Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Austria => Topic started by: David E on April 20, 2013, 11:54:30 AM
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Curious bud vase that I had to buy for its quirkiness. 25cm tall and very heavy (1.25kg) - almost as though the neck would break if handled improperly. Annoyingly, the label covers the designer's signature, and I'm a bit reluctant to remove it. At first I thought, AHA! it appears to be made by Justyna Turek (http://www.justynaturek.com/o,dsp,i,63,ice_ice_baby.html#navi_63), judging by the label on the base (J TUREK?) and my extensive knowledge of Czech ( ;) ) suggests the "Umělecká" on the label means 'Art' or Ornamental'.
The other markings on the label are S/258 and below this 500, which I assume are pattern numbers.
However, while Justyna Turek is only 23 years old (co-incidentally her birthday is today), the label on the base of the vase looks much older. ??? ::) Her work is interesting though - I love the Ice Ice Baby for its humour!
So is this an exhibition or distributors label going way back? Is there another glass artist with the Turek name?
The only other link to a Turek is this one going back to 2004 (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,426.0.html), when the GMB itself was in its infancy, and half the links are dead.
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Lovely piece.
Perhaps Josef Turek? Treinale 1985 (https://picasaweb.google.com/104509467784289017506/7TRIENALE1985?authkey=Gv1sRgCOmdrZ_Cst6qkAE#5435530615556777698)
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Ooh, thanks Anik - that's a good start. I'll plough through Jindrich's site a bit more.
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There was a Josef Turek listed as a glass sales webshop which seems to have closed 2012 (the link now redirects to a computer web shop) http://www.firmy.cz/detail/12731192-josef-turek-ceska-lipa.html - I wonder if there's a connection?
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Perhaps Jindrich knows. But I think Anik's answer nails it.
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Anik is likely correct, Turek was designing in the late 1950's but I cannot read the date on this piece, all I can see is possibly 91 after his signature but the piece and label looks possibly earlier.
I doubt it is a pattern number. As it is signed and obvious a bespoke piece (linked to the art label) I would prefer to see the number as denoting s. for "serie," series, which could easily be a run of five hundred, this being number 258 of 500.
Series in Czech glass is a limited edition run.
This would also indicate that the signature, unusually for Czech glass may be his actual hand, though by no means certainly. I am still not quite sure of the factory, not Skrdlovice though, possibly a house under the Crystalex label, I will have a look this week if nobody else comes up with anything.........
Robert
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The Josef Turek, whose webshop I mentioned earlier, sold glassware by Crystalex, according to the snapshots on www.archive.org, so still possibly a connection. As there is an email address on the link, it'd be worth dropping him a line to ask if he is familiar with it, perhaps?
Incidentally, one of the dead links in that topic was mine to a PDF file showing designs. As the PDFs there were downloadable I saved copies to my computer in case they disappeared later. I'll have a look later to see if there's a match for Turek as a designer too.
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Back again. I would imagine if it's the same Josef Turek, who designed this piece c.1960, then he would be quite elderly.
The last marking is an odd one and looks like 90 with an overline.
Good thinking on the serial number, Robert - the label must have been retained by the original owner, who would have appreciated its importance, I suppose.
Thanks for looking into this everybody.
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The last marking is an odd one and looks like 90 with an overline.
... however, it could have been inscribed the opposite way round, in which case it would be 06, but it's not very clear.