A Potter's Porcelain Occupational Shaving Mug Belonging to Julius Stoeffler

Late 19th Century

identified Julius Stoeffler in gilt lettering and depicting a man at a potter's wheel smoking a pipe and throwing clay.

Height 3 7/8 inches.

The historical record documents a Julius W. Stoeffler, variably listed William J. Stoeffler, as a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was born around 1878 in Lehigh County to William and Alice Stoeffler. William Stoeffler was born in Baden, Germany in 1852 and immigrated to the United States around 1871. He settled in Pennsylvania where he worked as a potter, according to U.S. Federal Census records, and his son Julius apparently pursued the trade, too, in conjunction with his wage-earning work as a builder.