Glass Message Board

Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Austria => Topic started by: rocco on January 16, 2011, 07:16:12 PM

Title: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: rocco on January 16, 2011, 07:16:12 PM
This vase (height appr. 17cm) is made of bubbly glass with multicolour inlays and has a polished base.
It has a signature which I cannot read -- "J. B......."
Reminds of the "J. Beranek" signature on my blue vase http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,37625.0.html (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,37625.0.html), but I would never read "Beranek" here...

Thanks,
Michael


Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: rocco on January 16, 2011, 07:16:42 PM
Better pic of signature :)
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: bOBA on January 16, 2011, 09:36:34 PM
I am pretty sure it is a Jindrich Beranek signature, who left Skrdlovice glassworks as a young man for Austria to run his own studio and is still there I believe,
as per your last post on the subject, interesting to see more of his work!

Robert (bOBA)
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: antiquerose123 on January 16, 2011, 09:49:47 PM
I am pretty sure it is a Jindrich Beranek signature, who left Skrdlovice glassworks as a young man for Austria to run his own studio and is still there I believe,
as per your last post on the subject, interesting to see more of his work!

Robert (bOBA)

....all I wanted to say is that I saw somewhere these types of bubbles described as "Foamy Bubbles" or "Foamy Air bubbles" as a descriptive word when one Googles things in.  Makes a difference how one enters/describes the bubbles...  :)  That is all I wanted to say here...


I think bOBA is right about everything   :thup:
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: rocco on January 16, 2011, 11:05:42 PM
Robert, thank you once again for your contribution!
I suspected it would be the same J. Beranek signature, just wasn't very readable this time (and looked a little different in the manner it is engraved). Here is a link to a page where these signatures are depicted, but claiming they belonged to the Beranek/Skrdlovice company. http://www.great-glass.co.uk/glass%20notes/marka-c.htm (http://www.great-glass.co.uk/glass%20notes/marka-c.htm)

It is interesting that quite a few of these J. Beranek-signed items are found here in Vienna (I have seen 2 more on the fleamarket last week, I know an antique shop which has a yellow version of my blue vase, and Dusan has some in his gallery, too).
Isn't this quite unusual for a studio glass artist to be so widely distributed? What about the rumour these were produced by Lobmeyr?

@ Rose: thanks for your suggestion, I will remember the next time to call this "foamy" :)

Michael
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: bOBA on January 16, 2011, 11:33:05 PM
Documentation of the career of Jindrich Beranek is not well documented or widely understood across the world of glass collectors. Research about Skrdlovice is still emerging. Since you live in the country where, although of Czech origin, he spent most of his career, you may be better placed to contact local glass collectors to find out more, than I am in the UK. It is the fact he his glassmaking not been covered in detail in books etc.. coupled with the fact that his cousin Jan at Skrdlovice was hidden working inside of a communist run state for most of his life (and that glassmasters did not do a lot of glass signing in that country during that time, even if they often designed as well as blew glass which was unusual) means that documented signed pieces of both have often been confused and the value of Jan beranek pieces means there has probably been an "optimistic" tendancy to interpret J. beranek signatures as Jindrich ones. The whole picture is still yet to emerge and researching the career of Jindrich Beranek would be a useful and interesting exercise since he did work and train as a young man with his relative, the legendary founder of Skrdlovice (father of Jan) Emanuel....  I have read documents I cannot trace, that Jindrich some time during the 1970's, was contracted to produce quite a bit of glass for Lobmeyr, possibly when he produced the lovely replicas of Emanuel Beranek Skrdlovice 1950's small round vases. I am aware that a couple are being sold as such on ebay.de but I have read elsewhere in some catalogue that he did produce for Lobmeyr.

I hope your enthusiastic collecting continues, it is interesting glass!

Robert (bOBA)


Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: bOBA on January 17, 2011, 02:02:41 PM
Just a small correction, Jindrich is the brother not cousin of Jan Beranek, all these J. Beraneks do get confusing!


Robert (bOBA)
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: rocco on January 17, 2011, 08:11:18 PM
Thank you very much, Robert, for sharing your knowledge!
I guess this is Austrian glass then rather than Czech :)

I will look around if I see more pieces, and eventually ask if some seller knows more about it.
Unfortunately my contacts to other glass collectors are non existent apart from this board...

Found another J. Beranek signed item in the webgallery of one of the members here (sorry, cant remeber whose gallery this is):
http://picasaweb.google.com/exat212/204# (http://picasaweb.google.com/exat212/204#)

Greetings from Vienna
Michael
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: langhaugh on January 18, 2011, 06:23:33 AM
I'm not sure it means anything but there is a Graham Cooley (gc), whose collection was featured in hi sklo lo sko. I wonder.

Rose, you're right about bOBA always being right. I'm not so sure about this being foamy glass. I would reserve that description for the mass of tiny bubbles that are created when kerosene is added to a a pot of liquid glass.

Rocco: you are finding some very interesting pieces. I'm wondering if my decision to come to Maui for a couple of weeks rather than search for glass in, say, Vienna, was the right one. Oh well, back outside to watch the stars and finish my wine.

David
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: Jindra8526 on January 18, 2011, 07:46:12 AM
Hi Michael,
I suppose you can help us with improving knowledge about Jindrich Beranek.
Jindrich did escape to Austria in 60ties and he had broken all contacts with his family in Skrdlovice. His parents could not forgive him that he left all large family in troubles and in communistic persecusion. As far as I know the realationship between brothers Jan and Jindrich was partialy recovered in late 90ties again.
So from Czech end of wire we cannot much more information about Jindrich career in Austria, it has to be done from the other side, from Austrian end of wire.

Jindrich Beranek lives in  Bad Tatzmannsdorf near Wien. He had his glass also studio there. Can you please take a look to Austrian yellow pages and find his phone number? He used also name Jindra Beranek. Please send me it to my mail that is displayed at my web site.
I will call him and try to get some more information from him, or you can do it as well, but please come back and share your discoverings with us.

Jindrich
www.cs-sklo.cz
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: rocco on January 20, 2011, 10:17:21 AM
Jindrich, thank you so much for your infos on Jindra Beranek!
I will send you an e-mail with the data I can find...

And I will surely buy - and share with you - any other item by him I can find (at an affordable price :)).

Michael
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: antiquerose123 on January 20, 2011, 09:58:47 PM

Rose, you're right about bOBA always being right. I'm not so sure about this being foamy glass. I would reserve that description for the mass of tiny bubbles that are created when kerosene is added to a a pot of liquid glass.

David

Thanks David -- I just meant that there is clearly a difference in (clear) shaped bubbles and the bubbles in this vase.  It may not be the proper description for Glass Professionals -- but just another *descriptive* word one could/can use when googling different Search words in.  We all know, Google is only as good as we try to *explain* what we are looking for.  It might be just another *tag* word that helps to pull up some info.

When I google -- I try to put an many different combination of descriptions of something.  I (try) to think it may be described as -- then I also think to think outside-the-box as to what someone else *may use* to describe something.  All I wanted to mention/say the use of words when I was looking for something -- so not sure if it was the correct description -- but it was how some other site had described these types of bubbles.

Clearly different bubbles shapes on this item (than on Murano items)......so I guess these are a whole different breed of bubbles shapes when it comes to Google....

:24: :thud:

I was just throwing that out there, as sometimes even The Google World can be a hard place to find any info on a piece of glass.  Lord knows, I am still hunting for the Smokey Black Heavy Vase of mine -- and I have not *hit* the right descriptive words..................Yet

 :ho: but still  :X: . 

Just like some of the signature I have found.  The glass item gave me no clue -- but then I tried to Google what I thought I could See --- and then tried to Google what I thought I could Not see.  Then lucked out.....LOL

My Brain is Frozen here at - 40 below...... :nk: lol
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: langhaugh on January 21, 2011, 01:54:59 AM
Rose:

Sorry to sound so niggly Rose. I think the rain in Vancouver was getting to me, just as the cold was "freezing your brain." However, I've solved the problem by going off to Maui. I feel much better now, thank you.

David

Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: Carolyn Preston on January 23, 2011, 07:57:23 PM
Did you at least bring us back some macademia nuts, Langhaugh/David? Or at least some  :sun:

Carolyn
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: langhaugh on January 23, 2011, 08:53:30 PM
If there are any macademia nuts left when I leave in a couple of weeks, I'll bring them. I seem to have more difficulty transporting the sunshine. But sunshine isn't a rarity in Calgary, is it? Maui, Calgary , what's the difference that  60 degrees F and a few Palm trees couldn't eliminate?

David
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?)
Post by: Carolyn Preston on January 23, 2011, 09:19:09 PM
If there are any macademia nuts left when I leave in a couple of weeks, I'll bring them. I seem to have more difficulty transporting the sunshine. But sunshine isn't a rarity in Calgary, is it? Maui, Calgary , what's the difference that  60 degrees F and a few Palm trees couldn't eliminate?

David

We can live without the palm trees. It's those 60 degrees that we really, really miss  :mus:  ;)

Carolyn
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: rocco on February 23, 2012, 03:31:33 PM
Old thread, but I found another signed Jindra Beranek vase (a really nice one) which I'd like to share...
This vase has an interesting feature -- backlit the coloured blobs are pink and purple, while when light is reflected there is a sort of neon-green shine to them.

I use to see quite a lot of signed J. Beranek pieces here, there seem to be two styles: quite distinctive studio-glass-style items with lots of air bubbles and coloured streaks and blobs like the ones in this thread; and other pieces which are rather plain and simply mimic 1950s Skrdlovice shapes. (I do prefer the first ones :))

Michael
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: Anik R on February 23, 2012, 04:26:27 PM
That is lovely, Michael.  

While in Austria, did Jindrich Beranek 'mimic' Skrdlovice designs?  Maybe he was creating what was familiar to him?  I've got a Jindrich Beranek Skrdlovice vase which is one of my favourites -- calm, plain, yet sophisticated and masculine.  Jindrich Beranek Skrdlovice (https://picasaweb.google.com/105348959949603419807/SKRDLOVICECollection#5702992249743654946)

But I do like your Austrian bubbly bits too.  
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: rocco on February 23, 2012, 06:14:23 PM
Thanks, Anik!
This one is my favourite from my four-piece collection :)

The pieces which seem to be inspired by Skrdlovice designs are like my blue vase (https://picasaweb.google.com/107330317087089352634/Czech?authkey=Gv1sRgCPCtsYSivPC5Dg#5627383923905648610), the one Sergio posted (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,40817.0.html), and I have seen other single coloured hot worked vases with pulled lobes etc.
I suspect that the Jindrich Beranek who went to Austria is not the same Jindrich Beranek who designed for Skrdlovice in the 1950s (but I may be completely wrong)

Michael
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: Anik R on February 23, 2012, 06:23:51 PM
I believe he is the same Jindrich Beranek.  In Sergio's post, Robert (bOBA) mentions that before emigrating to Austria, Jindrich did make a few designs at Skrdlovice in the mid-50s. :)

I do wish I could find one of his bubbly pieces, though. 
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: rocco on February 23, 2012, 06:57:40 PM
Well, I was completely wrong ;D
Somehow I had the (obviously) wrong impression that the Beranek who went to Austria was much younger...

It is a huge advantage to live in Vienna if one wants to collect his pieces.
Sometimes sellers ask a fortune for them, but I got mine quite cheap (each 10 Euro or less).

Michael
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: Anik R on February 24, 2012, 05:27:09 PM
Lol, Michael, it seems that it's a huge advantage to live in Vienna if you want to collect any Czech-related glass! The pieces you manage to find, and the prices you pay, are the cause of envy among a few of us. 

You're darn lucky we still like you.  ;D
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: rocco on February 24, 2012, 05:54:34 PM
Glad to hear that, Anik -- I will try not to mention prizes anymore ;D

It is nice for a Czech glass collector living in Austria to collect Jindrich Beranek's work (a Czech glass artist who has emigrated to Austria)

Michael
Title: Re: Small colourful bubbly vase, signed (but by whom?) ID = Jindra Beranek, Austria
Post by: Anik R on February 24, 2012, 06:06:09 PM
Oh no, Michael, I was just teasing you!  Finding beautiful pieces at wonderful prices is part of the excitement. I'm honestly happy for you (and others) when you get great glass for little money.  I really was only joking about the ugly-envy bit.   :spls: