Topic: Libochovice - US connection. Any views please??

[Sklounion]

Ken  wrote:

“There is also another possibility since the seller's location is in the US. New Martinsville (New Martinsville WV) made an identical vase from 1934-37. Attached is an ad from 1934 & while the quality of the ad is obviously not perfect it shows the NM vase. New Martinsville & Paden City glass companies both produced items in the 1930's that are identical to several Czech items produced during that time period, however some of the Czech items are signed & thats the only way to tell them apart.”

So, a long-unanswered question for Ken, and other American collectors and experts.

As Ken suggests that two US companies copied/produced items identical to Libochovice production, there may be a possibility of identifying the US companies that produced the following patterns and possibly the moulds.
The patterns were known in Czechoslovakia as: “President”,  “Tatra” and “Libela”, and are considered  (in the Czech Republic) to have been made, using US-made moulds (molds).

Please see the following links from Pamela’s www.glas-musterbuch.de:

http://www.glas-musterbuch.de/Libochovice-circa-1925-1928.118+B6YmFja1BJRD0xMTgmcHJvZHVjdElEPTUyMzYmZGV0YWlsPQ__.0.html

http://www.glas-musterbuch.de/Libochovice-circa-1925-1928.118+B6YmFja1BJRD0xMTgmcHJvZHVjdElEPTUyMzQmZGV0YWlsPQ__.0.html

(Note that “Libela” is a pattern that bears remarkable similarities to items produced, I believe, by
Eda Glasbruk, also thought to have been produced using US moulds.)

Can anyone assist with further information, please.
 
TIA,

M

[Sid]

Marcus:

The Libela pattern looks identical to Fostoria's No. 2056 American pattern which was introduced by them in 1915 and stayed in production up until the 1970s.  I have attached a couple of catalog pages from 1915 so you can see the similarities.  Maybe Fostoria licenced the other companies or perhaps they were copied?

[Glen]

Plagiarism was rife.......

http://www.geocities.com/carni_glass_uk_2000/EdaDiamant.html

[Sklounion]

Hi Sid and Glen,
Sid, thanks for the Libela pointer. The one thing that appears to be clear is that Libela was produced using US-supplied moulds, from which it might be reasonable to assume that this was under licence production, rather than copying. Any ideas who produced moulds for Fostoria, or was that done in-house?
These patterns appear to have been put into Libochovice production immediately after the Great War, which ended in 1918.
M

[Ohio]

Marcus it just so happens that I picked this up today in Eastern Ohio next to the West Virginia border. Its New Martinsville's version. Two others that I know of that are Czech (and they are marked Czechoslovakia) are the New Martinsville Lady Face bookends & the Indiana Glass Pigeon bookends. They are copies of one another & I have no idea what Czech firms were involved just the US firms. It may be a chicken or the egg question as to who/whom had them first. Ken

[Sid]

Marcus:

Did Fostoria make their own moulds?

I don't know.  I have references (circa 1901) to an internal mould department and also to plant managers visiting the Hipkens mould shop.  The internal mould department could be as simple as the mould storage room and the day to day preparation and cleaning of the moulds or it could include chipping out the designs in the moulds.  Hipkens was a major independent mould maker for the glass industry along the Ohio river.

[Sklounion]

Hi Sid,

Interesting, Hipkens has long been my suspected candidate for the U.S. production of these three sets of tableware moulds. How much is known about the company, are the company archives stored somewhere, or were Hipkens absorbed by a US glass-making company, as Sklarny Inwald did, with the Czechoslovak mould-makers Ullrich and Christl?

Ken,

Both the Lady Face's and the Pigeons, appear to be Czechoslovak designs from Karel Zentner. These, in Czechoslovak production, were produced into the 1960s and beyond.....

Regards,

M

[Ohio]

Thanks Marcus for the info. Ken

[Sid]

Marcus:

Did you get my email last week?