Topic: Cobalt blue frosted art deco vase - Espaivet??

[Jay]

Trying to track down an ID for this one, which was sold as being Espaivet...I have not been able to find this design in my references, so am not yet convinced!
Of course there are quite a few variations of this type from a range of factories, but also suspicious that this is an easy victim for modern pirates of such designs.

Does anybody recognise it??

[chopin-liszt]

Yes, I do, Jay.
I took a photo of this very vase in the museum in Wroclaw, and the caption under it. I have just checked my photographs.


The caption card reads;
Huta Neimen J. Stolle w Brzozbwce
slow-blown sodium glass
1930s

Sorry, i can't post pics just now - I changed pc and my old pics are all in wrong formats. I have them rescued from the old hard drive.

I may have mis-spelt Brzozbwce. The "bwce" bit at the end of the word is very out of focus, but I'm sure you'll know what it ought to be.

[chopin-liszt]

I have more. I was given a (treasured) copy of the book on 20th century glass and ceramics from the museum.
So, I've found the vase in there too. The caption with it is a little confusing, as it refers to two picture numbers, but only one image is there. I cannot type Polish accents on letters. I have coloured the letters which require accents red.
It reads:

"1360-1361. Dwa wazony, ok. 1930

Szklo sodowe, "cichodmuchane" barwione w masie, matowane; wys. 30,5; katalog firmowy, wzor 1307.

Ksztalt tulipanowaty, szyjka krotka lekko rozchylona, na calej powierzchni zeberkowanie urozmaicone czterema klinowatymi kwiatonami symetrycznie rozmieszczonymi. Kolor pierwszego niebieski, drugiego rozowy.
Nr inw. XVIII-2262; zakup 1986; nr inw.XVIII-2613;zakup 1997

bibliogr.: "Projekt" 2-3,1982,il. s. 58; Banas, "Niemen" 1984, s. 19, 104, 108.

[Jay]

Thanks Sue. That's wonderful and so quick! ;-) I wish my memory worked at that speed (when it works at all!)

[chopin-liszt]

I have bit of a bugbear about how unrecognised and how fabulous Polish glass is and dilgently took photographs (without flash and with permission) of everything I could in the museum, in the hope that it would become useful some day.
It's taken a few years, but here we are. It wasn't a vague memory, Jay. It was one I planted in the hope of fruition. It finally paid off today.
I just hope you can read Polish.

[Jay]

Well done, then. I see quite a lot of Polish glass but very little of it is recognised by dealers. If there is a way I can help to back up/store your scans then please let me know.
Google translate made a passable job of the translation with no problems. (of course you DO need a little knowledge of glass to decode it, though!)

[chopin-liszt]

I'm a complete technosaurus and incompatible with computery stuff, but my brother might be able to help me soon. I wouldn't understand any explanations.

The book from the museum does show much better photographs than those I took and might well be a very good reference book for you to have for 20th century Polish art glass and ceramics.
It is called; "ceramika i szklo polskie XX wieku", published in 2004. There is no ISBN, it is copyrighted to the Museum itself.
The copy i was given is the one with the maroon cover. I drool over it, frequently. 

eta. I hadn't heard of Espaivet, Jay. Are you happy or disappointed with the correct but different attribution?

[Jay]

I'm a curator, so I only care about it being correct! (If the seller is disappointed , they shouldn't be!) Of course, it's influenced by the fact that value these days is more about decorative strength than about the collectibility or history, sad to say for us 'buffs'!.

There a lot of good illustrations on this collectors site, mostly focusing on French factories doing similar styles. http://vases-art-deco.fr/espaivet.html
(SPV from Societee de Paris (Verres), I seem to recall.)

I also added some new info about similar 'Oreor' vases and lamp-bases on my own site.
http://www.hogelandshoeve.be/index433.html

[chopin-liszt]

Well, I care about the accuracy too and I'm absolutely delighted to have been able to help. And to promote Polish Glass a little bit. It was Anik who gifted me the book after I'd been there. 
Thanks for the links to educate me a bit, I will enjoy those.

[chopin-liszt]

We might have run into some moulds being moved inbetween companies here Jay!
I've just been looking through your first link and there are two vases there that are in my book exactly next to the image of the blue vase you have.

Photos numbers 1362 and 1633 (which are in black and white for this particular section of the book), are of "Feuillages et Baies" and "Les Nuages" by Espiavet, but come under the chapter heading of;
Huty Szklane "Niemen" (Okolice, Lidy, Obecnie Bialorus) in my book.
And I have a photo of a green "Les Nuages" beside your blue vase in the same cabinet in the museum.


I suspect we might have to do a bit more digging and date finding.