What forms turn up most often?

Vases lead, well ahead of everything else, with bottles, decanters, drinking glasses and wine glasses behind. Scent and perfume bottles together make about a seventh of the archive, many with silver collars or tops. One-off forms do appear. A decanter modelled as a dog, a crackle-glass serpent jug, a Jack in the Pulpit vase, a cigarette box, an inkwell, a chatelaine scent bottle and a glass bell pull each show up once and nowhere else.

How old is most of this glass?

The dated field runs from 1700 to 1950. The 1930s is the largest single bucket, ahead of listings marked simply Victorian, then the 1900s, a vague "19th Century", and the 1860s. Earlier glass is thin on the ground. The earliest in the sampled titles is an engraved wine goblet given to about 1680, with an armorial lidded goblet of c.1710-20 and facet-cut goblets of c.1730 close behind.

Why do so few pieces carry a maker's name?

Titles describe colour, technique and form far more often than they name a firm. Overlay, ruby, cranberry, engraved, cut, enamelled and gilded do most of the work of identification. Where a glasshouse or decorator is named, it tends to be one dealer's stock rather than a name running across the category. Those pieces sit in the upper half of the range.

What is Art Deco Czech glass?

It's the 20th-century strand, dated by dealers to about 1930, and it makes up much the largest share of current stock. Hand-enamelled geometric decoration on decanter sets and perfume bottles is the recurring form. About a sixth of the archive falls here. Art Deco appears in 44 titles, Czech in 20.

Do drinking glasses come as sets?

Sets of six recur as a unit: six hock glasses, six wine glasses, six liqueur glasses, and decanter sets sold with six matching glasses. Pair appears in 32 titles. Harlequin sets, where each of the six is a different colour, turn up among the hock and wine glasses. Roemers and single goblets appear on their own as well.

Was Bohemian glass made for markets outside Europe?

Yes. A cobalt decanter enamelled for the Persian Qajar market appears in the archive, as does a pair of royal blue jewelled hookah bases painted with portraits of Mozaffar al-Din Shah and dated 1315 Hijri. The region's houses worked for a wide export trade from the 19th century, and pieces made to foreign taste surface among the more familiar vases and decanters.

Home > Glass > Bohemian Glass > Page 8

Antique Bohemian Glass

139 items · page 8 of 9

← Page 8 of 9 →

Coloured, cased and decorated glass made in the Bohemian tradition: vases, decanters, scent bottles, goblets and drinking sets, made for the table, the dressing table and the mantelpiece across roughly two centuries.