Not at all. Certainly not on the Kralik site :-) and not on Loetz.com either.....
Top cut simply means it was blown in a mold and removed without any real additional work being done to it after being cut from the blowing pipe. Before the use of "gadgets", some kinds of additional work would be done by attaching the piece to a Punty rod and worked additionally in heat to apply decors, colored rims, rigaree, etc..... In these cases, the rim is generally fire polished instead of being ground and polished. Also in these cases there is the evidence of the rod attachment in the form of a pontil mark which shows some varying degree of grinding and finishing....
Some companies, Welz being one, appear to have used gadgets quite a bit allowing for a mold blown piece to have an applied rim of a different color, and not show the artifacts of a pontil because no rod was used..... After being removed from a mold and cut from the pipe, the pieces were held with "gadgets" for additional work. It does not appear that Kralik and Loetz used gadgets a whole lot, at least judging from their production.... I can not really speak to other companies too much....
Another misnomer is that all Loetz pieces have nicely polished pontils.... not true..... and if it is cut from the top it is not loetz... Absolutely not true either..... There are pieces of Loetz Papillon as an example, with a ground and polished rim and bearing a proper signature on the base with no polished pontil mark present......
Topic: Iridescent Glass VAses, unknown maker, Bohemian? (Read 935 times)
