Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests > Glass
Blue and white overlay vase - vine and grapes decoration - enamel?
flying free:
I thought I had added this link but perhaps not:
Earlier in this thread I think I linked or talked about Carl Günther / Gunther / Guenther
Some time ago and again today I came across this description written in 1851 in
'The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 3, October, 1851'
Bohemian glass is a chapter from page 292 in that book (or second chapter in on this link)- the description is fascinating.
It discusses in great detail, the cutting and finishing and glass making that went on in 1851 and specifically describes the work of one Charles Antoin Günther who I think is the same person as the Carl Günther / Gunther /Guenther as I've linked to or mentioned earlier in the thread.
I wonder from the description of Günther's engravings and his inspiration, whether some of the pieces identified as Karl Pfohl might be by Carl Günther (or Charles Antoin Günther).
'One man whom I visited is an extraordinary genius, rarely to be met with; he has been driven by the force of that same genius, to seek abroad, in France and Bavaria (Munich), food for his mind, and has brought back with him several folio works of engravings from the best masters, from which he designs. Placing before him one of these works, a Raphael or a Rubens, he either copies the group, or composes from them to suit the form of his vase, which he thus embellishes with the most exquisite figures; his name is Charles Antoin Günther. He lives in a little block-house, as humble as the commonest of those above described, on the declivity of a brae, by a small stream, on which stand the little scattered village of Steinschönau. It is composed of only two apartments below, of which his work-room is one, and which is not above ten feet square, with just space enough to hold four little lathes for engraving glass, at one of which he works himself, while the others are occupied by three boys, the youngest twelve and a-half years old, the eldest fifteen! They all engrave beautifully, pieces laid before them by Günther, and which they follow with a faithfulness and spirit only to be believed on personal inspection. He was at work himself on a vase goblet, of the shape of the usual green hock-glass, but which might contain a bottle; it was lapis lazuli blue, enriched by a group of Bacchanalian Cupids and vine-leaves of his own composition, and worked with a spirit and freedom worthy of some of the masters by whose works he was surrounded. What struck me most, was one of those exquisite little figures of Raphael's, in his great picture of the "Madona del Sixto," in the Royal Gallery at Dresden. The cherub leaning on the parapet, with his chin resting on one hand, as he gazes on the Virgin; it is exquisitely drawn in pencil, a fac-simile, and pinned on the wooden wall of the engraver's cottage, immediately opposite his seat. I asked him how he first traced on the glass the subjects which he was to cut; he replied by taking up a plain glass without any figure or indication on its surface, and asking me what subject I should like engraved. On my replying that, being an old deer-stalker, I should be very well pleased with a stag; he immediately applied the wheel to the glass, and in five minutes by my watch, produced one of the most splendid, spirited animals I ever saw in the forest, and really worthy of Landseer; the stag is making a spring over some broken palings and rough foreground, and his action and parts can only be appreciated by those who have lived with the deer on the hill and watched them with the feelings of a hill-man, like Günther, who has had opportunities of seeing the deer in his own native woods, where they abound. I brought this glass away with me, though in itself but an inferior article; merely as a specimen of what I had seen done by this man in the space of five minutes, without a copy or any thing to guide him on the smooth surface of the goblet.
I send you sketches of the artist and his dwelling; and as the portrait exhibits, at the same time, his native costume, it will be the more interesting, and cannot fail to give a correct idea of the character of this Bohemian mountaineer.
The sketch of Günther's House will also afford an idea of these Bohemian artisans' dwellings, more so than any written description could do. I send you with it a drawing of another of these picturesque houses.
There are two classes of persons engaged, on a large scale, in the exportation of Bohemian glass—the fabricant and the collector; generally speaking, however, the latter is the[Pg 294] direct exporter, and he also superintends the cutting, painting, and packing. The fabricant is more frequently engaged in furnishing the collector, and to a great extent, with the glass in its original and more simple forms as it comes from the furnace, and it is then cut and painted by the cottagers who surround the dwelling of the collector; so that many of these villages are entirely formed by the collector and his people. Others however, employed in the same way, cluster round the fabrique; but even their productions for the most part go to the collectors, who have their correspondents in America, Spain, Turkey, Greece, England, &c.
As might be expected, there is a considerable difference in the designs of different houses; some are much superior to others, both as to color and design. Those of Egermann, in Hyda, who has added many new and valuable discoveries in the art of making and coloring the glass, and Hoffman, in Prague, are the best I have visited, to which may be added Zahn, in Steinschönau, for whom Günter engraves. Egerman's establishment in Hyda, for cutting, painting, and engraving, is very considerable, and exhibits first-rate talent, which can only be appreciated by a personal inspection of his works; and the taste and judgment of Hoffman, in Prague, in his selections, the designs he gives, and the artists he employs, cannot be surpassed, if equalled, in Germany. He has entirely abandoned the modern school, and returned to the first principles of art,[3] and produces, both in form and decorations, subjects worthy of the ancient masters.'
http://gutenberg.readingroo.ms/3/6/5/6/36564/36564-h/36564-h.htm#GLASS_OF_BOHEMIA
flying free:
I have found this becher in the Moravska Galerie and they have a date on it of 2nd quarter 19th century (ie. 1825-1850).
The design of the cameo is very similar in subject and style (vines, leaves, curls, blue etc), but not the same hand as mine in my opinion. I thought mine would have dated a bit later than that but this is the date they have on theirs:
http://sbirky.moravska-galerie.cz/images/diela/MG./93/CZE_MG.U_25688/CZE_MG.U_25688.jpeg
'datace: 2. čtvrt. 19. stol.'
' inventární číslo: U 25688'
I have not yet checked to see if it was the one sold that I'd found previously.
m
flying free:
this is one of the ~Dr Fischer auction pieces for comparison - I don't believe it is the same glass as the one in the Moravia Gallerie
http://www.auctions-fischer.de/catalogues/online-catalogues/210-european-glass-studio-glass.html?L=1&kategorie=102&artikel=26481&L=1&cHash=0e79a907d3
The other link I gave to the other Fischer becher is not working now unfortunately.
Fischer has theirs as c.1860 - the Gallerie has it as 2nd quarter 19th century.
m
flying free:
There is one in the Muzeum Šumavy Susice belonging I think to the Bruno Schreibera collection.
(I get confused with Czech places/words - so it is possible it's the same one as featured in the Moravske Galerie online but I don't think so.)
m
flying free:
This is not relevant really but I thought I'd add it here.
It's a reproduction of the Portland Vase by Franz Zach and it's in the Royal Albert Memorial museum in Exeter. I came across it accidentally and although I'd read about it elsewhere I'd no idea it was in that museum:
https://www.rammuseum.org.uk/collections/decorative-arts/
https://www.rammuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/portlandvase-4-300x300.jpg
I also came across another goblet by Zach in the catalogue of the 1862 exhibition. It was apparently made specifically for a Madame Temple:
page 28 of the catalogue, engraving (poor) of it on the bottom right hand side:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zp0DAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=international+exhibition+1862&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX95SZnoPkAhUhQxUIHSSJAq4Q6AEIRTAF#v=onepage&q=bohemian&f=false
Different to the one purchased by the V&A from the 1855 Paris Exhibition.
see here for that one:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/glass-goblet-by-franz-paul-zach/
I wonder what happened to the 1862 one? It says very little about it except ' a cup of great beauty, carved by the eminent Artist Zach, expressly for Madame Temple ...'
Weird that the very large goblet in the V&A disappeared from sight over to the Museum of Childhood for many years and was forgotten about, yet in 1862 Zach was described as 'the eminent artist, Zach'.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version