Two Early Loetz 'Rotwelsch and Pavonia' Vases inspired by MtWashington's 'Royal Flemish' décor.

In this post I show two 'Early' Loetz vases decorated by medaillons hanging on a golden chain and on the backside an mysterious abstract golden contoured crack like ornament. Finding a connection in between Bohemian Loetz and Massuchusetts MtWashington is by far not trivial. Here details are put together in the 3.rd foto showing in the center an example of MtWashington's top line décor 'Royal Flemish', firstly produced in 1889 and patented lateron in 1894. Loetz wanted to take part into this success by offering similar decorated vases on the US market. On one hand, the pseudo Roman coins clearly influenced the medaillons in the Loetz décor and on the other hand, you may notice the small, dark red and golden outlined central points on the MtWashington's vase, where the brown/orange/yellow colored areas come together. Loetz used this detail, keeping its dark red center and its golden outlines, as an individual decorative element of its own, without any relation to its surrounding. I hope that my explanation of this décor alienation supports the Loetz - Royal Flemish relationship. It is very well known, that Harrach almost copied the original décor and still today some Harrach vases are offered as being products of MtWashington.

The first dark, opaque vase is made of seal wax red glass, in Germany, the so called 'Rotwelsch' glass. This copper coloured glass is known early from Egypt Tut Ench Amun's tomb and was popular in the Baroque time und formed the basis of Friedrich Egermann's 'Lithyalin' glass, as the cut faces show a marbled surface that could differently be coloured by staining. Transparent gold ruby red glass was invented by Wilhelm Kunkel and as it was very expensive and the production was kept secret, there was a strong search for a cheaper transparent copper red glass. The major problem involved was, that the liquid hot copper red glass always changed into an opaque, streaky mass, on cooling down. Only few specialized glassmakers like Harrach and the Josephinen hut knew this secret method of keeping it transparent, this became lateron generally known.

The second example shows, to my opinion, a Loetz 'Pavonia' vase, but most often the combination of yellow/purple-blue glass is noted as 'Persica'. Now, there is to my knowledge only one literature source about this naming, it is the German 'Centralblatt, 1894, page 481 ff (1893) reporting Loetz novelties at the World Exhibition, Chicago 1893. It says 'Pavonia' is a 'Heliotrop' - a purple/blue glass named after the flower of Heliotropium Arborescens - spreading glass over a basis of yellow glass. In the fourth foto I show a compilation of my Loetz 'Heliotrop' vases and in the middle the vase of foto 2 discussed here, shows obviously a 'Heliotrop' overlay, too. According to the 'Centralblatt' report, 'Persica' is a red spreading glass over a yellow basis, giving rise to a more overall orange appearance, and a possible example is shown in the last foto on the left side. The confusion about the namings 'Persica' versus 'Pavonia' possibly originates from the book 'Loetz Boehmisches Glas 1880-1940, Vol 1, image 15, page 68, from the authors description '... putatively Persica...' but ignoring the following detailed informations below saying '... execution Persica or Pavonia ...'

Finally, as the Loetz 'Pavonia and Persica' novelties appeared in 1893, much later then the MtWashington 'Royal Flemish' décor, it is obvious, that Loetz was inspired by the US company and not vice versa.

Rotwelsch vase H=25.0 cm
Pavonia vase Heliotrop/yellow H=27.0 cm
Heliotrop vases in foto 4 from left to right:
small vase with dolphin ormulu H= 20.5 cm Dek=I/4
vase with golden feet and handles H=23.5 cm Dek=I/144
largest vase H=40.0 cm Dek=I/4 PN=L. Boutigny 89/23
right side Heliotrop on white opal H=25.0 cm Dek=III/115
putative Persica vase red/yellow H=35.0 cm Dek=I/4

The foto of the MtWashington vase insert was taken from: Jaremos Auction House, auction July 2024 lot 146