The tale of two sisters.....or two Rare Pieces of Harrach Art Glass, Copern & Platin

With so many hours of research spent on Harrach glass, one thing that has always stood out was their cunning reuse of shapes with completely unlike decors, and/or indifferent types of glass. Here is one such example that was united in an epic trade with one of my good glass friends Warren, who posted his piece of Harrach imitation patinated bronze glass here a while back.

Some time ago I picked up my first, and thus far, only Harrach rarity known as Platin glass. It's a lovely piece, with delicate applied handles, and a stunning decorated iris, but the real star is the rare Harrach Platin glass itself, which is a plated, metallic opalescent type of glass. It looks like liquid metal in person, and it's interesting that these pieces sharing the identical shape number, are both done in a form of glass representing a metallic look.

On page 315 of the Jan Mergl Harrach book, they show a piece on plate 377 with an almost identical iris decor, and on the same page they show a piece of Harrach imitation patinated bronze glass with a bust of an Art Nouveau woman. Here the author quotes a bit reported by Gustav Pazaurek, in 1901, stating that "Decorations of this type receive a not very favourable mention as "rather unfortunate borrowing from the field of ceramics" in Pazaurek, 1901, 0. 105*. Unfortunate it wasn't well received as we would certainly find more examples of this glass, but on the other hand, that makes this ahead of it's time form of glass, quite rare for us collectors, and a real treasure when we do find it.

This piece of Harrach imitation patinated bronze glass, or as it is called in the drawing books "Copern" is marked on the base in pencil with the shape number 1436/6 and the design number of K 1266. In Harrach design book AH207 I found the line drawing, which shows this as shape shape no. 1778/1 and alternate shape no. 1436/6. This alternate shape numbering phenomenon was a somewhat common practice we see from both Harrach, as well as Loetz from time to time.

I was also able to come up with a related drawing showing a similar iris decor on a somewhat similar taller handled shape.

*From Neuwelt to the Whole World/300 Years of Harrach Glass, by Jan Mergl.