Vodkapundit - This Is Why I Don't Try To Steal His Beer

This Is Why I Don't Try To Steal His Beer

Posted by Will Collier · 25 September 2005

Something wasn't quite right about the pewter flagon on the auction block in front of Donald Herr.
The antiques expert knew it was authentic, and the "1762" marking in front attested to its age. But something about the pitcher's feet -- tiny cherubs' heads -- jogged Herr's memory.

Normally, the flagon would have two feet in front and one in back to make the container easier to tilt forward for pouring Communion wine into goblets. But this flagon was different: It had one foot in front and two in back.

Just like a flagon that was stolen from the Historical Society of Frederick County 30 years earlier.

Herr rushed home to look at pictures of the stolen decanter. He had collected the images long ago while writing a book about pewter church antiques, and he found that the two flagons were identical, down to the dents and the initials of its creator, Johann Christoph Heyne, an 18th-century German craftsman in Lancaster, Pa.

Donald Herr is my father-in-law.

The Post article leaves out most of the story, but he went to some pretty remarkable lengths to make sure that nobody unknowingly bought a stolen item, and that the decanter got back to its rightful owners. Due to staff turnover, nobody at the historical society even remembered that it had been stolen. Neat stuff.

Comments

Well, after stealing his daughter's heart, it would be most ungentlemanly of you to steal his beer as well.

Posted by: Scott Wickstein at September 25, 2005 06:35 PM

cool! Nice job on his part!

Posted by: caltechgirl at September 25, 2005 07:17 PM

Will, you folks getting any weather over there?

It's kickin' up like crazy here.

Suli (Huntsville AL)

Posted by: sulizano at September 25, 2005 09:56 PM

Just a little rain this morning, Suli. I heard north Alabama got a few tornadoes, but it's been pretty quiet this far east.

Posted by: Will Collier at September 26, 2005 04:44 AM

Hmmm...Herr...Pennsylvania...does your wife have any relatives that live in Orlando? I know a Jeff Herr.

Posted by: Slartibartfast at September 26, 2005 10:42 AM

Interesting piece; I live in Frederick County. Did the piece originally belong to a local church?

Posted by: John at September 26, 2005 01:19 PM

Now I know this sounds corny, but is your father in law THE Donald Herr? The author of this book?

http://www.tarmans.com/si/000038.html

I’m (almost) not ashamed to admit that I actually own a copy. I’m a pewter collector myself. But stuff in the $100-200 range is more my style. Of course I always hope that someday I’ll stumble across something much more valuable.

Good books on pewter are hard to come by, so I scooped that puppy up the first time I heard about it. Since I am in the hotbed area for this kind of stuff, I flip through it every year or so just to keep it fresh in my memory.

Sometimes, the blogosphere is a really strange place….

Posted by: jmaster at September 26, 2005 02:42 PM

Questions, I get questions:

jmaster, he is indeed "the" Donald Herr, or at least the one who wrote that book, and probably the only person in the world who could have instantly identified the stolen flagon.

Slartibartfast, I don't believe Beth has any close relatives in Orlando, but if he's originally from PA, Herrs are as common in Lancaster County as Chins in China (okay, perhaps a bit less common than that), so it's possible It's a BIG family.

John, yes, the piece originally came from a Frederick County church, if my memory serves.

Posted by: Will Collier at September 26, 2005 03:09 PM

Cool. What a small world.

Not to turn this into the Pewter Pundit blog or anything, but maybe you could pass along to him another theory on the reversed feet.

Instead of being a mistake built on a bad day, maybe the “reversed” foot version was actually an earlier or even prototype design by Hayne.

After some real-world use, he might have realized, or a customer might have suggested to him that the things would be a lot easier to use if he moved the two feet to the front, with just one in the back. Info from the date stamps might shed some light on that.

Posted by: jmaster at September 26, 2005 03:57 PM