Posted 6 years ago
kralik1928
(202 items)
This 11” vase is somewhat of a mystery. If you look the bottom you find the arched “Czechoslovakia” signature indicating was made by Wilhelm Kralik. I call the technique confetti on confetti; a pretty common decor. What makes it interesting is the pattern of red confetti is pressed into a mold to create lines. Then the base I dipped into green confetti. The vase has no casing glass layer and the texture of the confetti and well as the mold marks are exposed. The texture is wonderful! Because the vase has a generic shape all that determines who made it is the arched Kralik signature that so many Kraliks come with- but what if the mark is a generic mark used by more than one company for the purpose of western export laws? There is no documentation from the company to show this mark is exclusive them. As I look for more and more decors (it is endless with Czech glass) I find Kralik has a definitive core of production base on shapes and techniques and as you go farther out it gets harder and harder to tell since the only thing holding this alien to Kralik is it’s shape
The ribbing on this example is similar to some examples of earlier ribbed decor examples by Kralik ca 1900, and the green confetti is seen in some interwar production, including an example in my own personal collection. That example is purple and green, and is also marked.
This mark itself is actually made with a stencil and a "sandblasting" process of some sort. I would be quite surprised if there was more than one company that used that marking technique. The other interwar marks on Czech glass that I am familiar with are either done with acid or an "ink" mark of some sort ( likely paints). Although there is no specific documentation showing this mark to be only used by Kralik, I would be very surprised if it turned out that was not the case.
Sand blasted marks are highly unusual, require specific equipment to mark that way, and are not really seen in any other mark on Czech glass that I am aware of other than one other arched mark. That mark, which is also arched and is also sandblasted, only varies from this one in the font used to create the stencil used in the process. That mark is also found on known Kralik examples.
Very unusual example. Thanks for posting.
Very informative post and comment.
For those tht may not have seen it, here is a link to a post I did regarding sand blasted marks.
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/224647-the-elusive-proof-answering-a-hotly-deba