Posted 3 days ago
vetraio50
(768 items)
My latest acquisition is a delightful little Harrach “Moroccan” vase, probably made at the Harrach glassworks at Nový Svet (Neuwelt), Bohemia, in the 1880s.
The vase is made from opal glass and over painted in pale-blue is extraordinarily richly decorated for its small size. Large green cusped reserves are outlined in black and dotted in white, then filled with raised opaque enamels in turquoise, cobalt, white and small touches of red, enriched with gilding. Between the reserves are delicate black-painted flowering sprays, including what I think might be poppy-like blossoms. The short cylindrical neck is gilded and finished with a hand-painted black zigzag-and-dot border.
Surviving Harrach design-book drawings and closely related examples confirm that this distinctive decoration belongs firmly to Harrach. The old attribution of such “Moroccan” glass to Thomas Webb is now obsolete. Interestingly, the same decorative vocabulary appears on several different Harrach vase forms, including lobed examples and smooth ovoid forms closely related to mine.
Jan Mergl’s research shows that the '1880s were the high point of Orientalising decoration at Harrach', with designers drawing upon Persian, Indian, Arab, Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese sources, often through publications such as Racinet’s 'L’Ornement polychrome' and Owen Jones’s 'Grammar of Ornament'.
There is even an Australian connection: Mergl notes that Harrach exhibited Orientalist enamelled opal glass at the 'Sydney International Exhibition of 1879–80', where the firm won a large gold medal and deliberately sought to expand its Australian trade. Whether my little vase came here that early is unknowable—but it is a lovely possibility.
H : 10 cm
W : 8 cm
Beautiful Moroccan pattern, lovely piece
Many thanks MERRIL, GIANA, VCAL, PRETTYMOLLIE, HELSINGER, BRONMAR, NEWFLD, JJANSEN, VINETIA, CHEN, LEELANI, SHERRILOU, APOSTATA, REISE, DEJAVU, IRONLACE, RGREBOV, WOW, KEV, VYNIL, FORTAPACHE & DAV2 for the Loves !!!!!!
Wow, fantastic! All those colours and decors and being soo small! Really only 10 cm??? And to happen to find, and recognize, the decoration in that old Harrach design book must feel great!
Many thanks BHIFOS & BEYERMANN for the loves.
My memory is mostly visual. I’m not sure how many FB groups I belong to at this moment but within them there are people sharing their pix and their expertise. So when I arrived at the market last Sunday this was the first thing that caught my eye and I knew immediately that it was coming home with me. I thought I knew what it was but I needed to come home and check my notes and Mergl’s Doctoral thesis. It’s available on the net.
Absolutely beautiful! I love it!
Hi! Great, I have looked through you catalog here at CW . So many beautiful glass and pottery and postcards and much much more!
Through all the years with collecting beautiful things have you sometimes met a glass by Beyermann&Company? That is my area of ??expertise but love all old glass!
Add to my last post: Sorry wrong ...no " ?? " I am pretty sure of that! I have searched and collected info about Beyermann&Company for many years. And photos of their glass production.
Many thanks VINTAGELAMP & ALLEGRO for the Loves.
I did in fact come across a piece of Beyermann here in Oz and bought it quire cheaply but it was smashed to smithereens in the post. I was so horrified that I’ve not bought any glass that needs postage since. It was an awful thought that by buying it I had destroyed it.