Recent Important Acquisitions, 2008
European Glass
Winter Frictional Electrical Machine
Around 1745, the German scientist Johann Heinrich Winkler demonstrated the effects of static electricity by electrifying his assistant, who was then handed a glass of brandy. As soon as he lifted the glass to his mouth, sparks would fly from his tongue and set the brandy on fire.
The popularity of such performances, and the unexpected effects related to electricity, triggered the invention of various electrical friction machines—for private and public use—throughout the 18th century. The core feature of almost all of these devices was a piece of revolving glass that rubbed against fixed pads, thereby creating an electrical charge.
The Museum recently acquired an apparatus that makes use of an invention by the Austrian scientist Georg K. Winter designed to generate long and dense sparks. Dating to about 1850, the device is comprised of a large wooden ring, which originally had a thick wire running through its center. Together with additional devices, such as a Leyden jar (a condenser that was invented in 1745), it probably served as a teaching tool for high school and college students learning about physics. OH. 125 cm.
Spanish Ewer
Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, was one of the many regions of Renaissance Europe where glass was made in the Venetian style. Beginning in the late 15th century, Catalan glassmakers produced a wide variety of glassware, much of which had applied, enameled, or engraved decoration. This handsome ewer was made in Catalonia around 1500. It was decorated by adding a second gather and inflating it in a mold to form 18 vertical ribs, which were pinched together to form a pattern of diamonds. After this, a trail of white glass was wound around the ribs. The trail melted into the ribs but, when the gather was further inflated, it broke over the gaps, leaving a pattern of white spots. H. 23.8 cm.
Decanter and Glasses
The decanter and four glasses were designed by Christopher Dresser (1834 – 1904). Dresser, the author of The Art of Decorative Design (1862), is widely regarded as Britain’s first independent industrial designer. The decanter has an ebony handle and all five objects have sterling silver mounts. They are accompanied by their original, custom-made traveling case. The ensemble was designed in 1881 and made in 1882. OH. (decanter) 25.1 cm.
American Glass
Cut Glass Decanter
This cut glass decanter was probably made at the Union Glass Works in Philadelphia between 1826 and 1842. The manufacturer produced tableware of good quality, but relatively little is known about it because there are no catalogs from that period and the firm was not in business for very long. However, the Museum owns several well-documented pieces that came to us through descendants of the makers, and this decanter has a very distinctive cut stopper identical to that of one of those objects. H. 30.7 cm, Diam. 12.3 cm.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit Vase
This stunning and rare jack-in-the-pulpit vase was made by the Quezal Art Glass and Decorating Company of Brooklyn between about 1904 and 1915. Quezal was founded by Martin Bach and Thomas Johnson, who had been blowers for Louis Comfort Tiffany, and this firm was probably the most successful emulator of Tiffany’s style.
The Museum owns a vase of the same form that was made (probably earlier) by Tiffany, and another example, produced by Steuben Glass while Frederick Carder was managing director. The decoration on the back of the Quezal vase is more elaborate than that on its front, which makes one wonder how it was meant to be displayed. OH. 27.8 cm, Diam. 11.3 cm.
Sandwich Glass
The Museum recently acquired two pieces attributed to the famous Boston & Sandwich Glass Company of Sandwich, Massachusetts, including a blown creamer, with an unusual “beehive” shape formed by a skillful blower. It is rare to be able to attribute a piece of free-blown glass to Sandwich. Although the Museum has an extensive collection of pressed Sandwich glass, there are relatively few blown pieces from Sandwich in the collection. H. 17.7 cm.
Art Glass
In memory of her husband, Fellow John K. Olsen, Barbara Olsen recently donated 24 English and American art glasses, including Tiffany, early Steuben, and Mt. Washington pieces. Among the Mt. Washington pieces is a rare Royal Flemish vase. Royal Flemish glass was produced by the Mt. Washington Glass Company of New Bedford for relatively few years, from 1887 until 1895. It is enameled with colors in sections, with golden lines in between so that it looks almost like stained glass. H. 27.5 cm.
Among the unusual Steuben pieces in the collection is a turquoise Aurene bowl, probably made between about 1905 and 1918, with applied threaded decoration. The bowl has the original Steuben paper sticker on the base. Turquoise Aurene is not seen very often, and this bowl is the only one in this color in our collection. D. 12.3 cm.
Modern Glass
Set of Drinking Glasses with Ruby-Glass Feet by Peter Behrens
Designed by the well-known German architect and industrial designer, Peter Behrens, this rare set of seven drinking glasses with ruby-glass feet was made in 1900–1901. The early Modernist set was produced by the Rheinische Glashütte in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. It contains drinking glasses for champagne, white wine, red wine, beer, water, and liqueur.
Behrens practiced as a painter in Munich in the 1890s before embarking on a career in architecture and design. In 1899, he was invited to join a newly established artists’ colony in Darmstadt with the goal of developing new, modern and forward-looking forms of construction and living.
Behrens designed his own house, including the furniture and accessories. He designed this iconic drinking set for the dining room. Behrens played a major role in charting a course for design in the first decade of the 20th century, and this set of drinking glasses represents an important moment in the development of modern design in Europe. Greatest H.
21.5 cm, Diam. 11 cm. Gift of the Ennion Society.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Anger, Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Avarice, Envy and Lust by Sidney Waugh
Another rare set of drinking glasses, these engraved goblets depict the seven deadly sins. The set was designed by Sidney Waugh for Steuben Glass, about 1956.
The robust, rounded forms of the glasses are characteristic of Waugh, a noted sculptor and designer, who served as chief associate designer for Steuben from 1935 until his death. Waugh established Steuben’s artistic direction for more than 30 years, with the aim of designing engraved glass that would be appreciated as fine art.
H. 18.9 cm, Diam. 12.4 cm. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Isidore Cohn Jr. and Lauren Cohn Fouros.
Brown Water by Kiki Smith
Brown Water, an installation by the internationally known artist Kiki Smith, was made in 1999 with the Pennsylvania glassblower Tom Farbanish.
Smith is a sculptor and a printmaker who uses a variety of materials and techniques in her work. The human body and the natural world are her recurring subjects, and she uses glass as a spiritual element and as a metaphor for sky and water. Smith is one of many artists who have used glass effectively to explore ideas about landscape and nature.
In Brown Water, 247 hot-formed, solid drops of glass create a landscape that evokes falling water (the drops spreading randomly across the floor like the patternless spotting of rain) or that constitutes its own body of water (seemingly solid but still requiring navigation). Here, Smith explores the contradictory nature of the material, which is often called a “rigid liquid,” and its wondrous ability to give form to amorphous substances, such as water and light. Assembled dimensions variable. Purchased with funds from the Arthur Rubloff Residuary Trust.
Globular Vase with Applied Decoration
Sculptor and painter Claire Falkenstein (American, 1908 – 1997) produced a diverse body of work in a wide array of materials, such as wood, stone, laminated plastic, Cor-Ten steel, glass, and aluminum. Although she was best known for her thicket-like sculptures of forged metal, she also created paintings, ceramics, and jewelry, and designed glass, furniture, wallpaper, fountains, and architectural elements.
Two of Falkenstein’s most important commissions involved glass. In 1962, she completed a pair of bronze, steel, and glass gates that were commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim for her home, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, in Venice, Italy (now part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation). Her best-known project, however, was her creation of the doors, rectory gates and grills, and the soaring, sculptural stained glass windows for St. Basil’s Church in Los Angeles, which she completed in 1969.
Recognized in Venice for her work for Peggy Guggenheim, Falkenstein was invited by the Venetian glass firm Salviati & Cie. to design vases and sculpture in 1972 – 1973, and again in the early 1980s. Falkenstein’s designs for Salviati emphasize the transparency and plasticity of molten glass. H. 29.5 cm, W. 32.3 cm, Diam. 28.2 cm.
Feelers (Garden Pavilion)
Sculptor Václav Cigler (Czech, b. 1929) uses glass to create space. Throughout his career, he has investigated and artistically defined the mechanics of transparency and reflection. His sculptures are not meant to be displayed in neutral contexts, but to absorb, reflect, and interpret the world around them. They are designed to come alive in interaction with their environments.
Cigler uses glass not as an end, he says, but “rather as a means of viewing and watching.” His sculptures are “non-technical devices which enlarge, reduce, mirror, and dissociate the outer environment.”
Recognized as a pioneer in using cut optical glass to create sculpture, he and his colleagues, René Roubícek, Jaroslava Brychtová, and the late Stanislav Libenský, are considered to be the most important artists of the postwar generation working in glass in Czechoslovakia. Cigler also has made a significant contribution to architecture with his ambitious lighting designs and glass architectural elements. In recent years, his work has ranged from small-scale conceptual objects to room-size installations and outdoor projects. H. 4.8 meters, Diam. 4.5 meters.
Rakow Research Library
Propositions concerning optic-glasses, with their natural reasons, drawn from experiments (Oxford, 1679)
The Library has acquired an important treatise in the history of optics. Published in 1679, Propositions concerning optic glasses, with their natural reasons, drawn from experiments exemplifies early modern science based on the empirical methodologies of experimentation and observation. Authorship is generally attributed to Obadiah Walker (1616 – 1699), a near contemporary of Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727). Propositions made its appearance 25 years before Newton’s Opticks, another treasure that the Library owns in its first edition of 1704. Newton likely referred to Walker’s work while conducting his own experiments, a connection that makes the two books an exquisite companion pair for researching this area of scientific inquiry.
Propositions describes a series of processes using convex and concave glasses illustrated in numerous woodcut diagrams. The book contains only 46 pages, reminiscent of a laboratory notebook or journal, albeit in handsome typography. It is a rare first edition, printed in 500 copies, bound in well-preserved antique calf, with gilt lettering on the spine and raised signatures. Clues to the book’s fine publishing pedigree are in its imprint—“Oxford, at the Theater”—and the elegant copperplate line engraving of the Sheldonian Theater. A relatively new structure when this image was created, the theater was designed by the architect Christopher Wren (1632 – 1723) for Oxford University and named after Gilbert Sheldon, university chancellor. The Oxford University Press, still a thriving publishing house, printed books there from 1669 – 1712, and the theater remains a landmark in Oxford.
