Lorenz Pavish was born in 1865 in Austria and immigrated to the United States in 1891. He arrived in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle in 1904 after stints in Pennsylvania, Kansas City, San Francisco, British Columbia, and Portland, Oregon. He bought the Georgetown property soon to be named the Vienna Building in 1904 and opened a saloon and hotel. Lorenz experienced mounting financial problems and got in trouble with the local law enforcement on occasion, at one point being arrested for selling liquor on Sunday. The conviction was later overturned. Lorenz used this tankard to serve beer from barrels in his saloon. Due to financial debt, the saloon was closed and the Vienna Building was sold at auction in 1911 to pay off outstanding loans.