This is a monumentally large piece - the Marmoriertes vase next to it in the first pic is a normal size vase at 8" tall by nearly 3 3/4" wide.
The Harrach Etruscan vase in white is actually 14" tall so a large vase.
This one is nearly 25" tall (63cm with missing foot intact) and is 8" diameter (about 20cm ) at the widest.
It has a damaged foot which has a wooden support now, and which I am going to have to gild or something as it isn't the most attractive addition
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No idea what the base would have looked like as it's damaged but I believe the foot would have been a flared simple foot similar to the Harrach vase.
The rim is not sharply cut bevelled and polished. It's beautifully done so although I'm sure it's been cut and bevelled it practically feels fire polished. It's been gilded over and there is also a gilded band inside the neck of the rim.
The glass glows bright green under uv light and is definitely cream whatever the photos might look like.
This is a completely different animal to the Harrach Etruscan piece. It's hard to compare quality, but by comparison the Harrach Etruscan looks 'mass' produced although well made.
There is a fair bit of gilding missing on the figure decoration. All of them had some gilding lines or decoration on their clothes and many had gold medallions in their hair bands - these show as white circles on the hair of the lady I've added in close up. They appear to be musicians and dancers as the theme.
I can't believe it's easy making such a large piece and hand enamelling and firing it then gilding it and it still surviving? I've only matched the size with two larger pieces in my books - one I mention below, the other is a two part exhibition piece with a matching plinth but the vase part is larger than this vase and I think they were used for an Exhibition. I'm sure there will be more but those are all I've found in my books.
I really bought it out of curiosity because of it's size. The decoration is all over - 8 large figures in total round the vase - and the whole thing is hand enamelled.
From what I can tell, it's missing just over 3cm or so of foot, having found another similar pair also converted to lamps with the size recorded. That pair have a different decoration on the neck and are not quite as intricate overall as this one, but definitely from the same maker and 'series' of decor, although the figures are different depictions. The colours etc are all the same. There was no maker indicated as they were sold through a small English auction house who said they were English... which I am suspicious of.
The meander pattern appears to be done with the same colours and the same enamels, and in the same way as my Etruscan plate (I'll put a link to that thread in a minute), however my plate design is different and the glass is not uranium glass.
It also 'appears' to be very similar in design, but not colour palate, to a vase in the Hermitage which I'd previously linked my plate to. But the colour palate on that vase is more subtle, paler.
It's difficult to tell because the photo in the Hermitage is not enlargeable or close up on the decor. But certainly the colour scheme is more muted and it is not as decorative in terms of amount of pattern on the vase.
However the overall design idea looks the same and it also has the flying objects scattered around the decoration.
I'm wondering if they are just a different version of the same series in a different colours scheme, or whether another maker has copied the Hermitage vase design? The Hermitage have their vase as Russian 1840's.
I have not been able to link my vase to a Bohemian maker at all either through decor or shape.
There is one possible vase in Das Bohmische Glas that at 70cm appears to be a very similar shape.
It's a completely different decoration though, and no id for decor( although they suggested North Bohemia for decorator) or shape, and c 1870 for date for that one (it's floral).
There is no suggestion for maker and it's not in the Harrach book either. That would not preclude Harrach I don't think. However, given it's such a huge vase, and that patterns are available for Harrach pieces from that period, I would have thought one of the two books would have given an indication of it if there were evidence available.
Date wise, as a generalisation, from the gist from what I read in the Harrach book it seems that hand enamelled pieces in Etruscan style were earlier versions (c 1840/1850s) but as the vogue progressed (1860s) transfer prints became the way forward. On The Gilded Curio site, on the page with a Harrach etruscan black hyalith vase with figure on it, Alisa has commented that there was a resurgence in popularity in Etruscan pieces in the 1920s and Harrach continued making those pieces for a long period. That isn't said in the book as far as I can see. Charles Hajdamach seemed to indicate if I have read correctly, that the vogue for these pieces was over by the 1850's (although Harrach says they were still supplying into the 1860's) and he doesn't mention a resurgence in this Etruscan style at a later date.
So when might this giant vase date to?
And does anyone know who could have made it and for what purpose? Is it an Exhibition piece at that size?
thanks
m
Topic: 25" tall monumental uranium glass vase - hand enamelled Etruscan (Read 5572 times)
