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.

[jinxi]

Hi,  Can't see the picture but read the text - I was wondering if the label actually read Istvan Komaromy and I think, that if you search the glass message board for this name you will come across a picture of a paper label of his.  I am familiar with his work and there are some similarities with Bimini.  If you google his name in you should be able to find some old Pathe News footage of the gentlemen in action too. 

Hope this helps

[Anne]

jinxi, you are correct. This was actually referred to in a separate topic but hasn't been cross-referenced back, so I'll do it now and add links to Tramonto's lost images which are safe and sound in GlassGallery.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23.0.html
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-1876
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-1878
and finally there's an article on the Glass Encyclopedia about Komaromy here: http://www.glassencyclopedia.com/Komaromyglass.html

Thanks for flagging it up so we could update it.

[jinxi]

Hi

Pleased I could be of help, still trying to get the hang of posting and replying etc. 

There is a book on Bimini Glass (which I have never seen) in German only, I think, and probably out of print, called Bimini by Waltraud Neuwirth.   

Five or six years ago there was a website set up by the son of Fritz Lampl, Raymond Berger, which displayed some exquisite Bimini and Orplid pieces and, I think, was also selling off some family pieces.  They made a lot of buttons and you occasionally see them for sale on ebay.  Various famous aritists designed buttons for them in their early careers and they often come up for sale on ebay.  Some are stamped with the flowerpot motif - I think the metal is stamped not the glass - but the website disappeared. 

Around this time somebody's large collection of Bimini glass was on display at the ?Cambridge Glass Fair and again, there were some stunning photos of a cabinet full of this at the show online.

The whole area of Bimini, Lauscha and Komaromy seems hugely confusing.  I would say that yours is Komaromy not Bimini, but that is my personal view only.  The smaller figures 2.5 inches or so, (without base) are said to be older than the larger (5 or 6 inches or so without base).  I think Bimini and Komaromy both display fine artistry and that is what distinguishes them from Lauscha.  Various doll's house items and flower holders that sometime appear at auction as Bimini I think are mainly Lauscha.  I suspect that there are new factories possibly Eastern European or even Chinese making figures of this type today - not necessarily copies but the kinds of items that could have been made by ......................

I was interested to read Ivo's comment about Venini and Bimini, I was not aware of this connection and would like to know more about this relationship and what kind of items were made by them.


Veronica

[Anne]

Veronica, there is also an article about Bimini and Orplid by Raymond Berger in the Glass Museum which you might enjoy: http://www.theglassmuseum.com/bimini.htm

(Raymond is the son of Joseph Berger and nephew of Fritz Lampl, founders of Bimini Glass. Glass Museum and Glass Encyclopedia are both parts of Angela Bowey's glass resource websites as is this board.)

[jinxi]

Thank you Anne!