of a man holding a pitcher in one hand and a beer stein in another - I think he looks quite happy

Nice pewter lid with a typical late-1700s hollow ball thumblift and a five-ring closed-type hinge connecting to the lip ring. There is also the pewter foot ring.

A very nice, beautiful example of an early German drinking vessel. It is in relatively good condition for a ceramic piece that old. There are several hairlines and the pewter seems to be repaired. There are no major breaks, losses, or repairs to the body. Excellent appearance. 

The pewter lid is marked with the town mark of Sprattau - a city in the former Prussian province of Silesia, now a town in Poland. It was a large center of pewter production.

For more information about the Guischard Magdeburg factory, see Katalog des Kulturhistorischen Museums Magdeburg zur Ausstellung "Die Magdeburger Fayence- und Steingutmanufaktur der Familie Guischard".

There is no visible mark, but I used to have a very similar stein with the same features and an ornate lower handle connection, without the pewter plate at the bottom, and it was marked with Guischard factory marks. 

The stein is 10" tall to the top of the thumblift, 1 L capacity.