Topic: Who could have made this Vase? - a Bank holiday Quiz?

[flying free]

   ooh my memory is getting better but....
need to have a good think where I might have dredged that info from in my mind.
m

[Mike M]

sorry forgot to say  item in last picture is - as you would expect - about 3 inches tall!

M

[flying free]

well as a first guess, the slightly pinched slightly twisted sides of the top piece are making me think Kralik.  I think they did a cameo range that they branded for sale in the French market as well and I think I've seen some Marcel Franck perfume bottles that looked to be Kralik open or rough crackle like my box.  So they seem to have had quite a connection with France. 
However I guess that could be said of other makers as well that I have no idea about.
I've no idea if they did 'miniatures' though which the 3" millefiori seems to be.  But again the shape of that seems to be slightly 'clunky' and not as sophisticated as I would expect from some of the other makers. 
m

[johnphilip]

Surely not Fratelli toso . I dont believe it . jp

[user9318]

Surely not Fratelli toso . I dont believe it . jp

Exactly what I thought, is it Fratelli Toso after seeing the second photo.

[johnphilip]

Come on D get M out of bed we are waiting .

[Mike M]

Sorry Guys

been busy getting ready for a show/Fair

I said answer Monday but I'm more than happy to review and clarify the data and guesses so far.

A bohemian glass maker

They made at least one and maybe more than one ranges indistinguishable from a well known line from Legras -I've seen the pieces I've handled one and I've seen their design drawings for this range. Alas as yet no one has had access to their sales ledgers, but almost certainly they made all or most of them FOR Legras -ie they are probably not copies.

They also made a wide range of Fratelli Toso style glass, I have seen half a shelf of these: maybe 30-40 different pieces, undoubtedly by our 'quiz' maker and almost certainly dating in the range 1890-1910. Whether they were copying Fratelli Toso style or actually making them for them - alas we will probably never know.

This glass works still makes glass today -that's a free hint and hence dismisses kralik from the possibilities.

Importantly we have a glass works here that is over 100 years ago -well well over-that was making either amazing copies of, or more likely, making FOR a wide range of other famous European glass works -who then passed the off as their own. (I'm told there are examples for other makers too - I personally did not see/recognise them).

As this is a public forum I cannot post my photographic evidence -I've used pieces that I've owned before that are identical(legras-look-alike) and almost identical (Toso-like) to pieces I've seen and photographed.

Over to you folks!

 


 

[flying free]

harrach

[Highlandmack]

Hi
another try is it Moser
Alan

[Mike M]

Well done!

And the 'nonexistent' prize goes

flying free and yes its Harrach

presently celebrating its 300th anniversary

and on a recent trip we were allowed access to:

a. The U(P)M museum in Prague's secret depository store where they had the Toso lookalikes and some of the Legras lookalikes. U(P)M have a fantastic exhibition on at the moment celebrating 300 years of Harrach -amazing  -but largely missing any of this kind of work. I did check with the wonderful curator and he confirmed that all the pieces were indeed Harrach. (Oddly one antique store in the middle of nowhere in Czech republic also had a shelf of the 'Toso' and was strangely adamant they were all Bohemian). 

b. the Harrach glassworks museum's own secret store, quite literally a hole in a wall in a top floor that leads to a loft full of amazing Harrach glass hidden from the Nazis and communists (although some Communists found it in the 1970s). Here I found a large range of the Legras lookalikes and was given permission to handle one. As I've handled what I thought was Legras made examples of identical pieces I can confirm there were no detectable differences.

Also a 'Harrach scholar' has since sent me pictures of the legras-like designs from the original Harrach design books.

I'd like to say a very big thank you to the all people at U(P)M and Harrach glassworks. I have photos but the permission to photo (still a rare thing in the Czech republic) was for strictly private use only.  So I can't post them here- sorry.

All in all quite a revelation

I now know - I know nothing!

Cheers

M