Topic: Huge clear to smoke glass vase, 50ies shape

[rocco]

I have no idea regarding this beautiful vase:

It is huge (35 cm! high and weighs a ton ), flattened ovoid shape.
Colour fades from clear to smoke towards rim.

Looks quality and old to me, a lot of ware to the base including some deep scratches. Some of these resemble an engraved letter (perhaps "T"), but may just be scratches.

Any ideas? - Scandi, Murano, or am I completely wrong?

Thanks!
Michael

[glassobsessed]

Lovely vase, I would think Scandinavian, could be Strombergshyttan or Johansfors or for that matter a handful of other makers. The quality looks good and that top heavy shape looks distinctive, hopefully someone will recognise it.

John

[rocco]

John, thank you very much for your reply!

I had thought Scandinavian as well regarding the colours, but shouldn't a piece like this have a signature then?
Found a few items which bear some similarities:
- Strömbergshyttan: http://cgi.ebay.at/Vase-Stroembergshyttan-Schweden-50iger-Jahre-/200505904251
- Johansfors: http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/1605

Somehow I am leaning more towards Murano (just a gut feeling because of the bold size, may be completely wrong
These vases have a similar keeled (not oval) section, and overall shape:
- http://www.pips-trip.co.uk/sold-glass-archives/italian-glass-1/showitem-MUR-SEGUSOPOLI1.aspx
- http://www.glaskilian.de/Sommerso-Vase-Seguso-Murano-ci.43+B6YmFja1BJRD00MyZwcm9kdWN0SUQ9MTcyOTQmcGlkX3Byb2R1Y3Q9NDMmZGV0YWlsPQ__.0.html

Michael

[rocco]

As I am really curious about this vase I give it a gentle bump

I have searched extensivly the makers John suggested (plus several other Scandinavian glassmakers), but didn't really find anything matching, neither shape nor colour gradient.

Some more infos I can give on the vase:
- it is big! - 35cm high - and very heavy; I don't have a scale, but would estimate around 7 kg
- the colour in the pics is not really true -- there is a very light grey-green tint to it
- it has 3 layers of glass like a sommerso piece, but all the same colour (or maybe the smokey green is just in one of the layers, but that is impossible to see). Attached a pic

So, can any of the Murano / Scandinavian experts perhaps point the direction -- or at least where it definately doesn't come from?

Found another Murano piece which reminds stylewise of my vase (colour gradient, rather big size) : =1970&tx_ttnews[month]=01&tx_ttnews[day]=01&cHash=632b52c3c2459ec9450869546af1c466]http://www.herr-auktionen.de/kataloge/archiv/auktion-67/detailansicht/article/vase-54ed5e55fb/?tx_ttnews[year]=1970&tx_ttnews[month]=01&tx_ttnews[day]=01&cHash=632b52c3c2459ec9450869546af1c466
(Not that I want to suggest that mine is Poli )

Any help is very much appreciated!!
Thanks
Michael

[langhaugh]

Lovely piece, but doesn't strike me as Murano. Slightly Czech in shape, but nothing else. Which leaves Scandinavia.  It reminds me the most of Willy Johansson for Hadeland, but it's not in the little book I've got on him.  Worth a search, though. The other possibility might be Bengt Orup for Johansfors, as not all his pieces for them were signed.

If you should ever tire of it....


David

[rocco]

David, thank you so much for your contribution, greatly appreciated!

Now I have two opinions both pointing towards Scandinavia, so I will give up on the Murano theory (Czech I would rule out as well).

While doing a search on Bengt Orup I came across this vase from the "Tona" series -- similar colourway, unsigned as well: http://porslinsbloggen.blogspot.com/2009/12/glasvasen-i-forra-inlagget.html
Have found some other pieces from this range, some signed, some unsigned, but not a comparable shape.
The bottom finish does look different too (concave polished pontil mark), and they seem to be less massive.

BTW, what do you think of the strange sommerso technique used to produce this vase?
And of the "signature"? (Or is it more likely a scratch?)

If you should ever tire of it....

Shipping costs would exceed the prize of the vase, I guess 

Michael

[langhaugh]

Rocco:

For some reason I missed your post with links to Pip's trip and Kilian. The Pip's trip piece is very similar in shape, isn't it? What put me off Murano was the lack of colour in the sommerso, but colour is probably the least important element here. Let me go back and check more of my Murano books. It's a shame that Arnoldische hasn't published Ricke's book on Seguso Vetri d'Arte yet as that would help immensely.

I like the Tona series and they're not all signed. The piece by Orup that suggests to me that he could design your piece is this one.

The search continues.

David

[rocco]

Thanks again for your help, David!
What a nice piece your Orup vase is. Seems to be quite massive. While searching for Orup "Tona" I somehow had overlooked the one in your gallery -- very beautiful as well!
But having seen quite a few of these now I don't think my vase is from this range -- the colours are much darker towards the top than in my vase, and mine is more gray with just a very slight green hue... (best seen in the 3rd pic from top showing the rim).

So Murano is still in the running?
If it was Scandinavian, I guess a piece with such a special shape (and size) would be recognized by someone?
But the colours are really not shouting Murano, I have to admit.
And the colourless sommerso is a mystery to me -- but I do not know much about glass making technics, so this may just be some production necessity.

Michael

[langhaugh]

This one has been puzzling me. I have difficulty with the Poli attribution, mainly because so many are incorrect that if a real one came along, well, I'm not sure I'd pick it out. Also, I haven't handled much of this glass; it's price is way out of range for the large majority of the collectors on this board.

At the same time, on p. 190 of "Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection" is a sommerso piece by Poli which is described as "transparent grey sommerso in cristallo glass."  The piece is in the Valva collection so the shape is different from your piece (it has a very wide mouth, but it is a flattened oval).

Your shape is closer to the vase pictured in Pip's trip, but who is "Arte Nuovo Murano" and why wouldn't a Poli piece have a Seguso Vetri D'Arte label on it?

The reality is that after Poli won the big prize at the 1954 Venice Biennale, you can be sure that many companies copied the style, and if he did a piece in transparent gray, you can bet other companies did as well. So I take back my assertion that this isn't Murano. It could be Poli, but more likely Poli-influenced. I think you'd have to take it to a high end dealer to have any more certainty than that. A very interesting piece to have, then.

David

 

[rocco]

David, it is great that you are spending so much time in researching my vase, thank you very much!!
When I bought it I thougth this would be an easy one for the GMB experts

Unfortunately I am not very knowledgable about Murano glass (even less than Scandinavian), so I came to my guess that this piece could be Murano just by excluding the rest...
I have found a pic of several grey/smoke coloured "Valvae" vases by Poli in a 20 year old paperback book on 50ies design. Those are gorgeous, and far superior to my vase. (I could scan the pic and show it, but I am not sure if this would be ok concerning copyright etc.)

I have seen the label on the Pip's trip vase somewhere else on the internet before, there was the info that the factories which won a prize probably put that kind of label on all their pieces afterwards (so not necessarily Seguso).

The Murano piece which still reminds me most of my vase is the one in brown and clear I posted before: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/8116466
Unfortunately they don't cite any literature, so I do not know where the Poli attribution comes from.

It is a pity that we can not nail this down at least to a Murano or Scandi origin -- then I could ask mods to move it in the right forum, where perhaps some specialist would look at it.

Michael