Topic: Ranftbecher - Age and Origin?

[MatW]

Hi,
I have this for quite some time but I am not sure about it's age and origin. I think it could come from Bohemia, but the place shown in the engraving, "Die Spinnerin am Kreuz", is in Vienna. The overall look reminds me of the glasses by the famous Anton Kothgasser, who of course was not an engraver but a painter. So could this be contemporary to him ( and has a similar decoration for that reason) or is it a later adaption, and where was it made? The height is 13.5 cm and it has quite some wear on the foot.
Thank you for any help!!!
Mat

[flying free]

Hi,
can you make your pictures larger please (generally 600 x 400 works well).
Also please can you take a good close up of the two engraved panels with a paper inside the glass so the engraving shows up well?

thank you
m

[flying free]

also if you do a search using the words
bernsteinfarben lasiertes  becher

(and you can replace 'becher' with pokal or stangenglas or Fußbecher )

you should come up with a number of amber cased over clear pieces that might help.

It's difficult to find a match. And difficult to date depending on the details of the engraving, the subject, wear, the type of overlay, the type of foot and base etc 
I've not been able to find any information on coloured pieces related to Anton Kothgasser though having just spent three days researching my own pieces.  (If anyone has anything to add on this I'm very interested).

I believe Egermann invented this yellow stained glass (open to correction and can't find a reference source for that right now), but Harrach also used it.  I couldn't see any pieces in the Harrach book with that shape and casing though.
m

[Ivo]

Very much Bohemian (part of the Austrian empire until 1918) , copper wheel engraved amber flash, possibly by Egermann who invented the process of amber flashing in the beginning of the 19th century.. This is a souvenir piece, possibly based on a picture like this one http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinnerin_am_Kreuz_(Wien)#mediaviewer/File:Spinnerin_am_Kreuz.jpg and could have been made at any time between 1840 and 1900.

[MatW]

Thank you both for your replies! I resized the pics again to 800 pixels, but I do not think it makes a big difference.. Later I will post better pictures and closeups. Ivo, I think the style of writing used for the title looks to me more similar to glasses from the earlier part of the 19th century, what do you think?
Mat 

[Ivo]

Earlier ones would probably use formal gothic script and have a milled edge (a Ranft) so I'm  inclined to place this later on in the century. 

[MatW]

I think you are likely right... Here I show some detail photos of the panels.

[MatW]

Just to add, I found one piece that can be dated to ca. 1850 and may be that is a hint for the chronology of my piece. It is painted, not engraved, but the shape is identical to mine? http://www.auktion-bergmann.de/ufItemInfo.aspx?i_id=89628 .

[Ivo]

Try and do an image search for "Ranftbecher" in Google images and be amazed at the wide varieties of these things.
I have one from the 1830s in annagreen - and in essence it has the same shape, even if technique varies.