Hello all!
I hope you all had a great weekend and are preparing to brave the dreaded Monday ahead of you! This past weekend, I was dragged to a gun show in Allentown, PA that was hosted by the Forks of the Delaware Historical Arms Society by my boyfriend and his father. Much to my dismay of looking at antique guns for an hour, there was actually quite a bit of art at the show.
This semester I am taking History of Photography I, and so far, we have been learning about the creation of photography, how it evolved, and war photography. So it was pretty interesting to run into some very old tin types of Abraham Lincoln and miscellaneous soldiers, as well as some daguerreotypes of soldiers. There were some old war propaganda posters that were in pristine condition, and there was a gentleman selling re-prints of iconic war photographs.
However, my boyfriend just would not be himself if he didn’t come home with something. He disappeared for a few minutes and then came back with this German beer stein that was produced and hand-painted in West Germany during the WWII era. The stein is actually in gorgeous condition with bold colors and deep, rich blues. The stein itself is a ceramic relief quoting “Keinen Tropfen im Becher mehr
und der Beutel schlaff u. leer.” quoting the poem “Die Lindenwirtin” by Rudolph Baumbach in 1876. The text is printed on 2 panels on the cup and the panels are surrounded by a rich, dark blue tone. The text translates to, “no more drops in the beaker and the purse is slack and empty.” The stein is in excellent condition and even still has it’s pewter lid (although mild damage has been done to the lid).
So even though a gun show wasn’t an ideal way to spend my time, it did prove to be an interesting opportunity to apply my current course to real life examples and to learn more about an interesting object. This weekend ended up proving to me that I should keep an open-mind as art is truly everywhere.
Have a great week everyone! As always, thanks for the read!
