Topic: Biedermeier Uranium Vase.

[flying free]

A brief but lovely explanation of the development of coloured glass in the Biedermeier period here (it's in German though):

Walter Spiegl -
http://www.spiegl-enterprises.de/museum/1_4.PDF

[flying free]

Nev, this is a explanation of how an English glassmaker struggled to achieve cased coloured glass (in this case white over purple) for example - something the Bohemian glassmakers went on to do brilliantly  along with their incredible developments in coloured glass not many years later.  So for example in the book Farbenglas II there is a becher, white glass cased in dark blue in the Technical Museum in Vienna dated 'before 1834' pp118, and a black (a very dark green but appears black) becher cased in white glass and cut through dated before 1837 pp145:

Written about Mr Biddle of Birmingham Heath Glass Works,  in a memoir of Sir Edward Thomason he writes that Mr Biddle of the Birmingham Heath Glass Works (I think this was Park Glass Works later to become Lloyd and Summerfield) attempted a version of the Portland vase and says that the workmen were able to blow the shape and attached the handles, but could not case the glass without it shattering completely.  In the reference source   it says the date was 1818.
As soon as they attempted to apply the white casing the purple cracked 'into endless striae and crush it into a chaos of confusion'.


Source: John Biddle, Apsley Pellatt, and the Portland Vase
David Whitehouse
Journal of Glass Studies
Vol. 54 (2012), pp. 259-261 (3 pages)
Published By: Corning Museum of Glass
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24191290

This link should bring up a preview - if you click on the preview you can read the information. 
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24191290?seq=1     



I don't mean to go on   however this was a period of glass development by Bohemian glassmakers that should be celebrated because it was so amazing in terms of colour development, cutting techniques, Biedermeier style etc. Incredible energy and style.

[flying free]

And just to add, I downloaded that article and it goes onto say that it was a big deal in 1847 when Apsley Pellatt had supervised the blowing of a blue piece of glass in the shape of the Portland vase cased with white.  He gave a lecture on it at the Royal Institution.  1847.  There is Bohemian glass, white cased over dark green and cameo cut in a very contemporary design in becher form in the Technische Museum in Wien from before 1837.  10 years earlier:

see here for the example -
https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-36601
and they give an earliest date for it as 1827


'Titel

Becher mit Beinglasüberfang

Kurztitel

Becher mit Beinglasüberfang

Frühestes Datum

1827

Spätestes Datum

1836

Beschreibung

schwarzgrüner Trinkbecher mit dickem Beinglas überfangen, ausgeschliffene Blattmotive sowie Medaillon

Objektklasse

Becher

Kultur/Gebiet/Herkunft/Fundort

Böhmen

Material/Medium/Technik

Glas, Schliff, Überfang

Inventarnummer

GL 2357'

http://www.kulturpool.at/plugins/kulturpool/showitem.action?itemId=103080056584&kupoContext=default




Example of Bohemian cameo glass c.1850 (In the description page linked last they have it as 'earliest date c1840)

https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-36412

http://www.kulturpool.at/plugins/kulturpool/showitem.action?itemId=111670076223&kupoContext=default


Example of Bohemian cameo glass 1849
https://sammlung.mak.at/sammlung_online?id=collect-36591

http://www.kulturpool.at/plugins/kulturpool/showitem.action?itemId=107375065561&kupoContext=default

[flying free]

The Mechanics Magazine 1845

Memoir on the manufacture of glass in Bohemia by M. L. P. Debette  (continued from page 400 - but the actual article is in 'parts' with the start being on page281 (starting bottom of right hand column)
This is a translated piece which was written  by M. L. P. Debette and originally published in Annales des Mines in 1843)

See page 427 chapter IX
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Mechanics_Magazine/L45fAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bohemian+glass+1830&pg=PA284&printsec=frontcover

'A great quantity of opaline glass-coloured green, is also manufactured in Bohemia: formerly it was prepared by adding to colourless glass a certain quantity of calcined bone powder, yellow oxide of uranium and oxide of iron (finery cinder).
This colour is altered after long exposure to solar light.  For some years past it has been replaced at Winterberg and Silberberg, by a more beautiful colour, due to calcined bone powder, yellow oxide of uranium and oxide of nickel'.

This was written in 1843.  And it refers to 'for some years past' indicating that green opaline (and a more beautiful colour that included oxide of nickel but we don't know whether that's a more beautiful colour of green or some other colour?) had been produced in Bohemia for 'some years' before 1843.

[NevB]

I've just watched an old Antiques Roadshow from Hillsborough Castle N.I. where they had a large lidded vase with the same sort of decoration. Andy Mcconnell dated it around 1865, mine may be earlier, and described the decoration as "not the best but not bad".

[flying free]

was it the light blue and white pokal - no link online  , but did McConnell give a potential maker for that piece? I wondered if John had seen it regarding his green and white one.

Did you find any of the information I linked to interesting?


I'm always loathe to comment on the quality of enamelling and gilding on glass because actually I think it's a very difficult thing to achieve ...

[flying free]

... so for example this was the decoration on a Richardson's opaline vase c. 1850 ish I think:

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/woolley-and-wallis/catalogue-id-srwo10000/lot-878b689f-131d-4ae1-abf6-a3f5013cb58a#lotDetails

The quality of enamelling yes, can vary, however it's also very dependent on the period it was being executed and to what extent the gilding and enamelling on glass processes had been developed at that time, by that factory etc.  It's a delicate process  

So one could say the Jules Barbe gilding for Thomas Webb and others was exquisitely beautiful. It was. Late 1870s/1880s.

Mohn and Kothgasser did some exquisite enamelling on transparent glasses much earlier in the 1800s. Stunning stuff.

Some beautiful but different work and development in enamelling techniques from Egermann in the 1820s also and also from France Jean-Baptiste Desvignes from the same period.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder    and also takes into account the period of development.

[NevB]

Yes that was the one, he just called it Bohemian, the episode is available on Freeview Play. The links you sent were interesting but I haven't studied them carefully yet. With regard to the enamelling, I'm sure it's not easy to do, but it does look, I think , a bit naïve.

[flying free]

It appears the author of this tome still felt in 1887 that Bohemian glass was magnificent. Unsure how much a part politics plays in authoring these pieces but the description of Bohemian glass displayed at the Manchester exhibition  is breathless in it's awe, glowing indeed .  Sparse comment on the English glassmakers by comparison. See page 54 onwards

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Pictorial_Record_of_the_Royal_Jubile/Hh4UAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=stevens+and+williams+brierley+hill+1887&pg=PA54&printsec=frontcover

[flying free]

This has some similarities with your urn/vase

https://www.antiquitaeten-schlemmer.de/gross/biedermeierbecher-uran1.htm