Posted 4 years ago
Dizzydave
(219 items)
Found this at Estate sasle with Murano pieces I bought. 9 in high and etched Czechoslovakia in bottom. Is it Kralik? Let Me know?
Czechoslovakia Glass Vase unknown Maker | ||
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Posted 4 years ago
Dizzydave
(219 items)
Found this at Estate sasle with Murano pieces I bought. 9 in high and etched Czechoslovakia in bottom. Is it Kralik? Let Me know?
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It is GLORIOUS !!!!
Beautiful vase. It is a product of the Ernst Steinwald & Co. glassworks.
Mostly, however, it is still attributed to Wilhelm Kralik glassworks.
Thx Larksel!
Lately there has been a tendency to reassign much of the product that has long been attributed to the Wilhelm Kralik Sohne firm to the firm Ernst Steinwald & Co. Recently uncovered documents seem to warrant this re-evaluation but that should not mean that Kralik is eliminated from the choices until more evidence is presented.
It will not surprise me if it turns out that Kralik and Steinwald were imitative of each other and clearly misattributions have been made in the past but this décor has a pretty solid link to Kralik. I do not want to detract from the good work Ales (larksel) is doing but find it difficult to share his enthusiasm about this décor being singularly Steinwald.
I agree that more evidence would be needed to reclassify a number of decors from Kralik to Steinwald. But in this case - the decor referred to as "Wave" is, in my opinion, more circumstantial evidence in favor of Steinwald. This decor appears in several shapes used by the Ernst Steinwald glassworks / according to the shapes used in the Flowerall, Bambus and Osiris decor and according to the shapes that appear in the two E. Steinwald advertisements and the "Fan" shape of the vase identified by Dr. Mergl as Steinwald. Unfortunately, I do not know such circumstantial evidence in favor of the Wilhelm Kralik glassworks.
This decor has been shown in the quintessential and ubiquitous Kralik "Zig Zag" shape which, unless you can show where Steinwald used that shape, I'll stick to the assertion that this is a Kralik decor.
You are certainly not alone in insisting on assignment to Kralik. It is also a big problem for me. Until recently, I considered the assignment to the W. Kralik glassworks to be unambiguous. However, based on the new information, I changed my mind. However, I do not want to force my opinion that this is a production of the Ernst Steinwald glassworks (in many cases) on anyone. It's just my conviction. On the kralik-glass.com website (where the production attributed to the Kralik glassworks is certainly best documented), this decor is marked as Wave or Kralik Wave (not as "Zig-Zag" - this is more often used for the decors of the Welz or Rückl glassworks ).
There are so many applications of this decor, in various colors and sometimes combined with other spatter glass colors, that I also hesitate to move it to the Steinwald attribution.
Especially on of my favorite combinations, the blue wave and the brown wave on pink translucent glass in shapes definitely attributed to Kralik, and marked as we expect with the arch mark, here is my old post about this.
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/251132-my-kralik-collection-translucent-glass
It still leaves a question mark as to how 2 large glass producers, could have made these decorative glass pieces, at the same time period, and it has not been considered, recognized, and explained till now. We are in need of more documentation, but as far as I know the Czech government is not willing to open these old document files till 2050. Won't matter to us by then....
I'm sorry - The "Zig Zag" I was referring to was the shape, not the décor. Nor was I insisting this be attributed to Kralik but that there should be evidence to confirm whatever attribution.
I'm just saying I'm convinced Steinwald did it. At the same time, however, I say that the majority opinion is that it is attributed to the W. Kralik glassworks. Time will tell who is right. I would just like to know according to which documents it was once assigned to the W. Kralik glassworks. I have not seen any such documents yet. If any of you know about any documents assigning these decors to Kralik, please let me know.
I wish there were documents.
I gotta say there are many documents about the W. Kralik & Sons glass business, as well as Meyers Neff which were recognized and well know from the mid 19th century in to 20th.
They owned and operated several glass huts for decades, there is no doubt about that. The Passau Museum in their exhibits and their publications discuss Kralk and their decorarive glass, Deborah Truitt and her husband published their history in detail in the volume I of their 2 book series about Bohemian Glass.
We are not comparing Kralik which was very well known who were also the recipient of an aristocratic order from the area's gentry during the 19th century for their glass enterprises, adding the Von Meyerswald to their name, with E. Steinwald which was not known at that time period.
Saying there is no Kralik documentation applies to the years of the interwar period for some glass pieces, even then they continued to make some glass designs from an earlier period in different Tango-Deco decors. For example the many Hosch catalog pieces of 1906, in vases and baskets.
Sorry I misspelled the name of the Kralik honorific title.
Here is part of the genealogy which is incomplete but does refer to the dates, people and locations I am referring to.
https://gw.geneanet.org/jksir?lang=en&pz=vlasta+helene&nz=ksir&ocz=0&p=heinrich&n=kralik+von+meyrswalden
It is beyond discussion that the history of the glassworks in Lenora (Meyr, W.Kralik) is relatively well documented. However, this does not apply entirely to the documentation of the production of this glassworks, and especially not to the production of the glassworks from the 1920s and 1930s. Even in the mentioned publication Truit, a number of objects, which were subsequently assigned to the glassworks W. Kralik, are marked only as Czechoslovakia (including, for example, the decor Bambus and Millefiori). The assignment of many decors from the 1920s and 1930s to Kralik appears in my opinion only later - especially in the publication PGM Das Böhmische Glas Band VI. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any specific documents that prove this assignment.
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By the way, the history of the Lenora glassworks is, in my opinion, very well covered in the publication: Kubitschek Rudolf: Eleonorenhein Hundert Jahre Böhmerwäldler Glasmachekunst, Gebrüder Stiepel Reichenberg 1932. I think most of the later authors drew from this publication.
I mentioned the Passau glass museum exhibits, I am referring specifically to their 4 cabinets with the 20s-30s glass decors, tango-deco, especially one that specifies Kralik as the producer on a typed note attached to the shelf, there is a post about this here, or there was, that shows this glass selection, located on the bottom floor of the building by the staircase.
I know I have 2016 images saved on a USB drive, I will do a new post with that information if it helps. Too many listings we had are gone now, due to people leaving or deleting them. Thanks larksel.