Posted 5 years ago
IronLace
(928 items)
A few weeks ago, I posted some photos of a few items I'd sold & subsequently regretted.
Thanks to chance, which is such an important part of a collector's life, I acquired another example of the Art Nouveau vase that I sold some time ago. Even better, this one is bigger, & in far better condition (my previous one had many losses to the trailing & a rim chip).
So, here's the story...I was sorting through my glass button collection, & picked out some unusual ones which had always intrigued me, & that I'd never been able to find any information on...they were signed on the back "Darian GFD".
Well, after a quick Google search, I learned that the buttons were made in Australia, & designed by the modernist designer Grant Featherstone during the period 1946 - 1954. I'd always thought they were perhaps French. Anyway, I could soon tell that they were rather sought - after, so instead of languishing unknown in my button box, I decided that I ought to find them a new home (there were 13 in all).
With the excellent proceeds of that sale, I was then able to fund this fine vase to replace the one I sold.
It is made from clear glass with an iridescent finish, & is covered all over with applied pearly white trailing. The vase measures 15 cm tall, 13 cm across the trefoil crimped top rim, which has an applied green crest, & 10 cm across the base. Very squat, it measures around 53 cm in circumference at the widest point.
I have seen this type of vase attributed to Kralik (& that's what it was sold as).
Cool story and beautiful vase.
Being a Bohemian glass noob I sometimes wonder why Kralik generally seems so much less than Loetz in stature. Lots of Kralik seems exceptional to me.
Did you photograph the buttons? And Grant Featherstone? Amazing. Of course I just think of chairs.
Many thanks, Karen!
Yes, I am a big fan of Kralik glass, so much variety & such great designs. The best of their products are right up there in my opinion. I am a massive fan of Loetz but most of it is way above my pay grade! I think much of Kralik's glass was probably pitched at a more mass - market level, & that Loetz always was a prestige, luxury brand.
I did photograph the buttons...& will post them sometime, even though they're no longer mine. Funny, I'd had them for decades...just got them in the button jars I used to pick up in op shops back in the day. I had no idea that Grant Featherstone designed buttons, either...anyway, they were bold, chunky glass buttons with embossed, semi - abstract designs (except one that had a stylised horse). All of them had lavish gilding, & were mounted on brass shanks. I would imagine they were intended as statement pieces for couture garments - coats, capes, maybe a formal frock made of a heavy fabric, as the buttons were all rather large & heavy.
Very pretty, and it looks so nice amongst the foliage! :)
Thanks so much Michelle! The columbines are good company, aren't they!