June 2008 preview

Set of three 1950s signed Lindstrand Kosta off-centre sommerso vases

This is the first time we've been able to offer a set like this in green since October 2006.  The largest one, in particular is getting very hard to find.  A set like this graces our personal collection.  The pictures and the vi...

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Signed and labelled purple sommerso Lindstrand vase for Kosta

This is a simple, classic Lindstrand underlay or 'sommerso' vase from the early 1960s.  The last picture shows this with three other purple Lindstrand vases which we will be listing in the future.  If you're interested in these, let us k...
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Large Fratelli Toso bowl with copper aventurine and feathered pattern

It's not exactly 'modernist', but this is a very fine piece of its type and very good value at this price.  It's an example of the best of more traditional Murano mid-century design - swirling patterns of canes. feathering, and scalloped edge...

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Cenedese Murano signed bull figurine

This is a stylish handworked bull, made with typical Muranese flair.  It is signed on the base by Cenedese, the firm which made it, and will have been the design of Antonio da Ros, its artistic director from 1959 until the present day.  ...
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1960s Pavel Hlava signed Exbor Czechoslovakian art glass vase with cut glass windows

This piece really needed more than the ten photos our website allows.  It has interesting surface decoration from the application, I believe, of a metallic oxide to the hot blue-cased glass.  It also has window cuts on opposite sides of ...
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1960s Cenedese vaseline (uranium) glass bowl

Vaseline glass is glass with uranium dioxide in it that glows fluorescent green under UV black light.  There's not a lot of uranium freely available today, and most of what is available is, frankly, ugly.  Not so this modernist piece fro...

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Unique 1960s Kosta paperweight by Ann and Goran Warff

This one is signed 'Unik'.  $270 for a unique piece from the collaboration of two of the great 20th century glass designers; this is a bargain.  We've listed and sold a number of pieces which use, like this piece, variations of their...
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Signed 1950s Stromberg sommerso ashtray with angled rim

Stromberg is a nice starting point for newcomers to vintage art glass.  It's often relatively cheap.  It often has bold colours in the sommerso technique and clear, high quality crystal, and it's generally signed.  Many pieces have ...

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Labelled 17 inch V Nason large Murano bird with gold and silver aventurine

If you want an impressive piece, big is good.  This striking bird figurine by Murano firm V Nason is very big and, we think, very beautiful.  It's made of dark blue glass cased in clear and translucent around the edges, with gold and sil...

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Pair of mid-century vases with holes, green by Gunnar Ander for Lindshammar

Orange and green are complementary colours, and these display very well together.  The green vase is definitely the design of Swedish designer, Gunnar Ander, for Lindshammar Glasbruk.  An architect by profession, he designed at Lindshamm...

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Czech Jizerske Sklo art glass triangular vase in transparent and matte glass

This piece is unmarked but it's a very distinctive and ingenious design - a clear bud vase set in a unique winged triangular shape of matte glass.  The particular feature, to my mind, is that the abstract swirl pattern in the matte glass is s...

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Vicke Lindstrand 1950s Kosta 'bullicante' vase

This is the sort of vase that makes people go ooh ahh.  In our experience, everyone likes (or in many cases loves) these.  Simple, striking, and beautiful.  Designed by Vicke Lindstrand in the 1950s.  Height: 19 cm (7.75 ...
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Gio Ponti 'Sette colori' beaker for Venini circa 1948

This is a chance to own a special piece of glass, a 1948 design of Gio Ponti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gio_Ponti) one of the great names of  20th Century architecture and design.  Learned Italian scholars amongst our readers will kno...

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Pair of signed and labelled 1950s crystal VAL SAINT LAMBERT bowls

These are from Belgian firm, Val St-Lambert.  Murano and Scandinavia get all the attention, so mid-century VSL is under-rated and undervalued.  These can be purchased separately for $100 each.  (Email us at inquiries@modernistglass...

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1960s Paolo Venini incalmo 'Clessidre' hourglass

"Hourglass", in Italian, is "Clessidre".  This piece is shown in the 1969 Venini Catalogo Verde, in Nigel Benson's Millars Glass of the 50s and 60s, and in Leslie Pina's Circa Fifties Glass.  The simplicity of the des...

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Sea Kosta 1950s signed art glass 3-piece set

This is an outstanding set at a bargain price. SEA was a Swedish firm based in the town of Kosta, often confused by Internet auction sellers with the more well-known firm of Kosta (which was later known as Kosta Boda, and ultimately took over SEA...

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Stromberg cylinder shaped sommerso vase stickered

This is a special one from Strombergshyttan - an attractive design that we've not seen before, in a large size.  It's a bud vase or "solifleur".  Note the colours fading down from the top.  Everybody loves the clean line...

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Signed 1950s FA W Johansson black smoking set with controlled bubbles

You need to enlarge the photos to see the bubbles.  These are stunningly beautiful bowls.  We've always loved the stylish 50s ashtrays of the firm of W Johansson.  The black is our absolute favourite, and this one comes with a match...
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Labelled Monica Bratt 1940s/1950s facet-cut vase for Reijmyre

BUYER COMMENT:  "Thanks again for your role in bringing this vase and me together! I know its aesthetics will continue to give me pleasure for a long time." This bears the Reijmyre label and a knowledgeable customer tells us it's a...
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Heavy, moulded Paul Kedelv, Sargasso bowl for Reijmyre

Kedelv is one of our favourite mid-century glass designers.  Much of his work at Flygsfors between 1952 and 1956 was outstanding.  After Flygsfors, he went to Reijmyre and, among other things, designed this clever and beautiful bowl in t...

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Vintage Archimede Seguso Murano 2kg gold sommerso Mexican figurine

Since I listed this, Leslie Pina's book on Archimede Seguso has come out.  It shows a number of Mexican caricature figurines (p166-168), both in sommerso and in Seguso's distinctive alabastro glass, all with the exact same characteristic pose...

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Unique signed Mona Morales-Schildt 1970 40cm shallow bowl with pattern of canes of glass

If you're looking for investment art, a large, striking piece of modernist art glass marked "unik", designed by a leading mid-century glass designer (one of the pioneer female designers), and made in 1970 by a famous Swedish glassmaker, ...

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