Vase

This blow-moulded, Art Nouveau vase has been attributed to the Bohemian glass manufacturer Johann Loetz Witwe. Made from green iridescent glass and ornamented with applied trails of pale blue iridescent glass that form irregular festoons. This work shares characteristics with Loetz’s ‘Crete Formosa’ group from 1902. [1]

Cylindrical in form, the vessel has a wide circular foot with spiral indentations at its flared base. The rippled texture of the glass combined with the rotation at the base of the vase gives the vessel a dynamic energy. The column gently tapers toward the mouth of the vessel, which is finished with a trefoil rim.

Loetz began producing iridescent glass after 1890, inspired by the success of rival glass manufacturer, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). By 1900 Loetz Witwe had developed its own method of creating the lustrous effects admired in Tiffany’s iridescent Favrile glass.

Austrian-born, Loetz (?-1844) founded the Loetz glassworks in 1840 in Klostermühle, Bohemia (now Klášterský mlýn, Czech Republic). [2] From 1879, under the direction of Max Ritter von Spaun, the company produced historical designs inspired by Roman excavated glass and art glass, which emulated hard stones such as onyx and intarsia. [3]

Bohemian glass from this period adapted to the Art Nouveau style, manufacturing iridescent and acid-etched glass that emulated the commercially successful glassware of Émile Gallé and Louis Comfort Tiffany. Loetz worked with the avant-garde designers, Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser and Marie Kirschner to produce new and exciting work. [4]

Around 1851, Loetz’ widow, Susanne, received ownership of the company and renamed the glassworks Johann Loetz Witwe (meaning ‘Widow Johann Loetz’). [5]

Vanessa Tothill, January 2021

[1] https://www.loetz.com/decors-a-z/formosa/formosa-creta [accessed 15 January]

[2] https://hickmet.com/blogs/newsfeed/know-your-artists-johann-loetz [accessed 26 November 2020]

[3] Paul Greenhalgh, ed., Art Nouveau, 1890-1914 (London: V&A Publications, 2000), p. 215.

[4] Greenhalgh, pp. 215-16.

[5] https://hickmet.com/blogs/newsfeed/know-your-artists-johann-loetz [accessed 26 November 2020]