Pottery Mug Made by a German Prisoner of War in Alabama

A decorated pottery mug, about 4 1/2 inches tall and 3 inches in diameter at the top. The mug carries a hand painted rendering of a knight on horseback and the phrase “Einst und heute” (Once and today”. The mug shows some signs of age but it is without chips or cracks. The bottom of the mug carries the incised maker’s initials and the notation “German P.O.W. Camp Opelika”, a prisoner of war camp in Alabama that was opened in 1942 to receive prisoners from the German Afrika Korps.