The tall white “Schnelle” tankard is one of the most eye-catching exhibits in the museum. Like many other beer mugs in the museum’s collection, it was made of stoneware. The mug is covered with a very elaborate relief decoration. Such products depicting scenes from the Bible and the New Testament were manufactured in the German city of Siegburg which gave the name to their style.

The material used for German beer mugs contained special fire clays, feldspar, and quartz. It was fired at a high temperature to produce a very dense, hard, and waterproof body. This material was well suited for the application of relief decoration with many small details.

This exhibit was modeled on the beer tankard created by the famous craftsman Hans Hilgers in 1570. It is a tall mug that tapers towards the neck and is surrounded by three relief circles both at the top and at the bottom.

The small flat handle is equipped with a traditional hinged lid — dome-shaped and made of pewter. The tankard’s walls are decorated with relief images depicting Gospel scenes and images of Saint Helen. The surface is divided into three vertical trapezoidal areas, with each of them featuring the same images.

In the hexagon at the top, the artist depicted Jesus Christ talking with the Samaritan woman at the well on his way from Judea to Galilee. The four-petal shape in the middle section contains an image of Saint Helen. She holds a large cross in one hand and rests upon a Baroque-style shield beside her with the other one.

The lower octagon features a beardless Christ surrounded by sheep as “the Good Shepherd”. The entire space between the images is filled with Baroque-style floral patterns.

By the turn of the 20th century, the old methods of producing traditional beer mugs were abandoned. During this period, craftsmen used a special mold where they placed the clay vessel. The mug based on Hans Hilgers’ design was recreated exactly this way — using a double-sided mold.