Posted 8 months ago
IronLace
(1004 items)
This stunning & unusual pair of vases were found on eBay AU, & luckily I was the sole bidder.
I had only seen this design once before, also on eBay AU last year, a single vase for a very steep price. It fascinated me nonetheless because of the shape & applied decoration.
The vases are made from a deep red glass, which has an intense iridescence. They measure 21.5 cm tall, 5 cm across the cupped top rim, & 9 cm across the base, lacking a pontil mark.
There is applied decoration of acanthus leaves, made from clear glass with inclusions of fine silver glitter.
Now, who made them?
The acanthus leaf decor is slightly at odds with the Art Nouveau simplicity - it's a throwback to Victorian glass where the applied acanthus leaf was a popular motif. I do not know for sure if Rindskopf made any glass with acanthus leaf decorations, but the dark red ground colour is reminiscent of that used under their ruby red crackle decor, for example.
Welz did a fair bit of Victorian type glass with applied acanthus leaves, often over spatter decors (especially their shoe ornaments) .
The shape is a nod to hyacinth vases, but I'm not sure if these actually are such items.
Cannot be Webb Bronze as the ground colour is wrong.
Any thoughts?
I feel most likely Bohemian circa 1900.
Beautiful pieces. Congratulations. It could be a product of the Ernst Steinwald glassworks (or Franz Tomschick), circa 1930 - 1939. In the Tomschick glassworks drawing books from the period 1939-1942 there are several shapes that the Tomschick glassworks took over from the Steinwald glassworks, which have the same applied acanthus leaves. Steinwald vases with applied acanthus leaves in an "overshot" decor incorrectly attributed to the W. Kralik glassworks are also known. However, I agree that another possibility is another Teplice glassworks - Rindskopf (in this case the date of production could be earlier).
Many thanks, Ales, & very interesting!