Internet Antique Gazette » glass

Garden Museum

hcst — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 13:37:07 +0000

Garden Museum Collection of Art Nouveau Masterpieces

This sale comprises 130 lots of Art Nouveau masterpieces by Emile Galle, Louis Majorelle and Rene Lalique formerly in the Garden Museum, Nagoya, Japan.

Quoting from the Sotheby’s press release for this sale:

This exceptional collection was assembled by Takeo Horiuchi, a real estate magnate and prominent collector with a passionate interest in the Japanese influence on Western art around 1900. Horiuchi teamed up with the decorative arts specialist Alastair Duncan to track down magnificent works and build up the world’s most important Art Nouveau collection: The Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum Collection.

The museum was popular for many years but, following the tsunami and Fukushima catastrophe in 2011, Takeo Horiuchi decided to sell his collection to an American amateur who, in turn, has asked Sotheby’s France to offer the French and European items at auction.

The collection offers precious evidence of late 19th century European enthusiasm for Japonisme, a faraway source of renewed Nature-based inspiration for European decorative arts that also offered innovative techniques and formal solutions. The presence of several Art Deco items in the collection reflects the fact that this Asian influence continued into the 1920s.

The collection reflects the versatility of several major early 20th century French artists, like Louis Majorelle, whose sinuous furniture was especially suited to plant and leaf motifs; the cultured Emile Galle, the movement’s undisputed frontrunner, who imbued objects with a spiritual meaning and sometimes adding contemporary poetry as a decorative features; and Rene Lalique whose jewelry marked a total break with the decorative repertoire of the time.

Murano Glass

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Murano Italy Glass Collectibles 1940-1960

Colorful Examples of Italian Glassblowers Art

Venetian glass makers and their Murano studios and factories achieved worldwide fame for the quality of their artistic glass creations. Italian glass has been famous for quality and innovation since the 14th century, and Murano continues that long standing tradition. Collectors have rediscovered the beauty of color and form of post-WWII pieces from the 1940s-1960s.

Murano Glass from Venice, Italy
The small island of Murano, situated in a lagoon that borders Venice has been the center of the Italian glass making industry for centuries. Although referred to as Venetian, the Italian glass making industry was established centuries ago on this small island to protect the city of Venice from the ever present danger of fire due to manufacturing processes that require extreme heat. While lovers of glass art have appreciated so-called Venetian glass for centuries, the post-WWII years produced some of the most artistic and innovative products in the industry’s centuries long history.

Murano Dino Martens Mezza Filigrana art glass figure depicting a dove, p4A item D9698419

Murano Glass 1940-1960
The Murano glass industry suffered a downturn during the world-wide depression of the 1930s, but during the post-WWII years of 1940s-1960s, Murano was once again the world leader in the creation of art glass confections. Murano is not a company or style, but the name of a geographic area that was home to a variety of glass studios and manufacturers that employed glass designers. In the 40s-60s, these designers included Paolo Venini, Carlo Scarpa, Dino Martens, Gio Ponti, Fulvio Bianconi, and Flavio Poli.

New Techniques and Innovations at Murano
One of the most important of the Murano Glassworks of the post WWII period was Venini & C. Top designers working there developed new techniques that made Venini one of the most successful glass houses. Designer Carlo Scarpa developed a technique called tessuto which used finely striped canes that created an effect resembling woven fabric. Sommerso (submerged) technique was developed during this period as well. In sommerso, the main color is coated with a thin layer of another color, then coated with a thin layer of clear glass.

Fulvio Bianconi/Venini, rare Con Macchie art glass vase having abstract decoration in red and black, p4A item D9787831

Murano Glass Forms of the Atomic Age
During this post-war period, Murano glass artists were creating not only new techniques, but new forms as well. Collectible glass pieces from the 1950s and 1960s particularly display the same free-form and organic shapes that were appearing in other areas of home accessories such as furniture, textiles and housewares. Designers abandoned traditional shapes for teardrops and geometrics, creating large, flowing abstract forms that were usually produced in brilliant colors. These are the pieces for which today’s collectors will pay anywhere from hundreds to $10,000.

Murano Vases Values
For serious collectors of Murano glass from Italy, the big money goes for larger, free-form and classic atomic age shapes in bold colors and textures with the artist/designer and studio name. Smaller, common, and unattributed yet still attractive pieces can be had for lower sums.

Reference note by p4A contributing editor Susan Cramer.

Vermeil – definition

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Vermeil

“Vermeil” is a French word co-opted by the English in the 19th century for a silver gilt process. Vermeil is a combination of silver and gold, although other precious metals are also occasionally added, that is then gilded onto a sterling silver object. The reddish (vermilion) hue of the addition of the gold gives the product its name. Vermeil is commonly found in jewelry, and a standard of quality (10 karat gold) and thickness (1.5 micrometers) has been set.

Vermeil was initially created through fire or mercury gilding, a technique developed in the 18th century, which requires the application of a solution of mercury nitrate to the object and then the application of a silver and gold/mercury amalgam. In order for the gilding to adhere to the surface, the coated object is placed in a kiln and exposed to extreme temperatures, which burns away the mercury. (This is similar to the technique used to produce ormolu, a form of gold-gilt.) As a result of the intense and prolonged exposure to mercury, it has been estimated that most mercury gilders died before the age of 40. Mechanical or chemical gilding techniques were largely replaced by electroplating by the mid-19th century, and the process was banned in many countries in the mid-1800s.

The White House has a room known as the Vermeil Room, so named for a collection of vermeil tableware.

A Gorham sterling silver compote with vermeil interior – note the reddish hue. (p4A item # D9827145)

Blenko Glass

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Blenko Glass

Art Glass of the Atomic Age 1950-1960

William Blenko had success as a manufacturer of stained glass. While that business dried up with the arrival of the Depression, by 1932 his tableware was on display at Macy’s. Today, collectors look for Blenko’s signature pieces in exaggerated sizes, bold shapes, and brilliant colors.

Brief History of Blenko Glass
Born in 1853, William J. Blenko began learning his trade at the age of 13 working in various glass houses in his native London. In 1893 he emigrated to the U.S. anxious to open his own factory manufacturing mouth-blown sheet glass for stained glass windows. From his first small shop in 1903 until his success with Eureka Glass, he started and folded a number of concerns. Blenko spent years developing a formula for ruby red sheet glass, and today, the Blenko name is synonymous with brilliantly colored glass.

Blenko blue glass art vase circa 1960
p4A item C224494

The Eureka Glass Company had a successful run as the only American manufacturer of mouth-blown sheet glass until the Great Depression when building came to a halt, and with it, the demand for stained glass windows. In 1929, Blenko hired a pair of Swedish part-time glass blowers and began producing the hand-blown tableware for which the company is famous today.

Blenko Tableware: Bold Forms & Brilliant Colors
By 1932, Blenko tableware was sold at Macy’s, and before long department stores all over the U.S. stocked their extravagantly colored bottles, decanters and vases. The earliest pieces were heavily influenced by Swedish designs, but the best pieces may be from 1946-1953. During this time, Blenko hired its first in-house designer, Winslow Anderson. One of Anderson’s signature designs, the Bent Neck Decanter is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The company’s next designer, Wayne Husted (1952-1963) was responsible for the over-sized bottles and architectural floor pieces that are popular with today’s collectors.

Wayne Husted for Blenko green glass pinched decanter with stopper
p4A item D9881635

Collecting Blenko Glass
Identifying a Blenko piece is difficult, as except for the years from 1958-61, when the manufacturer’s mark was etched, Blenko applied paper labels, which these days, are almost always missing. The best way to be sure to purchase a real Blenko piece is to be familiar with the product lines as well as some of the manufacturing quirks including rough pontil marks (the part of the piece that was attached to a holding rod after being separated from the blow pipe) on the base, rounded and sometimes uneven fire polished rims, and thick walls. Generally speaking, the largest pieces have the highest values. Because they were easily broken and damaged, they are harder to find than smaller pieces.

Collectible Blenko Glass Colors
Blenko was justly famous for its intense colors, and collectors seek pieces in their signature and out of the ordinary colors such as Mulberry, Lime, Aqua, Plum, Gold, Tangerine, and Lime. The most valuable pieces, which can sell for a few thousand dollars combine unusual forms, brilliant colors, and named designers.

Reference: Miller, Judith; Buy Keep, or Sell Reader’s Digest Books c2005.

Reference note by p4A contributing editor Susan Cramer.

Ormolu – non-furniture definition

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Ormolu

Ormolu, an 18th-century English term, is from the French phrase or moulu, with “or” indicating gold and “moulu” being a form of an old French verb moudre, which means “to grind up.” (This French term for this technique is bronze dore.) This idea of “ground-up gold”refers to the production process of ormolu, where high-quality gold is finely powdered and added to a mercury mixture and applied to a bronze object. Modern usage often uses “ormolu” to describe any gilded object.

In reality, true ormolu pieces produced by this process are very rare. Production of ormolu declined dramatically after the first quarter of the 19th century, partly because of the great expense of the gold, but also because of the terrible health risks involved. “Mercury gilding,” the process of manufacturing ormolu, requires the application of a solution of mercury nitrate to the object (which is normally of copper, brass or bronze), and then the application of the gold/mercury amalgam, that was usually 6 to 8 parts of mercury to one part gold. In order for the gold to adhere to the surface, the coated object is placed in a kiln and exposed to extreme temperatures, which burns away the mercury. (This is similar to the technique used to produce vermeil, a form of silver-gilt.) As a result of the intense and prolonged exposure to mercury, it has been estimated that most mercury gilders died before the age of 40, and the process was banned in many countries in the mid-1800s.

True ormolu chenets (French andirons) from the Empire period attributed to Claude Galle. (p4A item # D9819758)

As fashion (and economics) dictated, gilding shifted in and out of popularity. Various methods to achieve the appearance of gilt were experimented with, including a process known as pomponne, which involves a mixture of copper and zinc (occasionally with the addition of tin), but the result here is technically a brass gilding rather than gold. Mechanical or chemical gilding techniques were largely replaced by electroplating by the mid-19th century.

Evaluating Age and Authenticity of Ormolu

Evaluating the age and authenticity of ormolu mounts is one of the most difficult aspects of furniture appraisals because metal does not age in the same way as wood and because the mount’s patina has often been “enhanced” or damaged by inappropriate cleaning. Close inspection of the mounts can reveal much of their history however.

The design of eighteenth century mounts often suggests a certain exuberance and spontaneity; later nineteenth century artisans produced works more perfect in detail but with a more studied air about them. An experienced eye can also detect differences in eras or even between countries from the mount’s coloring, provided the original surface has not been disturbed. One should also take note of the size of each individual mount or sub-component. Bronze mounts of the eighteenth century, particularly furniture mountings, were cast in relatively smaller sections (usually no longer than 10 inches) and then pieced together to obtain the desired overall effect. Mounts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries tend to be much longer.

Removing a mount from the piece in question (carefully!) can give one the most unambiguous information about its age and authenticity. First consider the casting…the more irregularities present on the underside, the earlier it is likely to be. Nineteenth and twentieth century castings most often have a “cleaner” and “smoother” appearance. More clues are revealed by the mount’s gilding. Early mounts treated with the mercury gilding technique discussed above were gilded on one side only, later mounts gilded with the electrolysis method are gilded on both sides.

As with all elements of an antique item of furniture, the condition of the ormolu mounts can effect the value of the piece itself. Entirely original mounts with original surfaces will increase the piece’s value. Replacement of all or a significant proportion of the mounts may significantly reduce its value, as will inappropriate cleaning of the mounts. The loss or replacement of one or two minor elements, however, may not have much effect at all on the piece’s value, particularly if the original surface remains. Cleaning ormolu mounts is best left to experts; at the most, use no more than mild soap and water with a very soft brush.

p4A.com acknowledges the International Auctioneers Magazine, Autumn 2003, as the source for much of the information in this reference note.

Carnival Glass

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Carnival Glass

Once considered “Poor Man’s Tiffany”, carnival glass has its own enthusiastic following, and the glass, especially in red and blue remains popular. By 1905, glass manufacturers were cranking out inexpensive versions of the iridescent glass that had been made wildly popular by Tiffany Studios, but the name carnival glass wasn’t used until 45 or so years later. The popular glass made in the U.S. Australia, Europe, and Argentina, was sold cheaply, and given away as prizes at carnivals.

Carnival Glass Featured Tiffany Effects for Mass Market Prices

At the turn of the 20th century, Louis Comfort Tiffany was producing his popular but pricey iridescent glass for eager and wealthy buyers. Production glass makers such as Imperial, Northwood, Fenton, Dugan/Diamond, and Brockwitz, (a German manufacturer) and others soon developed a method of spraying mass produced pressed glass pieces with metallic salts to produce shimmering effects for the mass market.

Carnival Glass Colors

The most popular colors during the carnival glass craze were marigold (orange) and amethyst (purple). These were made in vast quantities, so today pieces in these colors are easily found and go for lower sums. Harder to find are pieces in amber, grey-blue, or with a marbleized effect that looks like tortoiseshell. Fenton Glass produced red, the rarest color, in 1920.

Carnival Glass by Fenton & Northwood

The Fenton and Northwood companies, both of West Virginia, were the major U.S. manufacturers of carnival glass. Early Fenton and antique carnival glass is usually unmarked, although the company reissued some pieces in the 1960s using original molds. These are marked with a script Fenton inside an oval. Northwood marked most, but not all of its pieces on the bottom with an underlined N. Sometimes the N was inside a circle, and more rarely, inside a double circle. Northwood’s Grape and Cable pattern is one of its best known, and is found on everything from oversized bowls to hat pin holders. Fenton’s Dragon and Lotus pattern was one of that company’s most popular.

Fenton Carnival glass cherry red Dragon & Lotus, eight ruffled bowl, red iridescent
p4A item D9738226

Carnival Glass Values

Collectors with investment on their minds look for large or unusually shaped pieces in rare colors. Large bowls, or flat platters command the highest sums as they were harder to manufacture, and are now harder to find. Small, common, or badly executed pieces in common colors bring the lowest prices.

Carnival Glass is a piece of Americana finding favor with collectors with both large and modest budgets. Look for larger pieces in unusual colors. For investment value, collectors of smaller pieces should look for items in perfect condition.

-by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Tiffany Lamps

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Tiffany Lamps with Stained Leaded Glass Shades

Tiffany Studios
Charles Tiffany had a thriving luxury goods business which he expected his son to take over, but Louis aspired to a career in art. Although he trained as a painter, Louis Comfort Tiffany was inspired by the glasswork in the Byzantine churches he visited as a youth. He was particularly taken with colored glass, and the effects of daylight upon it. Having studied with a Venetian glass blower, he established a studio, Louis Comfort Tiffany & Associated Artists in 1878. Experiments with new glassmaking techniques led to the development of his unique type of iridescent glass which he called “Favrille.”

Tiffany Leaded Glass Lamps
With the advent of electricity, Tiffany’s lamps had a uniform light source, and his electric art glass lamps became the most successful of his studio’s product lines. In 1899, Tiffany introduced a line of decorative lamps, and by 1906, the studio offered over 125 different types. The lamps were constructed over wooden molds and although patterns were repeated, because the stained glass was done by hand no two lamps were ever the same. Shades for table and desk lamps were typically hemispheres, and those for chandeliers or hanging lamps, hemispheres or triangular.

Acorn pattern Tiffany Studios table lamp, p4A item D9748699

Lamps by Tiffany Studios
Tiffany was heavily influenced by nature, and his lamp shades were decorated with complex depictions of flowers, foliage and insects, especially dragonflies, a popular motif in the Art Nouveau style of the day. Or, the shades were decorated in simple, geometric designs. The shade were set on lamp bases also made by Tiffany studios; these bronze bases were in graceful and flowing forms, typically executed in bronze, and signed Tiffany Studios.

Tiffany Lamp Values
Tiffany Stained and leaded glass lamps have been popular since their introduction, although they went briefly out of style during the Art Deco years and subsequent Great Depression. Rediscovered in the 1970s, the market softened in the early 1980s, but by the late 80s had regained popularity, and their popularity has not abated in the 21st century. Prices for fine examples are extremely high, with table lamps bringing two and three hundred thousand dollars, and hanging lamps complete with original fittings going even higher. And because almost all his lamps were signed, it is almost impossible to find any bargains.

-Reference note by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Battleship Maine – Spanish American War

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

The Battleship Maine

Construction of the U.S.S. Maine was authorized in August of 1886, and she was launched in 1889 and commissioned in 1895. After several years spent patrolling the East Coast and Caribbean, orders sent the Maine and her crew to Cuba in response to continued civil unrest on the island.

The photograph above is a 1896 image of the ship framed in a sheet iron frame made from remnants of the ship. (p4A item # D9839717)

Three weeks later, on the morning of February 15, 1898, the battleship Maine lay in Havana harbor. Just after the playing of Taps, Captain Charles Sigsbee recalls, “I laid down my pen and listened to the notes of the bugle, which were singularly beautiful in the oppressive stillness of the night. . . . I was enclosing my letter in its envelope when the explosion came. It was a bursting, rending, and crashing roar of immense volume, largely metallic in character. It was followed by heavy, ominous metallic sounds. There was a trembling and lurching motion of the vessel, a list to port. The electric lights went out. Then there was intense blackness and smoke.”

Later investigations determined that the ship’s powder stores detonated, ripping off the forward third of the ship. Such a significant breach caused the ship to sink rapidly, but tragedy occurred almost instantly for the many enlisted men sleeping in the forward section of the Maine. Most of the Maine’s crew died instantly, with 266 men killed in the explosion and another 8 men dying later from injuries. Officers, who were quartered in the rear of the ship, fared better, with 18 officers among the Maine’s 89 survivors. Most of the dead were recovered from Havana’s harbor and were buried in Havana, but almost two years later, in December of 1899, the bodies were disinterred and reburied in Arlington National Cemetery.

The explosion brought about the “Remember the Maine!” battle cry and helped precipitate the start of the Spanish-American War in April of 1898, but numerous investigations, both in the period and years later, have attributed the cause to one of two accidental causes. One theory is that a external mine in the harbor detonated, most likely accidentally, while the other generally accepted theory attributes the explosion to spontaneous combustion of the Maine’s own coal supplies. In either case, the explosion was likely unintentionally and triggered a second, larger explosion by detonating the ship’s powder stores.

Gemel Pottery Jug or Bottle

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Gemels

The pottery form known as a gemel, also gemel jug or gemel bottle, is one of the rarest forms in American stoneware. The word is derived from the Latin word “geminus,” meaning twin, double, paired, or half-and-half. The plural of this same word, “gemini,” is used to refer to the constellation composed of twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, of Greek mythology. The words “twin” or “double” definitely come to mind when one thinks of a pottery gemel, which is composed of two wheel-thrown jugs, joined together with clay between the two. A single handle is applied to carry and pour the paired jugs, though the positioning of this handle can vary from potter to potter. Variations of the form were also produced by American glass makers. Occasionally, the form is taken one step further, involving four connected jugs. Such pieces are referred to as “double gemels.”

The purpose of a gemel was to hold two liquids that were frequently used together in individual chambers. The form obviously made using such liquids more convenient than carrying two separate jugs. It is believed that many gemels were designed to hold oil and vinegar, which were commonly used in foods together, but needed to be kept separate. In other instances, a gemel may have held two different types of liquor.

While many gemels exist bearing little or no decoration, some are known with wonderful brushed or incised designs, indicating they were likely made as specially-ordered or presentation items. Most signed or attributed stoneware examples were produced in New Haven, Connecticut, by Absolom Stedman, or during Stedman’s partnership with one of the Seymours, around the year 1831 (Ketchum, American Stoneware, p. 58). Several are known bearing maker’s marks from this pottery, including some with distinctive incised bird designs accented with impressed circles.

Redware examples are also known from elsewhere in the country, including a few produced in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, which are pictured in H.E. Comstock’s The Pottery of the Shenandoah Valley Region. A small example by the highly-regarded potter, Anthony Bacher, who worked in Adams County, Pennsylvania, Winchester, Virginia, and Thurmont, Maryland, circa 1850 to 1885, is glazed in cream and brown and features a horizontal handle. A gemel by Winchester and Strasburg, Virginia potter, Solomon Bell, consists of two molded male figures holding mugs. Clay hats serve as the containers’ lids. Gemels were no doubt produced in nearly every region of 19th-century American utilitarian pottery production, though few have survived.

A stoneware gemel with incised and cobalt-highlighted birds and initials. (p4A item # D9732780)

Information courtesy of Crocker Farm http://www.crockerfarm.com, from a July 2009 blog posting on http://www.crockerfarm.com/blog/

Further Recommended Reading

American Stoneware by William C. Ketchum

George Rodrigue – American Artist

hcst — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:12:17 +0000

George Rodrigue (American, Louisiana, 1944 to 2013)

IN MEMORIAM:

A native of New Iberia, Louisiana, George Rodrigue was not only an accomplished artist, he was also a savvy businessman and philanthropist. A student of the University of Louisiana and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, Rodrigue began his career in illustration, before turning to painting full time.

His earliest works, steeped in the Acadian lore and Cajun history of his ancestors and stylistically reminiscent of the French primitive artists, caught the attention of the European art community: in 1974 he was awarded the prestigious Tommaso Campanella Gold Medal from the Academia Internazionale di Lettere – Arti-Scienze in Rome; in 1975 he received an Honorary Mention from Le Salon des Artistes, Paris. With these atmospheric paintings of the Louisiana landscape and its people, Rodrigue employed a color palette of rich greens and blues, emphasizing the dramatic interplay of light and shadow.
Rodrigue’s most famous creation, the Blue Dog, was a serendipitous accident. Commissioned with creating the illustrations for a book of local ghost stories, the artist used a version of his own deceased dog Tiffany as a modern version of the Cajun ghost dog, the “loup-garou”. This image resonated with the public in a nearly unprecedented manner, and the Blue Dog soon attained the status of an American Pop icon.

With the popularity of the Blue Dog, Rodrigue soon found himself a highly sought-after artist. He received numerous commissions for everything from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the iconic Absolut Vodka ad campaign, and portraits of local luminaries. During these years, Rodrigue became increasingly active in the non-profit community; this culminated in the formation in 2009 of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, a non-profit organization which advocates the importance of the visual arts in the education of young people. In the years since its inception, the Foundation has created scholarships, raised money for art supplies in local schools, and has sponsored art classes.
The recipient of numerous awards and accolades, George Rodrigue most recently received the Opus Award from the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

New Orleans Auction Galleries was saddened to hear of George Rodrigue’s passing on December 14, 2013. We were honored to have had the opportunity to work with the artist and his Foundation. He will be greatly missed by the art community.

Information courtesy of New Orleans Auction Gallery, January 2014.