Topic: help with ID bohemien or poss French

[oldman]

Hi
1st timer lol
Ive got a very unusual vase and would like help identifying it.
Interesting bubble inclusions which radiate out into a geometric pattern with an enamel dragon and gilded floral decoration.

Looks Late Victorian to me? and possibly French?

Its unsigned (it just feels special)??
The condition is not the best but i like it and wondered who might have made it.
Thanks in advance D

[flying free]

hello and welcome to the GMB

That is a lovely vase.  The technique is, I think, called airtrap.
Could you do some photos against a plain white background please so the detail can be seen and the colours of the enamel decoration?
If you resize them to 400 x 600 pixels that should enable them to blow up so the detail can be seen once they are uploaded.

Many thanks
m

[oldman]

Hi and thank you
Sorry for late reply, just got back to my pc
Hope you can help.
I have uploaded some clearer photos. Just upgraded to windows 10 and not finding it easy.
size is approx 9.25 inches
Ground pontil. The eyes are (one missing) red glass balls.
The central dragon i would guess was silver (faded) with gold gilt 

[oldman]

Der sorry......plain white background
I dont know how to edit my earlier post so here goes again

[oldman]

Harrach? possibly?

[flying free]

sorry for the delay.
It has a polished pontil mark and a firepolished rim.I'm not totally convinced that it is Bohemian (but the enamelling is a bit strange - should be gilded I think, but reminds me a bit of Bohemian enamelling).
I don't thinkairtrap is a French style (open to correction)
I'm thinking it could be English.  The dragon is very well done, the rim and polished pontil mark and the airtrap fit.  I was wondering Thomas Webb to be honest, but there is such a paucity of information that it is nearly impossible to get a definite identification.

The body of the dragon may be pewter- if it were silver it would have gone black I think.
The yellow enamel bits would have been gilded.  Those things do fit with Harrach but I think English is still on the cards.

You may just have to hang on in there and something might come up at some point.
How much does it weigh as a matter of interest? Just curious.
Can we have one more picture of a close up of a section of enamelling? 
And one of the whole base showing the pontil mark as it might be possible to make a judgement on how large the pontil mark is.

I'm still leaning to English.
m

[flying free]

Alisa has this pair as Harrach Oxblood - they have dragons on and a polished pontil mark and firepolished rim.
http://www.thegildedcurio.com/item-Harrach-71.html


I don't think the enamelling is the same though.
Harrach did do airtrap and there are two criss cross examples in the Harrach book but not the same type of glass as yours.
Having looked at the Harrach book there is something about the neck and gilded rim on your vase that reminds me a lot of the feet on some of their vases from the late 1880s early 1890s.

Having said all that, the colour doesn't make me think Harrach and Thomas Webb did do some similar 'fantasy' pieces.

There are dragons on some French piece (Gibb? was the enameller I think iirc from memory) but French would not be my first thought because the enamelling is different to those (I think they were flat gilded onto the glass?) and because of the airtrap design.

m

[flying free]

ooh I think I've found it (would need confirmation though)

On page 297 of Harrach From Neuwelt to the Whole World
Bottom left hand picture (very small, hand-drawn and coloured picture)

There is a design of a vase that looks faaairrly similar to yours in shape (neck taller and slimmer and foot looks wider than yours) appears to be in clear glass with a green coloured neck, dragon and design on it so doesn't appear to show it as airtrap.
However, the dragon is similar and the design of the spaced out foliage is remarkably similar.  I think it's a match to yours but will need to be checked out.
It says:
'Design for vase with painted decoration (dec no. F 3116) with the motif of a Chinese dragon, probably Josef Petricek, c. 1890 (FA)'

m
'Design for a vase

[oldman]

Thank you for your replies.
what a helpful bunch... Cheers
Theres a butterfly on the other side which might help?

[oldman]

yes your link looks very similar in style
Also the eyes on dragon are almost identical
Defo starting to think Bohemian Harrach