I bought this vase because …

1) It was Loetz.
2) I had a vested interest in originally discovering this particular decor, PG 7579, which was produced in 1898.
3) I love Loetz rubin glass
4) It had an engraved “crossed arrows“ mark with no writing on it.
Actually, this last feature was the one that cancelled out any reservations that I might have had about purchasing this vase. It had me at "Hello". I have a collection of vases with various Loetz engraved signatures on them and my collection was missing this particular example because years ago I had agreed to sell the only example I had to members of the von Spaun family. I rarely sell any of the pieces in our collection but knowing that the “crossed arrows“ mark used by Loetz was taken from the von Spaun family coat of arms, I felt compelled to respond to the family’s request to acquire an example with this mark on it. So when this PG 7579 became available, I was excited to have the opportunity to finally add an example back into our collection.

Loetz vases with engraved signatures are very rare. 1898 was the first time that the crossed arrows mark was engraved onto a piece of Loetz glass. The use of the “crossed arrows” mark was discontinued in 1900 shortly after the 1900 Paris World Exposition. Therefore, the “crossed arrows” signature is one of the rarest Loetz signatures because it was applied for only a few years to pieces produced during 1898-1900.

There are four different versions of the crossed arrow mark and all of these consist of a circle with four stars placed in each of the four quadrants created by the two crossed arrows. The difference between the four crossed arrows marks is mainly the writing or lack of it below and outside of the engraved circle. The four versions of the engraved crossed arrows mark include: 1) no writing outside of the circle; 2) just the word “Lötz" added; 3) only the word “Austria” added, and 4) the word “Spaun”. Each of these marks can be found within the polished pontil or on the bottom of the piece if no pontil was created.

Except for an engraved crossed arrows mark with the word "Spaun" written on it, which I will likely never find because it only appears on vases that were gifts from vonSpaun to the Linz museum and a few private collectors, I now have an example of each of the engraved crossed arrows marks in our collection! As a serious Loetz collector, these are the type of additions to our collection that just make me happy! While I bought this piece because the “stars and arrows” aligned, I truly love everything about it.