Vase

This Art Nouveau vase has been attributed to the Bohemian glass manufacturer Johann Loetz Witwe. The vase has a bulbous body and a broad circular base. Of solid form, the thick neck of the vessel tapers gradually toward its flared rim.

Blow moulded in off-white glass the vessel has a distinctive striped pattern that comprises vertical rows of pale blue iridescent spots on a pale gold lustre ground.

The vessel has been decorated at the neck with a pulled glass thread decoration in iridescent blue that creates downward pointing ‘tongues’. This type of vase resembles other vessels from Loetz’s ‘Phänomen’ or ‘Phenomenon’ range, developed around 1902. [1]

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/phaenomen-genres/phaenomen-genres-enter-here/pg-2-187 [access 18 January 2021], see object pattern number II-6957.

[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]