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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Austria => Topic started by: Anne E.B. on May 29, 2005, 03:06:59 PM

Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - Oberglas, Austria
Post by: Anne E.B. on May 29, 2005, 03:06:59 PM
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/glassie/unidentified.jpg)

Can any one please help identify these vases.  One is tangerine, the other a pale aubergine or rose colour (not sure how to describe this one). 8.5" high , 5" wide.  Both have an "eye" front and back and have a textured surface.    I was assured that these were old and were called "eye" glass - which sounds a bit too obvious I think :lol:
Many thanks for your expert help as usual.
Regards - Anne.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: paradisetrader on May 29, 2005, 07:05:27 PM
Hi Anne
I'm glad you've posted these as I've seen them crop up quite regularly and wondered myself what they are. Somehow I've managed to resist buying one. Variously described as Whitefriars, Riihimaki or Scandi, I don't think they are any of those.
I had thought Czech at one stage - a photo of the base will probably settle that one way or the other but I now think they are probably Italian (not Murano).
Great fun aren't they. I would describe the color of the one on the left as golden amber. Tangerine is much more orange and usually refers to Whitefriars.

Hmmmm yes the base does look Czech-ish
BUT is the indent deeper on one end than the other Anne ?
Or just a trick of photography / light ? That could make all the difference
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Anne E.B. on May 29, 2005, 08:29:18 PM
Hello Peter,
Many thanks for your superfast reply!  :lol:  I've taken a picture of the base.  (Reminds me of a barley sugar sweet!).  It has a rim and is slightly recessed - if that is the correct term.   I would be really interested to know what they actually are.  I bought them this morning for a couple of pounds each and thought they looked really retro (which I like very much). 8)   There is considerable wear on the base of both and they are surprisingly heavy.  I must remember not to refer to one as tangerine!  I don't want to upset the WF enthusiasts.
Regards - Anne. :D

http://tinypic.com/5fnk2w
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Max on May 29, 2005, 10:04:01 PM
Peter, so funny you replied, you said all things I was thinking of saying!  I've seen this around and wondered where they come from too.  I was leaning towards Czech also.  Hard to see in the pic, but maybe the base suggests that might be true?

Thanks Anne for putting these on the boards - it'll be fab if someone could say definitely where they come from, I'd like to know too!   :D

PS:  I think you got them for a great price, they look really cool.   8)
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Anne E.B. on May 30, 2005, 11:06:56 AM
Hello Peter. The indentation is the same. I think the angle at which I took the picture, added to the light, made it just look deeper at one end. The base is just like the top in fact, with a flat bit just where the rim ends. I guess these were made in a mould? It would be interesting to know how old these are too, whether they were cheapo variations on a theme based on for example Helena Tynell's textured vases of the 60s? I don't know anything about Czech glass.
Like Max, I think these are really cool!
Regards - Anne
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: paradisetrader on May 30, 2005, 11:15:36 AM
Yes from the base I would tentatively say Czech altho I can't be sure until I see it in the flesh or confirmed by other evidence.

What is it about this vase which makes you think cheapo Anne ???
What's wrong with it ?
Just because it's (probably) Czech ???
Yes it would have been molded like much of Riihimaki production.
The Czechs were and still are masters at molding !
As to design the Czechs have been in the forefront in modern design - see many other threads on this board !!!!
You just got a bargain IMHO ...and Im green with envy !!!
Be Happy !!!
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Anne E.B. on May 30, 2005, 01:43:33 PM
Hello Peter.
I absolutely LOVE my two vases,  :D but when I compare them to the Riihimaki ones that I have, or my WF coffin vase, they seem to lack some of the subtlety and  finesse that my others have - in my view. (I hope you are not going to tell me off now) :wink:   In particular I refer to the top of the "eye" vases, which seem to finish abruptly and which, like the base (as they both look identical), look machine-made.   I suppose it is this that makes me think that they are less valuable .... but what do I know about glass? - and I am more than happy to be corrected :lol:  I'm learning a lot from this forum.
Keep those comments coming please Peter et al :lol:
Regards - Anne.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: paradisetrader on May 30, 2005, 03:27:47 PM
OKOK Now you put it like that ..I understand and yes I thought I noticed some roughness on the base and hence my reticence. After you corrected my view of the photo I tended to discount it and now Im having doubts about Czech again.

Before we start comparing designs etc we do really need to pin down a country if not a maker and I'm struggling now.

Without a close-up of the rim it's hard to comment but looking again at the first pic the rim is an "odd" design which I don't think I've seen before and I think I can see why you should suspect "machine-made". However, any molding process would have involved machinery and I think it has more to do with the use of molds more suited to a fast paced mass production process and lack of time for care/ attention to each piece.
 
Date-wise : Stylistically I would guess late 1960s - 70s. I do have a couple of vases which also look from this period where the quality is not as good as my known Czech pieces and I dont know where they originated. Are the colours also less bright ? I little on the dull side in comparison to your pieces by those other makers ?

There are two or more possibilities.
1) That there were lower quality makers in Czechoslovakia whose production has not been identified as such as yet. I think this unlikely due to their centralized system. Quality controls would logically have been uniform.
2) More likely I think is that they were made by a mass manufacturer, possibly in Italy Bormio / Milan areas. Labour rates would have been much higher there than in the communist block requiring a faster production line.

But all this is conjecture only at this stage. I could really use some help from Ivo and Marcus, (and others ?). Altho incredibly knowledgable as they are there's no gurantee they'll know either and we may have another continuing mystery here.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Anne E.B. on May 30, 2005, 04:43:07 PM
I've taken the liberty of posting a close-up of the rims, to show them hopefully from different angles.   Your suggested date ties in with what I was able to glean from the rather vague seller (who probably got them in a house clearance) and the wear on the rim on both bases seems to confirm that also.

The colours are unlike any other in my '"Heinz" Collection' (57 varieties!), and compared to the Riihimaki pieces, are subdued and muted.  I must admit I wasn't attracted to them by their colour, but by their shape, texture and sculptural features.  The close-up is a good representation of their true colour.

Don't you just love a good old mystery? :wink:
Thanks for your valuable comments so far Peter - I am very grateful :lol: and hope to hear more........
Anne. 8)
http://tinypic.com/5jzcbr
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Anonymous on May 31, 2005, 02:51:46 AM
Thats interesting, I've seen these many times, always attributed to riihimaki(sometimes Nanny Still), and I thought that's what they were, due to the sheer number of times they have been thus attributed on ebay, etc, even though they don't seem quite right for riihimaki.  There is one on the whitefriars.com mistaken identities page referrred to as riihimaki. I have some really vague memory of reading a discussion about the design not referring to an eye, but to a flame.  Sorry, not much help but I too will be interested to find out where it is from as I collect Riihimaen glass.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Anne E.B. on May 31, 2005, 10:49:09 AM
Quote from: "Anonymous"
Thats interesting, I've seen these many times, always attributed to riihimaki(sometimes Nanny Still), and I thought that's what they were, due to the sheer number of times they have been thus attributed on ebay, etc, even though they don't seem quite right for riihimaki.  .


You are right, I too have recently seen one attributed to Riihimaki, but like you, feel uneasy about this.  
Regards - Anne  :wink:
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: aa on May 31, 2005, 07:23:39 PM
The Riihimaki vases by Helen Tynell were mouth-blown into still moulds, cracked off, and then the rims were ground and polished. I think, by contrast, these pieces have been made by a technique described by Adam D, (the other Adam) in another ID thread referring to the INCA vase as "Pressed and blown", also a very skilled technique but completely different.    I don't know whether Riihimaki produced pressed glass, but I think you can eliminate any factory that did not use press moulding from your searches. Adam A
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: paradisetrader on June 07, 2005, 12:57:10 AM
Thank you Adam A for that clarification and the reference. Yes the fascinating Inca vase does have a similar "formed" rim.

I have read Adam of York's comments in this thread  (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1081.0.html)
 several times now and finally I think I am getting my head around it.

Adam's comment there
Quote
One possibility is "pressed and blown" - a process commonly associated with mass production, but I suppose someone might have adapted it. A very heavy pressing is made (enabling the top to be formed), and then, handling by the top ring, is quickly transferred to a blow mould of the finished shape and surface pattern and then blown to finish.
still leaves me with questions.

1) You'd need a very strange looking kind of caliper thingy to grab hold of the formed rim which should be sufficiently cool to do so ...awkward
2) You'd then need to re-heat the rest of the body (but not the rim) in preparation for blowing into the mold ...right ?
3)  So far so good (I think) BUT how do you blow / force air into such a large aperture when blowing into the mold ??? That I can't figure out. Compressed air ?

I've left aside how you'd mold only the rim and not the body in the first instance - coz my brain can't cope.

So yes a tricky process but one which must have been mastered in many glass factories if this is the same process as jam jar production as Adam York suggests. Without specialist equipment much more difficult for the studio glassmaker ...if at all possible ?
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Glen on June 07, 2005, 07:28:35 AM
I can't be totally certain from the photos, but I don't think the neck/rim of these vases is exactly the same as the Inca vase (and also the Seagulls, Pebble & Fan and the Giant Lily). However, these mystery "eye" vases do remind me of a similar mystery vase I posted on the Glass Board a few years ago. No one was able to help me at the time, but I'm pleased to say I actually managed to solve the mystery myself.

My mystery vase has a heavy texture and a very distinctive ground rim. Over the years I have acquired several slightly different versions, some in plain glass, some colored and a couple with light (possibly cold applied) iridiescence. I had variously thought they could be Whitefriars or perhaps Davidson's Luna. In fact they are neither. The answer came when a friend found an example of them with a label still attached. The label read: OBERGLAS - Austria.

I have tried to contact Oberglas (I did find their website, but I can't seem to locate it now...someone will come across it I am sure). I have seen identical vases in Finland as well. (Oh and btw, yes, Rihimaki most certainly did make pressed glass - in the form of a fabulous range of Carnival during the 1930s).

Edited footnote - possibly this was the website I found. My enquiries to them never received a reply.

http://www.glassonline.com/wgid_stoelzleoberglas/
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: paradisetrader on June 07, 2005, 08:12:47 AM
Glen
I don't think anyone was suggesting that the rims of the subject piece and that of the Inca vase are exactly the same.
I said
Quote
Yes the fascinating Inca vase does have a similar "formed" rim.
To clarify, I guess the only similarity is the fact that it is formed rather than cracked/ground/polished/ fire polished.

The comparison here is only in technique NOT maker. It would seem that this technique is very widely used. I was trying to visualize it.

Oberglas
STÖLZLE OBERGLAS AG & CO, Köflach, Austria  ?
Thir website is http://www.stoelzle.com/en/unternehmen/index.html
Do you have a pic of your vases ?
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Glen on June 07, 2005, 08:25:54 AM
The neck of the Inca (and others) is very significant and one of the most important characteristics of that range of vases. I have never seen another range of vases like it (the mould seams are part of the "big picture" too) so I was very conscious of making the point that the Inca neck is important re. those specific items.

I spotted the other website after I posted the first one - it wasn't around when I did my initial checking out last year, or at least I don't recall it. I can't see anything there that will help. That's why I tried to contact them, we really need someone with archive info (forlorn hope....). I guess that my vases are circa 1950s or 1960s.

I do have a photo somewhere, of a couple of the vases. I would have posted it earlier if I had been able to find it.   ::)
======================================================

Peter, I just read through your message again and you are confusing me.

You said
Quote
To clarify, I guess the only similarity is the fact that it is formed rather than cracked/ground/polished/ fire polished.


The neck of the Inca etc., is moulded - or rather, blown into a mould, but still moulded as oppposed to freely blown and shaped. (Apologies if my terminology is "wanting".) But being moulded (formed) and having an attribute such as "fire polishing" is surely not mutually exclusive? An item can be moulded (shaped, formed) and also be fire polished. You can also have moulded items that have ground bases or ground rims.

You also said
Quote
The comparison here is only in technique NOT maker. It would seem that this technique is very widely used.

By this technique, do you mean "blown into the mould"? I can add that a number of Carnival Glass shapes (for example, bulbous decanters, bulbous water pitchers, bulbous vases) were all made that way. The technique is used when the shape precludes the use of a plunger. Specifically, in bulbous vases such as the Inca, the mouth is narrower than the wide bulbous center of the vase. Thus a plunger could not be used, as it wouldn't be able to force the glass to the extreme width needed to attain the central bulbous section, and also be able to be withdrawn from the top of the narrower neck.

Edited to add this url that shows a bulbous water pitcher (see above)
http://www.geocities.com/carni_glass_uk_2000/Enameled.html

I'm beginning to wish that I hadn't waded in on this one.  :cry:

All I actually wanted to say was that I have some vases with a similar ground top and neck to the mystery one....and they were made by Oberglas of Austria.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Adam on June 07, 2005, 10:32:51 AM
The pressed-and-blown system is easy to understand but really needs sketches, which my previous posting lacked.  Give me a day or two, please.

Adam D.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Anne E.B. on June 07, 2005, 11:36:50 AM
Wow!  Thank you Glen, Peter, Adam A and Adam D for your absolutely fascinating comments :lol:   I won't even pretend to understand the complexities of glass making techniques - its just mind blowing  (not an intentional pun!):? , but I am, like Max, enjoying reading your comments although they are way above my head.  My two vases are still wrapped in bubblewrap. I think its time to enjoy them now.  I look forward to reading any further comments. :P
Regards - Anne.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: paradisetrader on June 08, 2005, 12:55:30 PM
Glen the technique I was referring to was the "pressed and blown" which Adam A. refered to in his last post
It seems to be a two stage process. I was querying the second stage where the blowing would need to be done via the large aperture of the mouth which had been already formed (Adam of York said "hard molded") in stage one.

I'm not sure if you are querying that these vases and the Inca vase were done by the same process or not. My understanding is that if mold blown there would probably not be mold lines. They are more likely in a press molding process which is what I think Adam of York means by "hard molding.
Anne , Are there any mold lines on your vases ?

Oberglass
The Oberglas site you show Glen is just a directory site. If thats who you wrote to then I'm not surprised at the lack of response.
I have given the site for the company I think it is ....I don't know if that's what you mean by the "second site".

Marcus confirmed to me verbally that these vases are not Czech.
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Glen on June 08, 2005, 02:03:54 PM
Peter, I also was writing about the pressed & blown process. I have read (and indeed I did re-read) what Adam wrote and as far as I am aware, with my own limited comprehension, I was referring to the same process. 

My understanding is that the Inca vase (and its brothers and sisters, and items such as the water pitcher I linked to) were made using a pressed & blown process. All the items I have mentioned above had mould lines. The moulds would have been jointed and would have needed to be opened up to allow the item to be removed. The Inca (and family) have a very distinctive series of mould lines, both horizontally and vertically. The neck of the vase has two vertical mould lines running top to bottom, and a third, horizontally, just below the rim of the neck. The very distinctive cross section of the Inca (the Pebble & Fan, the Giant Lily and the Seagulls vase) is most unusual and I have not seen another vase exactly like them (so far.....and in my experience only).

The other point that I was trying to explain (obviously badly) was that (according to my limited and no doubt "challenged" understanding) the two characteristics:

1 being formed (ie moulded)
2 being fire polished or ground

are not mutually exclusive. In other words, an item can be moulded and also be ground or polished or fire polished.

The reason I said that was because of your comment

Quote
To clarify, I guess the only similarity is the fact that it is formed rather than cracked/ground/polished/ fire polished.

My apologies if that is not what you meant - but that is what I thought you were saying.

Perhaps our discussion is all down to semantics and my not quite understanding what exactly you are saying. Possibly it's all down to the fact that I am probably two sandwiches short of a full picnic.

Re. the Oberglas website, I was simply saying that the url link you mentioned (for which - thank you) was not one I had seen when I did my original searching last year - quite possibly it is new. I was trying to explain that I couldn't see anything on the website you kindly gave (nor on the one I had mentioned) that would help us to answer the current ID question. I noted that I had emailed the directors etc last year (several times) and no reply had been forthcoming.

Glen (aka Geln)

============================================

Apologies if this seems a bit like a soliloquy, but I just wanted to explain what I mean by blow moulding, with particular reference to the bulbous vases and pitchers that I mentioned. If the shape of the article is such that a plunger cannot be used (eg in the case of a vase, it is smaller at its top/mouth than lower down, thus a plunger could not be removed) then the method used to shape the glass to the inside of the mould is to force it against the sides using air pressure, i.e. to blow it in - thus the term “blow moulding”.  The pressure of the blown air would then push the glass against the inside of the mould and leave the centre of the vase hollow.

I quote below from Fenton Art Glass website regarding press and blow moulding:

Quote
Highly skilled workers called gatherers wind hot molten glass on a hollow blowpipe or the tip of a long steel rod called a punty. After judging the proper amount, the gatherer must shape the gob of glass properly and drop it precisely in the center of the mould.
 
The presser's function is to ensure that the glass takes the proper form of the mould. Too much pressure, and the glass will shatter; too little pressure and the mould will not fill properly.
 
For some pieces, the molten glass is blown into a mould to form the basic shape and pattern. Finishers use what is known as pucellas or "tool" and a cherry wood paddle to finalize the form, flaring, crimping and/or straightening the glass. This requires a well-honed sense of timing because all these actions must be completed before the glass cools into its solid form.
And if you look at this website (also Fenton) http://www.fentonartglass.com/fenton_skf.htm
and scroll down to the photo of a blue Favrene vase (with a bulbous middle) you will read this - the photo of the vase will also help to underline what I’m trying to say.

Quote
Each piece is handcrafted, carefully hand-blown into a mould that imparts the “Loganberry” design
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Adam on June 08, 2005, 08:49:07 PM
Be patient with me - I still want to try and clear up any misunderstandings re press and blow (and blow and blow if you want) but meanwhile, Peter, where please did I talk about "hard molding"?  The expression means nothing to me and I can't imagine a typo which would have produced this.

Adam D
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: David555 on October 12, 2005, 11:26:21 PM
Sorry but I think the whole thread becomes pointless when we cannot see what we are talking about

I don't trust anything but my own server now

To avoid confusion, I presume this is the vase being talked about?

(http://publish.hometown.aol.co.uk/blackcatgla/images/texture%20eye%20vase%20main%20copy.jpg)

High Res http://publish.hometown.aol.co.uk/blackcatgla/images/ober%20eye.jpg

Adam D555 :twisted:  :twisted:
Title: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - help with identity
Post by: Pip on September 19, 2006, 08:38:44 PM
(I've posted this in another thread where I've asked about my own similar vase - I thought it would be prudent to also post this new information in this thread).

Aha - now we might have an answer - this has just come up for sale on eBay ...

CLICK HERE (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320029650581&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:UK:1)

with an Oberglas, Austria sticker on it - so assuming the sticker is kosher is it now safe to assume that Anne's two vases and my dumpier one are Oberglas?
Title: Re: Textured Vases with large eye pattern - Oberglas, Austria
Post by: px on September 03, 2015, 11:50:15 AM
Just for the record - there's been several on the market with Oberglas stickers since then, but here's one in a presumably original box on sale on an Austrian site:
https://www.willhaben.at/iad/kaufen-und-verkaufen/antiquitaeten-sammlungen-kunst/oberglas-vase-gloria-70er-jahre-128796985/ (https://www.willhaben.at/iad/kaufen-und-verkaufen/antiquitaeten-sammlungen-kunst/oberglas-vase-gloria-70er-jahre-128796985/) Mod: Link dead

So the name of this design would be "Gloria" !