Glass Message Board
Glass Mall => Glass Market Place => Topic started by: Anik R on May 24, 2010, 07:24:50 PM
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Hello...
I know and understand that members of the board do not provide estimates, but I've got a question... (please no one yell at me :-\)
In Mark Hill's "Hi Sklo Lo Sklo" on page 22 there is a Borske Sklo cased red bottle vase with cut and enamelled designs. I've seen a similar vase, only a few cm shorter and more 'vase-y' than 'bottle-y' for about 50 euro (in lovely condition). Is that a good price?
Thank you and I'm sorry if my question seems out of place :spls:
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If I remember right a certain person valued one similar on a tv prog not long ago and I'm sure he said £2000! maybe some one else has a better memory than me,
Keith.
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WHAT???? :o :o :o
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Before you rush out and buy it wait and see if I got it right,my record for mistakes is becoming legendary ;D :24:
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OK... I really appreciate your reply :)
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I think it was this range that Mark Hill showed a piece of in his recent series Cracking Antiques and said was very valuable, I forget the exact amount mentioned but more like above 500 euro than 50. I have not seen these items for sale so I do not know personally. Keith may be correct..... shock horror...
Robert bOBA
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Thank you Robert and Keith ;D
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does seem a lot of 'bread' for something from an unknown designer - haute couture as they say. I would say it's worth €50 or thereabouts even if it's not the same thing. If a glass worker has to make, case, cut and then decorate a piece like that it has to be worth having for £40 - £45, and if you don't want it send it to me. ;D
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I just wanted to say that the vase is now mine and that I should get it next week ;D
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well done Anik - do hope it is the real thing. :hiclp: :hiclp:
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Oh gosh, Paul, I really hope it's the real thing too... :-\
(I paid much more for this piece of glass than I ever have for anything 'frivolous' ... well, except for maybe a leather purse. I bought it with the intention of selling it at a small profit to have a little extra money for the summer. But then again, I'm no business woman... but that's a whole other story :pb:)
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Tried to find the episode on i-player but it's not available,maybe Mr Hill will pop in and let us know what his valuation actually was,any body out there know him well enough to give him a 'nudge'?
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Thanks to Anne, I've just seen this post...
Well, lucky you Anik. It SOUNDS like it's the same - but be very sure...as large quantities of opaque white cased colour glass painted with sprays of flowers were produced over the years, and continue to be. I also saw a similar vase, but unpainted, a few weekends ago in Berlin. The shape was much clumpier and considerably less well executed, but they're out there too.
If it is 'identical' in the subject matter of the enamelled patterns, modern form, slightly curved grid-like cutting, colours etc, then it's from an incredibly rare range - at least I have only seen a handful of examples over the past 6 or so years. Nearly all of those were shown in the Hi Sklo Lo Sklo exhibition, and their quality and appeal are such that I doubt any others would have been passed over by collectors or dealers had they turned up at any point.
I did indeed appear on BBC national television and state that in my opinion the value of that bottle from the range would be around £2,000. So, no chance of wriggling out of that one then!
Not that I'd want to.
Like all those spots, my spot on Czech glass was strongly forward-looking as regards values, comparing it to Murano glass a decade or more ago, when the market was still developing. Unless I said prices were current (as with the pressed glass piece), prices were my opinion of what may be paid in the future.
This is an extremely rare range that appears to have been specially designed for the 1958 Brussels Expo and, from memory, features in a special 'supplement' in the correctly dated edition of Czechoslovak Glass Review of 1958. The range never appears in CGR again, even in photographs of other exhibitions, and was obviously considered important enough to feature both in that supplement, and in a large photograph. At that early date, the designer was not important - the product and the design were. As such, at that stage, CGR very very rarely attributes designs featured to designers by name.
Examples I have seen can - very, very tenuously - perhaps be further be tied into exhibitions. A few years ago in Canada, I spotted a PAIR (!) of similar zingy lime bottles (beyond my meagre budget) in a cabinet in a large antiques centre. The owner, who I know, told me that they came out of a very grand house with some other great pieces, and had been there since the 60s or 70s. I wonder if they came from the Montreal Expo in 1968? Nobody can be sure, but it's perfectly possible as the Czechs did exhibit there and the design would still have been relevant. BTW - before you try and track them down, they are no longer there!
An auction house in Germany attributed the design to Libensky, the cutting to Honzik, and the enamelling/gilt to Lebeda. I can't find any other link to these names, and sadly never received a reply to my email, but perhaps Jindrich can find out more? If these attributions were correct, most particularly with Libensky, this would make this range extremely important.
In the course of researching Hi Sklo Lo Sklo, I asked Karel Wunsch if he designed them. He replied saying he did not, but thought Lebeda produced the enamelled/gilded designs. If I recall rightly without referring to my notes, the incredible and erudite Dan Klein also agreed with the Lebeda connection. Jindrich may know more, but apparently Lebeda was a slightly subversive 'underground' cartoonist and artist outside his day job.
From a design perspective, they represent key aspects of postwar Czech glass design - almost like no other range. The fine forms are modern takes on traditional forms, such as the bottle, baluster etc. Furthermore, the cutting is a modern take, and the enamelled designs are, I believe, exactly as I said on screen. Progressive, modern art such as this (inspired by Picasso, Braque, etc) was deemed decadent by the Powers that Were, and banned. If you painted those designs on a canvas, it would have been a bad thing indeed. As glass was not deemed a 'threatening' art form by the government, and was indeed deemed a way of showcasing the successes of Communism in Czechoslovakia, designers and artists were more free to experiment.
I used an image of that bottle in a lecture I gave that Marcus also attended. I gave a similar value and, in a serious and sober manner, he told me during (!) and after that I was probably undervaluing it.
As I hope glassmakers on here would agree, they are challenging and time-consuming to make for a number of reasons - certainly compared to something mould blown or 'free blown'. Taking all of this into account, in a world where a hexagonal, mould blown piece of British factory glass in the right colour can fetch £1,500, the value doesn't seem too scary to me. Yes, the designer name is there with that piece, but as I keep saying, Czech glass isn't at that stage - yet!
I really do rate pieces from this range, in case you hadn't guessed. I know we don't do values on here but, Anik, I'm sure your 50 euros are safe if it is from this range - more than safe in fact.
As I said on screen, if the market for Czech glass grows like that for Murano did, I feel perfectly comfortable with my opinion on the value for the bottle, especially if they also remain as scarce and important as they are when the market broadens. I think they're important things, and there's nothing quite like them in the open market. I'm sure you'll all have your own opinions, but that's mine!
Best,
Mark
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Thank you, Mark, for taking the time to write! (and thank you to Anne for getting in contact with Mark Hill for me :kissy:)
I'm all excited and all nervous at the same time... I really do hope that my vase is a Borske Sklo one, and not a wonky-look-alike :pb: When I get it next week, I will post pictures.
I thank everyone who took the time to read my post and reply. It is greatly, greatly appreciated!!!
Anik
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Anik, keeping my fingers crossed for you...... seems you've dried out! Happy hunting. :rn: cheers steph
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Thank you, Steph ;D
P.S. We are more-or-less dry -- the flood is behind us. Now if only it would stop raining :-\
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Always happy to help Anik, and my fingers are crossed for you too! Glad your waters are receding as well. :)
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Hi Anik! I've just come across this old post of your's and am dying to know what the outcome was! I hope it was what you wished for :)
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Hi Nancy,
It's always nice to go back to old topics. ;D
My vase went to auction at Fieldings in October 2010. I had a reserve of 500 pounds and the vase went unsold. However Fieldings was extremely helpful and sold the vase for me after auction for an amount close enough to my reserve to make me very happy. (I think it was about 400 pounds... I don't quite remember anymore, and my brain is too jumbled to locate the confirmation I received from the auction house.)
By the way, I like the vase much more now than I did then... I think time and a bit more knowledge has opened my eyes to its beauty. But I've got no regrets.
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Thanks for the update Anik. I'm pleased for you that you had a satisfactory outcome, and that your instinct proved correct! Well done :)