Topic: Ladislav Dostal, engraver, where did he work before Australia?

[ahremck]

Oops!    I really meant to ask Andrew to put his up so we can see them.  By the way Max I really like the piece you have - so different to what I have.

Ross

[brewster]

At least 5 other crystal slabs engraved by Ladislav Dostal were sold on ebay.au in 2008 and 2009. I don’t have records of all of them, but the first two pictures below show two examples. The nativity scene is signed but not dated while the angel fish (which is a close relative of Ross’s) is not signed or dated.

I have found a couple of other results from physical auction houses in Australia, as shown in the second pair of pictures. The crystal slab with the butterfly fetched $A55 in Sept 2010. Of special interest to Max is the paperweight, which is signed ‘L Dostal 74’. I could not find a sale price when it was offered in June 2010, but the estimate was $A50-100.

For interest, I have included the two photos of Mr Dostal himself from the Australian Archives mentioned by Andrew (‘astroboy’ in Reply #5).

Trevor


(Click on a thumbnail to see the full-size picture.)

[ahremck]

Thank you so much Trevor for your info.  You obviously have a strong interest in Australian glass art.  I did not realise so many pieces had come through the market.  Let's hope Andrew's pieces are interesting.

Ross

[astroboy]

Hi All, I've finally dug out my other Dostal piece only to discover it's one of the ones Trevor shows - the Fern and Butterfly. It's a magnificent piece in green glass about 18cm high and 12cm wide and weighing over 2kg with cut and polished sides. The "fern" is engraved on the front face and the butterfly on the back face, so it has amazing depth. It is signed L. Dostal 72, with the number 92 more roughly engraved under the signature. The other is a reclining fawn and tree cut into the back face and grass and a branch engraved into the front face. It is much smaller, about 9cm high and 11cm wide with chipped ice edges around 3 sides, along with a few damage chips. It's signed L. Dostal 71. Sorry to take so long. Regards, Andrew

[JeddaDostal]

Hi, my name is Jedda and Ladislav was my grandfather.

I think somewhere among all the clutter of household items i may actually have a piece of his work. A glass engraved Crocodile i believe. Although I haven't seen it for some time as he gave it to my parents when i was a child. If i can track it down i would be glad to post a photo of it on this thread so you too can behold it's beauty.

[JeddaDostal]

Also i would like to add that yes he Did come over to Australia from Norway around 1968, I know this because my dad was born in 1961 in Oslo, Norway and he said that they moved over to Australia when he was 6-7 roughly with his two older brothers and mother.

[ahremck]

Thanks for that Jedda.  If you manage to dig out nthe crocodile we would love to see it.

Ross

[JeddaDostal]

Sadly, he died Decemeber 2011 i think from Dementia.

[Yarn]

I'm Jan (Yarn) Dostal, son of Ladislav Dostal. Dad worked in Norway, Oslo doing engraving and other glass art from a shop called Larsen. He was commissioned to do work for KingOlav and Danish royalty. We emigrated to Australia (mum dad & my two brothers and me) in 1968. Arriving in Adelaide in '69 where dad started working for Symonds and Symonds, glass merchant.
He made hundreds of art pieces depicting Aboriginals kangaroos other Australian fauna and a series of miners (Broken Hill) where he built a magnificent 5m tall glass fountain sculpture for the REAL Casio consisting of over 100,000 pieces of glass.I would sometimes at school holidays go and help dad polish pieces inc most memorable TheTwoFacesOfSheeba sculpture.He also did a life-size detailed sculpture of an Aboriginal elder.Sadly he died, in 2011, 3years later after a stroke following a gallstone op. I have many glass pieces on slides I have digitised but sadly no glass pieces themselves. I do have a leather picture piece of art he made depicting a farm scene inc horse drinking in a trough. (His take on leatherwork class he took while everyone made repeated pattern sameness.)

[nigelbenson]

Hello Yarn,

Thank you so much for taking time out to give us all information about your father and his work. How sad that you don't have any of his glass, but hopefully that can be put right if you keep a look out on the Internet 

Kind wishes, Nigel