Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: flying free on February 18, 2012, 07:19:06 PM
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On another thread Paul mentioned about the tendancy of users of the board towards coloured glass of whatever source, rather than towards clear or colourless glass, one example being cut glass. He posed a rhetorical question that it may be down to 'fashion'.
My aversion to buying colourless glass is not down to fashion it is
a) partly down to my love of colour...my house and my life need colour in them
b) I think coloured glass can be displayed better, the colour outlines the shape, and shape is as important to me as the intricacies of the colour and how it is made in the glass.
c) I do buy some colourless glass but need the surface of it to be decorated in some way, as plain but shapely colourless glass does not float my boat
d) That the colourless pieces I would really love to buy are just way outside of my price range...ever.
I do think colourless glass can be displayed beautifully, but I think it requires the right environment for it to look great - plus dark wood furniture and great lighting. My house is not that environment...it isn't sophisticated or serene enough ;D
For me in our house, I think colourless glass looks better displayed with coloured glass around it
(see goblet in pic)
Thoughts and views welcome :)
m
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Interesting post. I'm with you in that the vast majority of my pieces have at least some colour in them. When I think what parameters govern glass designers, the three main ones that come to mind are form, technique (in the sense that bullicante and iridescence are techniques) and colour. So taking away colour narrows the range of possibilities, especially when one considers that colour and technique are usually very much intertwined.
I agree it's also fashion, a reaction against the heavy cut crystal that use to dominate. But I agree also that cold cutting is now very expensive. When you look at the work that went into cutting in the past, it's no great surprise that good quality cut glass now costs a fortune. There's some clear glass I'd love to have but can't afford it. Even production glass from the recent past like this can be expensive, Svarc from Czechoslovakia and Lundin for Orrefors, for example.
I think you can have stunning display of clear glass, but you need very specific lighting and conditions (as well as stunning glass). It then becomes expensive to display, and, even then, only spectacular when the rest of the room is dark.
I looked around and here's the closest I have to a clear glass grouping: 7 Scandinavian and a Seguso Vetri d'Arte corroso piece. The other clear pieces are scattered around the house amid the coloured pieces.
David
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I am not much into clear glass. I only have a few pieces, which is mostly the Tapio Wirkkala pieces as I do like his textured range, 1 x Czech piece, 2 from SVdA and a few Whitefriars flint pieces.
I do think clear glass looks better with some texture too it as per Tapio and the Baxter pieces. But it definitely must be displayed with coloured glass to make it look less 'boring'.
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I am not much into clear glass. I only have a few pieces, which is mostly the Tapio Wirkkala pieces as I do like his textured range, 1 x Czech piece, 2 from SVdA and a few Whitefriars flint pieces.
I do think clear glass looks better with some texture too it as per Tapio and the Baxter pieces. But it definitely must be displayed with coloured glass to make it look less 'boring'.
I like *colors* as well...but I think if clear glass is displayed with some other colors, it helps to set it off too.
Mind you - the cat I just posted is clear glass, but has strong edges to it. It displays much better than maybe a Clear goblet would, since it does have harsher/stronger lines than the *Soft* round flow of a clear glass.
So the sharper edges in (clear) glass - I think makes a difference if they can be in a group of clear glass...compared to some *softer* edges of clear glass (or shapes).
You get what I mean here.....I hope. Just saying soft edged glass grouped together might diffuse ?? each other, and take away seeing each beauty.
:usd: IMHO, lol
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To me, the whole point of glass is that it is a medium through which colour can be made into three dimensional sculptures. But I do have a few Tapio Wirkkala bits in the kitchen, they're nice shapes and textures - but with a decidedly "kitchen" sort of orientation.
I keep garlic bulbs in a Frank Thrower pot, I keep the bulb I'm currently using in a little dish shaped like hallf an onion (I don't know what it is - suspect Skruf).
I tend to see cut glass as being a completely different category of art - marks made on cold glass are not the same thing as working hot glass. It's more like drawings or sketches, just with glass being the medium they're put on.
I do think coloured glass shows cutting better.
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I collect both clear cut and engraved and coloured glass! ;D Much of my house is furnished with antique furniture. In the living room I display mostly the cut glass, on top of the dark mahogany cabinet . I also have some of my clear etched and engraved glass in my one (modern, but dark wood) cabinet with lights, where I display my cut and engraved glass against some of my Whitefriars Ruby collection. My coloured glass is generally displayed on white window sills or light furniture! Best of both worlds, IMHO! :smg:
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That works. That really, really works. :smg: :smg: :smg:
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I'll speak up on behalf of clear ("colorless") glass.
For a number of years through the last three quarters of the 20th century, a number of the best glass houses (Steuben, Waterford and Baccarat come to mind) produced only or mostly high-quality, uncolored pieces of lead crystal. It was a conscious aesthetic and philosophical decision, derived from notions of purity based in the Modernist movement.
It was felt that forms and surfaces should serve as their own decoration, and that color should be unnecessary and it was a crutch used by poor artists to hide their weaknesses and shoddy workmanship, in the way things like moldings and wallpaper were used to cover up poor construction in houses. These notions came from architects like Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. (It's been suggested that their position may have been because they were simply lousy colorists and I think in Mies' case, there's merit to that argument.)
An American architect (who lived most of his life in my hometown of Philadelphia) summed it up well when he said, "Let brick be brick. Let stone be stone. Let wood be wood." And by extension -as Stueben did after they fired Frederick Carder- glass should allowed to be simply and completely transparent.
I think there's a valid point there, and at the moment, most of my own, personal collection consists of big, solid, bold pieces executed in crystal. I'm especially fond of the massive, blown and cut pieces Orrefors made in the 70s and 80s. They're solid, sculptural, architectural.
And I find that crystal pieces do display well: they mass together, and overlap, reflecting and refracting light. I have a big bow window in my living room, looking out onto the street, and the sill is full of all sorts of pieces of crystal, jostling for space with each other.
The other nice thing about pieces in crystal is that they play well together. It makes mixing pieces from different countries and different times very easy.
I like color. I understand color, and it's place in glass (imagine how boring Murano glass would be without color!), and when I'm buying for resale, I'll always buy colored pieces before crystal. But for myself, for the moment, I like big chunky pieces of crystal.
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Robert,
I'd love to see a picture of your bow window if you can get the glass to stop jostling each other so that you can take a picture.
David
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I'll see what I can do tomorrow, as it's dark at the moment here. They're also quite dusty at the moment, as I've in the middle of renovations on the house.
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I wouldn't say I prefer colourless, but I have a lot of it. At a certain point when I started to collect German glass, I moved towards Peill & Putzler and Nachtmann, and most of their truly striking pieces are colourless. However I do prefer pieces that are well textured. The sort of simple clear pieces that became the norm for cheap flower vases from the 80's onwards don't really work for me.
I think I was sold when I saw one of these big bold Strombergshyttan Viking ship pieces up close. These big bold chunky crystal pieces really blow me away.
Displaying them can be somewhat of a problem so I can't really add much to that question, because they don't look so well against my white glass curtains, but that doesn't diminish the beauty. I can't resist showing a few pieces that I love, even if they don't photograph well (well at least, I can't seem to find a good way...)
Fltr: Strombergshyttan, Peill & Putzler, Nachtmann, Nachtmann
Astrid
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Interesting pieces and beautiful, Astrid.
Thanks to M for starting this thread as it it has got me thinking anew about glass. I've found I've gone back and reviewed my colourless glass with renewed appreciation.
David
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Astrid, I'm happy to see you back... you've been missed.
Colourless glass is my favourite when it comes to pressed and cut pieces. Put against a dark background, they look beautiful. They don't need an injection of colour or other excitement. They simply are what they are.
Coloured glass, on the other hand, looks best against white or clear... if I could do it over again, I'd have white or clear glass shelving units for my Skrdlovice, and the shelves would be lit in such a way to bring out the colours of the glass. Maybe one day.
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Here's a quick shot of the bow window at the moment. Things are rather haphazard and I really need to clean and completely rearrange everything (there are some larger pieces that really should be in the window and some smaller ones which shouldn't).
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Left side detail.
Left to right:
Kosta milk glass skull votive candleholder (recent production)
Kosta candlesticks
Verlys Gems vase (bought because it has a turned wooden replacement foot)
Libbey Nash vase (with a small Orrefors vase behind)
Kosta head on iron stand
Tiffany & Co candlesticks (there was a discussion of this pattern here recently, can't remember the name)
Kosta Owl
Kosta Lion
Steuben Urn (barely visible)
Large Green American studio glass vase (can't remember the maker at the moment)
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:pb:
I have to confess that my eyes automatically went straight to the Verlys - the colour brings out the fantastic texture so well - I struggled a bit to make out any of the clear stuff!
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Right side, detail.
Left to Right:
Green studio glass vase
TW Iitala bark vase
Orrefors eagle and elephant figures (obscured)
Blenko Joel Myers flat-topped cylinder vase
Baccarat Libert Bell relief (1/50 made, sadly slightly damaged)
Bennington Pottery "Asterisk" vase
Seaglas minature nude male and female vases (recent manufacture)
Orrefors votive holder
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:pb:
I have to confess that my eyes automatically went straight to the Verlys - the colour brings out the fantastic texture so well - I struggled a bit to make out any of the clear stuff!
The Verlys piece is crystal, but has a tan-colored wash on it.
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Really? I didn't know they came with a wash!
I've only ever seen them in a beautiful rosy amber and in opalescent glass - colour through and through!
(And I regret giving the rosy amber one to somebody who doesn't appreciate it enough. >:D)
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I love the Kosta head :clap: and the zoo animals.
the Verlys vase is pretty amazing too.
The display looks good, it works beautifully against the window backdrop.
m
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I think decorated colourless glass is just for those of us fortunate to be blessed with good taste ;) ;)
Bottom line is probably that people's entire view of their surroundings has changed. We have left behind C19 ideas of conservatism (didn't they once cover the legs of pianos?) - and after all, if given the chance of filling our lives with colour, we now jump at the chance. And yet having said that, it's also very true that the Victorians, although very prudish, were nuts over the sort of frilly, ostentatious coloured pieces that adorn the pages of Gulliver. Also maybe a lot to do with simply whether you're someone who sees art in conceptual artistic contemporary coloured glass, or whether you're drawn to the skill and beauty of much cut and wheel decorated material. I enjoyed Robert's first contribution ("I'll speak up on behalf of clear ("colorless") glass etc". At the end of the day, I think it's simply personal taste, and subconsciously we like colour more than clear, with a minority of us liking the artistry of decoration by cutting.
Clear, particularly cut clear glass, has had a bad press for many years owing to the mountains of boring cut glass vases you see in every bric-a-brac shop window, and so many people forget, or simply aren't aware of the stunning pieces of post war modernist designs from the big factories on the Continent and in the U.K.
Mind you, I think the Georgian and Regency period knock us into a cocked hat with regard to drinking glasses........some of the deep amethyst, green, blue, and red rummers and wines are unsurpassed...........if you like colour that is. No good if you want to see what it is you're drinking :).
Just for the record, my favourite piece of glass (in my own collection) is a large citrine coloured cut vase from E&L, dating to somewhere around 1950, possibly, with which I get the best of both worlds. I also like the colours produced by Stennett-Wilson for Wedgwood - colours, if you are going to have them, should be subtle - nothing more guaranteed to kill the appeal in something than garish, kitch tasteless colours. :)
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'colours, if you are going to have them, should be subtle - nothing more guaranteed to kill the appeal in something than garish, kitch tasteless colours.'
:cry:
Oh dear....
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nope, sorry m, "either that wallpaper goes, or I do" - isn't it just a tad OTT for the colours of the glass ;D ;D
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m, your displays are truly wonderful. (And by the way, my heart is softening to having more colour in my world... last weekend, we repainted our livingroom. My husband said I should go wild, and choose a real colour, and not anything beigy or off-white. So I bravely chose soft-creamy-brown. It was only when we got to the register and paid for the paint did I realize my husband exchanged the soft brown for a funky lilac. But it's not as bad as I thought it would be... :usd:)
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Paul ;D difference of opinion and the way we view things is good.
I struggled for a long while to display anything in there, until I realised that the strength of the walls needed cased opaque glass. The floor is black and white chequerboard, and the only picture is a huge vintage black and white poster of Bette Davis casually smoking a cig :angel:
Anik, lilac is a very calming colour and I'm sure your Czech glass will look fabulous with it. Lilac looks fantastic with dark wood furniture as well.
m
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Paul, I don't do subtle. :smg:
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Sue that's a great shot :)
m
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as always, I'm being a little contentious, deliberately -- hell, what does it matter whether it's coloured or clear that floats your boat, as long as we ALL stay friends.
I'm sure it's to the advantage of all of us that we are an eclectic and disparate bunch :)
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You old smoothie Paul , did they put you thru a juicer tonight ? ;D :thup:
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Thanks for the photos, Robert Teh grouping works for me. Interesting to see some North American glass there, and it certainly is an eclectic mix. The Wirkkala 'Pinus' vase is one of my favourites.
Also, interesting that m's grouping appealed to me, also. Not something I would choose in my house (by which I mean it wouldn't suit the house), but it's certainly a grouping and a setting I can admire.
David
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Thanks, all, for your kind words! I have to admit what's in the window at the moment is more of an accumulation than a conscious arrangement. I'm not orthodox when it comes to what I really like personally, which is why collecting mostly crystal/colorless glass works for me at the moment.
Both the Wikkala vase and the Boda (not Kosta, as I said earlier) head on stand were thrift (charity) shop finds, and I didn't pay much for either. It's a benefit of being a full-time dealer: occasionally you're allowed to keep something good because you didn't pay that much for it. >:D
Looking at the pictures, I'm surprised by how much Kosta/Boda I have at the moment. I'd say I like Orrefors better than Kosta, but my collection seems to say otherwise.
Here's one more, with more colored (mostly Scandi) pieces in it. It's the top of the IKEA shelves that also hold my LP collection.