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Posted 2 years ago
Alfredo
(351 items)
This line of Kralik vases has mysteriously disappeared from most Czech glass documentation, except for Truitt 1 (under Hosch), Waltraud Neuwirth's book on the floral motif in Art Nouveau, and the recently discovered Hosch catalog in the West Virginia Museum of American glass archives. This particular vase is 15" tall. The body, in simple ribbed frosted white, serves to highlight the flower. There is a second variant with the flower pointing upwards. A fellow collector, Ivan Milovic, has explained to me that up to 4 master artisans must have been involved in the production of the flower,which had to be shaped in minutes, while the glass was hot. The last picture groups the pieces in my collection. If anyone has found other examples, let me know. They date from the very early 1900's. I have a picture of that vase and others on exhibition at Kasperky Hori, from 15 years ago. In 2006, when I visited the museum (which houses the Loetz archives), they were no longer there.
Art NouveauArt Nouveau architecture, furniture, jewelry, and graphics took their inspi…
Bohemian Art GlassBohemian art glass was made in and around the present-day Czech Republic du…
As Alfredo said this piece ``is the mother of all Kralik flower vaes``
Its size is amazing and very big and complicated flower remained intact after more than hundred years! It was in jeopardy for the last time when shipped to Alfredo – now it is saved.
Perhaps it's a lotus flower?
The combination of ivory, light pink and yellow certainly would indicate so. At the same time it is quite realistic, it is also an abstraction, like "essence of flowerhood".
How spiritual were they at Kralik? For the Chinese, the Lotus flower represents four virtues in the Buddhist religion (scent, purity, softness, and loveliness).
I think they were more in tune with current fashions than merely "spiritual". I am referring to the Japonisme movement that actually gave impulse to the Jugend/Art Nouveau aesthetic. This vase is very oriental in its simplicity and proportions. Unfortunately, those qualities disappeared in later mass production.