Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: thewingedsphinx on June 23, 2022, 07:12:02 PM
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Evening all, I would be very grateful for any help identifying this large 12.5” Green opaline vase with gold enamel, I presume it’s French, c1900 ? thanks very much Mike
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I'd agree French but possibly as early as early as 1860-70? Difficult to pin down a maker but Baccarat are often mentioned with this type of vase. A lovely piece.
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I never know how people decide on French for this sort of stuff. I think it could even be Bohemian for the French market, especially as the under gilding enamel looks to be yellow
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I have a pair of similar small vases, the gilding is solid gold and there is no sign of a yellow base layer.
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If it's raised, it's not solid gold. Gold is not applied in way that would cause it to form a raised pattern; it's way too expensive for a start and is applied as a low-concentration suspension in a suitable liquid. It does not fuse as does the frit in enamel; it is the substrate that adheres to the glass and the gold. That's why it wears off so easily. Flat gilding has no under enamel. Silver can be raised but that's because it's not applied in a suspension like gold; it's electroplated onto an applied pattern.
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Thanks for your comments.
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I think also that it's likely to be Bohemian because of the rim finish and the way it's gilded. Possibly 1870s and Josephinenhutte.
Jules Barbe came to England from France in the 1860s (iirc correctly, could be 1870s) and gilded with a 'raised effect' gilding. He was deemed a master at it and it was his own process he developed. I have two vases that are gilded by him. The gilding has not worn off but it wont be yellow underneath. It will be brown as that was the base he developed to then be burnished with the gold over it.
I can't think of a French maker that was gilding in this way although there were a couple of French artists in the 1860s/70s who did stupendously intricate enamelling and gilded designs.
See example Phillipe Joseph Brocard:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1902-1118-1
I say artist because I've no idea where that Brocard glass was made and I don't know if he made the glass. The British Museum says it was 'decorated by' Brocard. It looks to me as if it might have been made by Loetz or Josephinenhutte perhaps.
See also a piece by him here where all the gilding has worn off:
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6099513
My Clichy pieces (1860s) are quite intricately gilded and enamelled but with flat gilding onto glass.
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Bohemian almost certain.
French opaline blanks for decoration came often from Portieux, clear ones from Sèvres.
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Thanks very much Flying free for sharing all that info. I shall investigate further.
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The gilding has not worn off but it wont be yellow underneath. It will be brown as that was the base he developed to then be burnished with the gold over it.
In my experience, Bohemian gilding generally has yellow or orange under enamel (sometimes yellow or orange raised enamel with no apparent gilding means the gold has gone and is only visible as vestiges along the edges of the enamel) and English gilding generally has brown/dark under enamel. This is not a hard and fast rule but something to consider when looking at the piece as a whole.