Posted 12 years ago
cobaltcobold
(62 items)
This is my first Norwegian object. I liked it frome the first moment on, when I first saw it and tried to get it for a certain time. It's a cheese cover (which I really use!) designed by Benny Motzfeldt for the Norwegian Glass factory Hadeland.
Form really follows function here, and yet the form has its poetics due to the color gradient.
Benny Motzfeldt (1909-1995) was a designer who belonged to the design group "Plus" in Norway. There is an interesting page about this group:
http://effie-graa.com/egc/library/unpublished/info_plusglass.htm
They say about this group: "The craftsmen of the artists colony at PLUS handcraft center started up their organisation in 1958 as an apparatus of coordination, and to develop designers relations to the industry. The ideas behind the initiativ came from the British Arts and Crafts movement, and collective ideals inherited from the functionalism of the 1930s and 40s. "
About Motzfeldt there is the following information: "With her background as a painter, she started off as one of the most experimenting designers at Hadeland, with lots of air bubbles and dots of colour in her work. "
I only know two pieces of glass for use by her, this one and a beautiful Jug which I saw once on Ebay Australia.
If you know more about her and her designs please inform us here!
This is simply gorgeous. I love the colour and the shape. I have not seen a cheese bell cover quite like that. Beautiful.
Terrific! The bell is brilliant!
I love it!!!!!!!!! Always wanted to get this :)
By the way, I always thought Motzfeldt was a man, but I've found "both versions" online... here's what they say at the Swedish Nationaluseum website... http://collection.nationalmuseum.se/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&siteId=1&module=artist&objectId=2976&viewType=detailView&lang=en
@bobogal, @AmberRose, @BELLIN, @austrohungaro, thank you!
I trust the Norwegian Wikipedia article about Benny Anette Berg Motzfeldt:
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Motzfeldt
I quote from the Google Translation of this article: "She was educated at the National College of Art and Design (1931-1935) and debuted in the Autumn Exhibition (1936) with drawings and watercolors. For a long time she was mainly active artist, and was hired as a draftsman for glass art at Christiania Glass Magazine (1955) and Hadeland Glass (1955-1967). Later, she was artistic director of Randsfjord Glassworks (1967-1970) and then at the Glass Factory at PLUS in Fredrikstad as she headed for the period 1970-1979. [2] She had her breakthrough with glass exhibition with Aurdal also the Röhsska Museum Gothenburg (1970)."
If second name was Annie there's no doubt about it ;)
Splendid!!! I wonder if this could have been produced in opaque white also?
It reminds me very much of Austro's Jacob Bang for Kastrup circa 1957 opaline dome on board.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/59001-opaline-cheese-bell-jacob-bang-kastrup
Yes mikko, both of them really look alike... that's why I want to get this one too :)
I never saw it in other colors - but correct me! I'd like to.
Nope, i think Motzfeldt's comes nly in this gorgeus gray (and Bang's only in opaline)
great cheese cover beautiful shape (lovely top) and color love the grey
It's too nice to be used as a cheese cover ;-)
Here's one in green! : )
http://www.etsy.com/listing/76328651/vintage-cheese-dome-by-benny-motzfeldt
There's one in the UK right now at eBay - current bid 19.99 UK pounds. Green again. Glorious.
Yes, this piece is really a classic. Do you think the green is a color variation? Or a real color of its own?
Hi, cobaltcobold! I was hoping that someone with expertise would address your question, but as I see they have not yet.... I have very little real knowledge of Scandinavian glass, and none whatsoever about this artist. No, although I love Scandinavian glass almost as much as I love silver, I don't collect it in the real. I collect it piece by piece in my heart, and it is the love of a simple connoisseur rather than scholarly connoisseur. If I owned this cheese bell, I would spend the day worshipping it! So, I'm sorry, I don't know how to answer your question. I found the green only because I remembered being in a hospital and looking at old magazines -- such as one does in hospital -- and finding a white glass 'cheese bell' or 'dessert bell' like this one in one of them. It might not have been called a cheese bell, but it was almost exactly like this one in form. It was far beyond my budget, so I didn't even dream about it. However, I couldn't help but ask here if this came in white glass. When told that it didn't, I went online looking for white glass cheese bells, and it pulled both the green cheese bells. To find two within that short period of time, when this was probably produced ? 1960's ?, would lead me to think that they did produce this in green - perhaps at a later date? Hope you find one for yourself! Regards, miKKo
STUNNER!!!!!!
it also had 2 matching jars and the serie was called in the 1967 catalog Benny when correct the cheese bell came in 3 sizes
the jars http://www.finn.no/finn/torget/annonse?finnkode=40106208
I've seen them from time to time, they are very nice, too:
http://finncdn.no/mmo/2013/7/vertical-5/05/8/401/062/08_208466990.jpg