Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Austria => Topic started by: NevB on July 20, 2020, 12:04:51 PM
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This is a 20cm./8" opaline, uranium vase. I'm now confident it is Czech, in the Biedermeier style and from anywhere around 1850-1880. The enamelling is rather naive with the main picture being, rather oddly, a fallen log and with other motifs of flowers and hearts. It is a solid piece and weighs almost 1kg./2lbs.
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oooh that's absolutely, fabulously,gorgeous. You lucky thing!
I think that might be a little bit earlier.
How did you decide 1850-1880?
m
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Thanks flying free, I decided on a date of 1850-80 because although the Biedermeier style ran from about 1815-50 most of the glass vases I saw were dated a bit later and this one also being uranium glass I thought later too. But there is some debate as to when uranium glass was first produced so it could be earlier. I've added some more photos to show the enamelling better. I bought this just after I started collecting glass and baulked a bit at the £16.50 asking price but I think it was a good buy ;D.
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uranium glass was much earlier than 1850. There are examples of opaline green uranium glass dated to 1830s.
It was a very very good buy.
I imagine the enamels are better in real life than in photos although they show a bit of wear.
I'd say that was earlier rather than later in your date span. I think maybe late 1840s -1850s.
It's known as Chrysoprasglas (I think - open to correction but I think so)
m
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Yes some of the enamels and gilding are worn but that's to be expected. You're probably right about the date but it's difficult to say exactly. I've seen a blue opaline glass vase online with the very similar enamel attributed to Harrach which is a likely possibility.
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You need some books and some museum searches (Bohemian glass collections in Czechia, German or Austrian museums online as well as in a Polish collection and in the Budapest museum iirc) to pin the date down :) A lovely task for you. The collections are stupendous and reveal some amazing pieces of glass.
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'Chrysopras, uranium, and iron oxide green glasses from Bohemia, Riesengebirge (1830-1850)':
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-evz3LaPqt1U/TXnQBFCxfqI/AAAAAAAAB_M/wH5oXn0D88s/s1600/100_7524.jpg
Scroll down on their photographs to the title and photograph.
http://czechfoodiesmn.blogspot.com/2011/03/bohemian-glass-at-glasmuseum-passau.html
Glass at the Passau Museum.
From Das Bohmische Glas Band II pp 91, the description underneath a green opaline becher dated c.1840:
translated using google - 'The chrysolite lead glass composition was produced together with some other similar types of glass in the Harrach-Hutte from 1830 to 1840, when attempts were made to add uranium oxide as a color to the batch.'
(Die Chrysolith-Bleiglas-Komposition wurde zusammen mit einigen weiteren ahnlichen Glassorten in der Harrach-Hutte in den Jahren 1830 bis 1840 erzeugt, als man Versuche mit Uran-oxid als farbende Beigabe zum Gemenge anstellte.
)
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see post above and also:
Here on page 25 two examples of Uranium opaline glass, one yellow,one green - both more opaque than yours - dated c.1840 and one with a green opaline uranium glass overlay very similar to yours also dated c.1840
http://www.glas-forschung.info/pageone/pdf/farbglas.pdf
- Source:
Walter Spiegl
Farbige und überfangene
Gläser der Biedermeierzeit
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Thanks very much for your efforts flying free, I've obviously got some studying to do.
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I think this is a slightly different green to yours and it would help greatly if you took photos of your vase against a white background in daylight so the colour and the colours of the enamels can be clearly seen :)
However, Dr Fischer has this perfume bottle as from Annathal and dated c 1840-1850 - Chrysopras-Glas
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/dr-fischer/catalogue-id-fischer10018/lot-81da9613-a0dc-4b7a-8f27-a61d00fcafeb
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Hello flying free, here are some more photos, the colours look right on my computer but they have a habit of changing when I post them ??? Nev.
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They are the right colour :).
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Aah,that's lovely. Gorgeous colour. And really beautiful gilding which can be seen properly now.
Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for anything similar in terms of the enamelling. It's quite delicate in the way the enameller has spaced it out over the vase. Pretty.
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Thanks flying free, if you google "biedermeier glass vase" you should find the blue opaline one I mentioned with a similar appearance, attributed to Harrach but ??
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Just came upon the perfume bottle I linked earlier in the thread again. I think the colour and type of glass and the way the base is cut is the same as your vase so I think the time period is probably good for your vase. Dr Fischer auctions sold the perfume in 2016 as attributed to Annathal bei Schuttenhofen c. 1840 to 1850. The perfume also has gilded thin bands on it as well.
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/dr-fischer/catalogue-id-fischer10018/lot-81da9613-a0dc-4b7a-8f27-a61d00fcafeb#lotDetails
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Thanks flying free, I've looked up the Annathal factory and there's quite lot of their pieces online but I do think the quality of theirs is better than my one. The date for mine of 1840-50 seems ok though.
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In which way do you mean the 'quality' ?
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Everything really, the quality of the glass the gilding and the painted decoration.
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The quality of the glass is fabulous. It's Chrysoprasglas - opaline uranium glass made around the start of this new process.
The way the foot is cut and the panel cutting is spot on and all done by hand/eye. Biedermeier.
This is a becher attributed to Annathal bei Schuttenhofen enamelled in a similarly 'sparse' style. If you click on the picture it should enlarge and then click again and it's even more close up so you can see the enamelling:
https://www.lot-tissimo.com/de-de/auction-catalogues/dr-fischer/catalogue-id-fischer10053/lot-c22198e4-9d93-4c69-b8ff-abed00d4b1c8
See also this piece again attributed to Annathal bei Schuttenhofen c.1840 Chrysoprasglas (sold by Dr Fischer in 2015) - you can click onto it and enlarge it to see the enamelling:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/37698483_sockelbecher-aus-chrysoprasglas
Your piece is nearly 200 years old and will have lost some of the effect of it's gilding and enamelling over the years. I can see that in some of the photos.
This was a great period of development of glass colour and technique. For example there are some pieces that are from/ascribed to Annathal bei Schuttenhofen that are in colour combinations not seen from other glass houses; a period where Bohemian glasscutters were finding amazing new ways of cutting designs onto the glass in cameo cut basically to show the layered colour underneath; combining coloured glass in layers at this time was not easy to do - the chemistry between the colours had to be exact to avoid them annealing at different rates and breaking; this is shortly after the time that Neuwelt first found their own 'recipe' for making gold ruby glass; and only a few years after Buquoy developed their Agathin glas.
It was a most fabulous period for Bohemian glassmakers experimentation of new developments. And they won many gold medals and awards because they were brilliant at it :)
Your vase fits fine within that especially because it's Chrysoprasglas and also because of the cutting.
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I've just been reading up and something caught my eye.
In Farbenglas I , Waltraud Neuwirth there is a very early mention of Chrysoprase glass:
page 254 - the information on that page is talking about the reference sources of pieces submitted to various exhibitions.
In the section discussing Exhibition of Bohemian Industrial Products in Prague in 1831 there is the following:
'The Harrach glasses were also listed in the catalogue in detail; among the colour glasses were ....a "little jewelry tray of chrysoprase composition, cut inside (the first product of this composition made into a vessel," "small bottles of ... '
So ... very early evidence of this type of glass.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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".
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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 ...
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... 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.
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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.
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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
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This has some similarities with your urn/vase
https://www.antiquitaeten-schlemmer.de/gross/biedermeierbecher-uran1.htm
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1835 Exhibition Vienna
Harrach - Chrysopras glass
See page 241 and 242.
It's written in old script but not that difficult to read.
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Bericht_%C3%BCber_die_allgemeine_%C3%B6sterreich/R-RKAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=chrysopras+glas&pg=PA242&printsec=frontcover
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Thanks for the link flying free. I can read it fairly easily but unfortunately the vocabulary used is a bit beyond my 50 year old schoolboy German, my A-level grade wasn't very good :D. I'll have to use an online translator.