Old German Pewter Tankard

I purchased this tankard at a German flea market today. It looks positively ancient. Has some dents and dings, but I suppose that comes with the age. The bottom is marked Bleifrei and Zinn Legierung, with an anchor mark. There are additional marks on the top of the tankard, but I'm not sure what they pertain to. The patina is quite dark.

I looked on the website of the pewter marks post in this subforum, but I couldn't find the mark.

 

Think it is a liquid measure rather than a drinking tankard. This was used in commerce, and required periodic inspection, thus the series of year-date stamps.

 

Given the sequence of the numbers at the top - 36, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48 and 50 - I'm thinking that this was a measure that was tested for accuracy every 2 years. The missing 44 could be accounted for by the imminent end to WWII. I think I recall such a thing was done in the UK, perhaps also in Germany?

 

Translates to Lead Free tin alloy

 

This is probably the maker or bar keeper's mark


And I agree with Bakers about those being weights and measure assay marks.

 

It’s marked as 1/4 liter capacity.

 

JMHO. probably measure for wine in a restauration where the wine comes directly from the barrel. the quarter liter - or as it's called in the south "Viertele" - is exclusively used for wine and not for beer.
the marks are the years of the control by the statal calibrator. if the figure which I don't see clearly is an angel, then it's only a mark for pewter.

 

and the "Bleifreie Zinnlegierung" makes it newer. in the 1830s nobody would have thought of that, then they still had the citymarks and/or master-marks that defined the alloy; in 1887 only there was a law about led-content in different products.
and the production of these were already machine-made - at least semi-manufactured products; drum, handle added and off we go.

 

Thank you everyone! I never would have guessed that it was used for measurements. I figured the lead free mark made it newer, but I wasn't sure how new. The last stamp is "50" so I guess that, at the very oldest, it's 69 years old.
Would it be safe to use to measure things or drink out of?

 

oldest mark seems to be 36 = 1936.
2019 - 1936 = 83...
I would not drink out of it anymore. we do not know what alloys the Boys from Brazil mixed in 1936...
and it could have - by sheer humidity - have built new corrosion on the surface.