Harrach Pursuit of British Art Glass Market Share - Muddied The waters Forever - Muhlhaus

Sometimes I get really annoyed at the extra complication of figuring out if it is Victorian British or is it Bohemian, art glass meant to compete with the big sellers of the day, like Steven & Williams and Walsh, at the end of the 19th century.

Here we may have a Muhlhaus product, from his art glass finishing business, and provided blanks by the usual three, Harrach, Meyrs Neffe and Loetz. It is 8 inches high, with a crimped fan shape rim, an amber glass application, an opalescent white glass exterior, non UV reactive, and a bright pink interior glass surface which pales gradually to white as you look down into it. The seller called it 'gold crest' as a reference to Fenton, but I did not think so.

We are grateful again to the content of the Truitt Volume I, and their chapter about Muhlhous, providing several black and white catalog pages of their art glass ready for the retail market. I am including one image especially, which has a similar approach to color, form and decor. I believe the blank is Harrach.

The rarer instances of wishbone applied base footings in amber, does correspond to British styles, and an explanation of high wish bone and low wishbone variations. In this case it would be high wishbone footings The hand painted decor is half worn off, mostly in the center, where there are remnants of gold enamel and grey enamel background foliage.

There is a hand applied mark in the same grey enamel, also mostly worn off, I can't decide if they are numbers or letters.

My images are my glass piece in question, the 1888 catalog page with similar glass items, and one Harrach attributed pink footed vase, with a similar decoration, but in better condition. These statements here are my opinions, after studying the glass vase, and the reference material I have available.