Another mystic topic; "ritual crippled" Reservistenkrug ...

[stuka f]

I showed the tankard all ready as part of a deal I did last week!
But here it is for disscusion!
Here is the story; I baught it as a dammaged piece of china. As a profecional porcelan restorer it seemed to me like a challenge to restore a lithophane, wich is an etched and molded artwork in thin very translucent porcelain that can been found as bottom of any Reservistenkrug.A job I never did before!
But here it comes!
I kept on thinking how such dammage could occure to the krug , untill a forum member on a pickelhaube forum said that these kind of mutilation (punched hole in its bottom)was part of a ritual when a felow soldier died so no one else could use the tankard of the brother in arms.
That made me thinking again ( yes i had a lot of work last week!! (lol!)! I am quiet familliar with dammaged china, and for the experience I have with it,it seems to me that someone must be rather (maybe even "very"(!!!)) squilled to punch a hole in a tankard as it was done with thise one.I can easely imagine one be left over, only holding the handle of the tankard.
And when I started a surch regarding thise "ritual" i could only find 4 tankards with a similar dammage! 4 among the hunders of Reservistenkrug's there are to find on the internet.
So could they be hard to find! (Wishfull-thinking!!) (lol!!)
But I didn't found any evidence regarding thise crippling of a tankard would be a ritual dammage....
One more thing i want to add is that thise tankard belonged to a einjährige freiwilliger of the Chevaulegers-Regiment ,,Kaiser Nikolaus von Rußland” Nürnberg. Dated 98-99. And the form of the dammage looks very much to the forme of some lance points used by lancers regiments.
Cheers
|<ris

[Wagriff]

I'd never heard of this ritual either...interesting!

[Adrian]

I didn't realise there was an image to be found at the bottom of these, very fine work!

[stuka f]

I didn't realise there was an image to be found at the bottom of these, very fine work!

Beware as you will find them in fake's as well! But not the quality of the genuine!
cheers
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[stuka f]

I'd never heard of this ritual either...interesting!

Isn't it!
Didn't know thise eighter! Hope to find more evidence.
cheers
|<ris

[Scout]

Ditto that; never heard of the ritual either and interesting indeed!
I hope it turns out to be true.
Kudos for the reseach and thanks for posting this interesting historical tidbit and for the excellent photoes.

[Glenn66]

A beautiful piece regardless!

[Chopperman]

Ditto that; never heard of the ritual either and interesting indeed!
I hope it turns out to be true.
Kudos for the reseach and thanks for posting this interesting historical tidbit and for the excellent photoes.

I agree. I had never heard of this but I like the thought of it.

[Joec03]

Hi, I've also heard this tale of punching out the bottom of a lithophane so that another reservist can't drink out of a fallen brothers mug. I really can't say one way or another if this is true or not. I have seen other steins with punched out or damaged lithophanes, but is impossible to know if they were damaged over time or purposely. Keep in mind though, the lithophane is the thinnest and most delicate part of the stein. The lithophane is generally the first part of the stein to show it's age, hairline cracks are very typical in them.

In your private message to me you said you wanted to attempt a repair of the lithophane. I think the best way to repair the lithophane would be to replace it entirely with another lithophane, cut out of a cheap antique stein. A difficult task to say the least, but it's the route I would think is most feasible. It's the route I considered when I saw a rare death's head hussar regimental stein being offered for sale with a completely punched out lithophane. In the end though the stein ended up costing too much money.

[stuka f]

Hello, thanks for your elaborated reply!
Lithopane indeed are thin and brittle, but they are well concealed in a inner part of the krug, dammaging it has to been done on purpose....(!) in a certain way!
At the momment i baught it I was thinking about restorating it, but now with thise story coming up I am going to put that energy in trying to find proofs of thise suposed ritual.
The idea of putting a other lithophane in to the bottom might indeed be the simpliest way to do so! Because as far as my knowlegde regarding china goes, those lithophanes must have been placed into the bottoms at the very last (probably before the tin parts where added!)and it seems cemented (in a way I still have to find out!). Because it might very well be that those lithophanes couldn't stand the heat the krug was put in, in order to gets his finishing.
But on the other hand replacing the whole lithophane would contradict with the general idea of what a restoration stands for! And being a professional restorer thise would stand in the way of my vow regarding the Charter of Venice*.
*Venice Charter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
cheers
|<ris