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Kuttrolf Decanters...

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Pinkspoons:
I know they're often all generically thought of as by Holmegaard... but I know they're not. Like this one I've just bought probably isn't.

Any ideas, anyone, about the age/country of origin/maker of this one?



I'm guessing it dates from 1900-1930. Origin/maker? I'm stumped. I'm not really well versed in that period of Scandinavian glass, but it looks more continental European to me. Just a guess.

Pinkspoons:
Oh, found this one with a very similarly styled stopper (although the moulding on this one is better than mine - judging by the photographs):

HERE

Coincidence or no?

nigel benson:
Hi,

I thought the following information might be useful here, since you are perfectly right that Kuttrolf decanters are not synonimous with Holmegaard.

McConnell writes this about them in his book  The Decanter An Illustrated History of Glass from 1650, on page 151:

"The date of the earliest Kuttrolf is unknown, but multi-necked vessels were made in Syria and Roman Gaul c 400-500. A twist-necked version [no stopper, but wide neck] is illustrated in a 15th century woodcut (plate 214), and a young man is seen drinking from another in van Ratgeb's painting The Last Supper, c1510. The Kuttrolf continued in production throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and enjoyed a popular revival between c1890 and 1930."

On page 416 he goes on to illustrate a number of Kuttrolfs,  including three line drawings of Holmegaard and another of a Kastrup, dating from 1923 to 1930. As we know they also produced them in the 1960's and 1970's.

Looking at your one, it seems that the stopper has a different mould pattern to its surface, which concerns me, since I would have expected the stopper to reflect the base. Interestingly the problem occurs on the one shown on the link.

This brings me to a discussion about what I perceive to be to common problem, the swopping and replacement of stoppers on decanters. It is not always easy to tell when this has occurred, but one indication is usually when the base and top don't match, however well they might fit. After all it is easy enough to find a reasonable, or approximate, match and have it ground in - provided that the peg is large enough. Further is is perfectly easy to inscribe a number to the stopper to match that of the body (should there be one).

Of course this can happen within the history of the piece, since stoppers do get lost or misplaced by owners (often when moving) so a replacement might be many years old. However it happens it will effect the commercial value of a piece - but not necessarily its enjoyment.

Nigel :)

Pinkspoons:
Thank you for the information - I knew vaguely of the Roman origins of the decanter, but none of the rest of it.

I shall have to re-photograph the decanter when it arrives because to my eye the stopper looks like it might have the same pattern as the bod of the decanter. But it is hard to tell.

Also, I don't know if production of Holmegaard kuttrolfs stopped for a while, but they've also been making them sometime within the last 5-10 years, as they pop up on eBay new and boxed every now and then.

Pinkspoons:
Oh, I forgot to ask - is there any difference between a 1920's/30's Kastrup kuttrolf and a Holmegaard one? I've only seen 1950's Kastrup ones, and they look near-identical to slightly later HG ones.

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