Topic: Could this be a Bimini "lampblown art deco prancing lady - ID = Istvan Komaromy

[Tramonto]

Hi folks

Could anyone possibly identify this lovely lady whom I discovered in a charity shop recently please?  I have something very similar in a glass book which was styled as a drinking glass, this was described as a Bimini art deco prancing lady.  Mine has a silver rectangular sticker with a name on in script which I unfortunately can't read.  This made me wonder whether my lady is a more recent production done in the style of Bimini.

http://tinypic.com/f2ijbn.jpg


More recently though I looked in one of those general Millers Antiques Price Guide books and in a small black and white pic I spotted what appears to be this very same lady, identified as Bimini.  Is this possible considering it has a sticker which definitely doesn't say Bimini?  I think the first name could be Fabian (or possibly Tobias) but the surname I can't make out at all, maybe it begins with F, T, H or J and definitely ends in Y but the rest I don't know.

I would love to know if anyone recognises this piece and especially the mystery name on the label.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

Tramonto

Mod: Pictures vanished, thread retained for information.

[Anne]

Could you take a good close up photo of the label please? Someone may recognise the label and be able to tell you more.

[Tramonto]

Hi Anne and thanks for your response.

I've tried to photograph the label but unfortunately it isn't very clear :
http://tinypic.com/f2q4x3.jpg

Also here is a slightly clearer pic of the lady.
http://tinypic.com/f2q6br.jpg

Any thoughts on this from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

[KevinH]

From http://www.glass.co.nz/bimini.htm regarding original Bimini figures:

... they are abstract and lack detailed features.

Figures with detailed features, hair, or clothes are unlikely to be the real thing.

I am also sure (well, possibly sure) that in a discussion on Bimini-type pieces some time ago in this Board, a very similar female figure was shown.

[Anne]

The one you're recalling Kev is nowhere near as graceful as this lovely lady.
See thread here: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23.0.html

The legs on the ones we discussed before are more like tree trunks... and their hair and other parts of their anatomy differ greatly also!
See here: http://www.avalon-riklin.com/items/132280/en1store.html

Tramonto's lady is just so elegant and graceful - she's delightful.

[Anonymous]

Anne -

Many of the pics have disappeared from that old discussion, but I seem to recall that the genuine Bimini were far more abstract and elongated than Tramonto's lady.

(What's the name for that 1930s-1950s style of abstraction in art? Modernist? Cubist? Art deco?)

Cathy B

[Anne]

Cathy, there're some shown on Angela's Bimini page here: http://www.glass.co.nz/bimini.htm again, nothing like Tramonto's lady.

[Tramonto]

Many thanks for posting!  I really appreciate the earlier thread on Bimini pieces being dug out, it was very interesting to read, thanks!  

The ladies on the www.glass.co.nz page are certainly very abstract (and amazing).  In Judith Miller's 20th-Century Glass, the pieces attributed to Bimini though don't look particularly abstract.  In fact they are not dissimilar to the ladies on the glasses and decanters in the earlier threads (although a little more tasteful in certain areas!).  

The picture in the Millers antiquesprice guide book certainly looked like the same piece as mine being shown as Bimini.  Dare I say....could the books be mistaken (just thinking back to how abstract the ladies were in the glass.co.nz website).

I had read somewhere (in my Bimini surfing) that Bimini pieces were never marked on the piece itself, but carried a label with a trademark, a mould no, or an artists signature.  I wonder if that means that the individual artist could have their own name on a Bimini piece.  I think I'm just wishful thinking now, as mine carries an unknown person's name...LOL.  

I certainly wouldn't part with my lady, whoever she is made by she is really well executed..... but it would be great to know for sure where she came from.

Sorry, I'm rambling now.  Many thanks for comments so far...please keep them coming.

Tramonto

[pamela]

tramonto - could it be Lauscha glass (Saxonia)?

[Tramonto]

Hi Pamela

Thanks for your suggestion.  I hadn't heard of Lauscha before, but after lots of surfing through christmas decorations I found a really amazing glass lady.  She is here (bottom right)  

http://www.glasmuseum-lauscha.de/

I checked the Millers Collectables price guide for 2000/01 again and the piece named as Bimini certainly looks like mine (valued at £150-£170!), but I can see the Lauscha lady being a relative too, so who knows, one of life's little mysteries for now.