APPRAISER: Do you know anything about these objects yourself?
GUEST: Not really. I know that my father found them many years ago. Been in the family for about 35, 40 years.
APPRAISER: Whereabouts did he find them?
GUEST: I don't really remember, quite frankly.
APPRAISER: Well, these are both German steins. And generically speaking, German steins are very collectable because of the interest in ale and beer through the years. More specifically, these were made at the Mettlach factory, which was also known as Villeroy & Boch. And if we look at the mark of one, we will see that the mark itself is an impressed castle. And that is the symbol for the Mettlach factory, and should be found on most of the steins. There are other impressed marks on them. The only other one that would be of great importance would be the date. And in this case the date is '94, which would stand for 1894. Most of these steins were made between about 1890 and 1920. This number on the bottom, the large number, 1675, is the model number. And it's a wonderful number in Mettlach. And why I say it's a wonderful number, because there are many books on Mettlach and much information on it. And Mettlach itself is very easy to identify. You can go to a book, you can look up that particular mark, and in this case, this particular one is of Heidelberg Castle. And when you look this up, it will tell you that under that number, it will be a half-liter stein for Heidelberg Castle, that it will be of an etched design, and that it will have an inlaid lid. Now, an inlaid lid means that the ceramic has been inset into the pewter top.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: This stein is one of two that would have been made for the series of cards. And you have the various suits of the cards. The value on these steins are very, very similar, but for different reasons. Different collectors buy different steins by theme. Now, this stein here would be worth in the vicinity of $450 to $500, and this one would be worth slightly less, having the full metal cover rather than the inlaid cover, at $400 to $450. But they're both very collectable. Mettlach steins are a very organized group of collectors, a very, very competitive group of collectors, and basically they will buy the ones that are missing to help fill in.
