http://www.modernistglass.com/ Latest pieces added to Modernistglass.com en-us Thu, 20 Jun 2013 05:13:11 +1200 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss CakePHP everyone@modernistglass.com (Modernistglass.com Team) webmaster@modernistglass.com (Modernistglass.com webmaster) http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2999/striking-vintage-mezze-filigrano-plate Mezza filigrana means, literally, half filigree. It's a Murano style of glass design of fine, parallel, coloured threads between layers of crystal. Most filigrana features fine, delicate lines of filigree. This one is a classic spiral design, but the thickness and boldness of the colours are like nothing I've seen elsewhere. It's a fantastic design. The whole piece is cased in clear crystal and is heavy for its size - just short of 2kg. Despite this, you can feel the humps from many of the individual strands of glass beneath the crystal. These individual strands are bright blue, pale aqua, bright green, and one single strand of milky blue. All the strands are opaque but you can see between each strand. My guess is that each strand (all 37 of them) was a separate one-coloured cane, laid together on a clear glass base and worked into a spiral. That would explain why you can feel them separately. If I'm correct, it's very clever workmanship. If they did it some other way, it's still very clever. This is another one we've kept for years in our private collection, firstly because it displayed so well, either flat on a coffee table or on stand, and secondly because we didn't know who made it or when. Usually we eventually work these things out, and anything particularly innovative and clever turns out to be from Czechoslovakia. This time we still know nothing more about it, but Czechoslovakia is probably a good guess. It's certainly not a common piece. I once saw another one the same in an auction, but the seller could shed no more light on its origins. Length: 25cm (10 inches) Width: 21cm Height: 5cm Weight: 1.9kg Condition: some scratches on the flat, polished base, and 2 fleabites on the rim of the base Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:02:09 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2999/striking-vintage-mezze-filigrano-plate http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2998/stylish-ermanno-toso-design-for-fratelli-toso--triangular-bowl-with-murrines This is one we've held onto since 2006 as a particularly fine example of this style, but the time has come to let it go. Other examples in this style have a mix of murrines (slices of glass cane) of lots of different flower patterns but this one has only two patterns (and you have to look closely to see that it's not just one pattern). It's like a "designed" garden with a consistent theme (as opposed to the more haphazard and less successful garden that most of us end up with). It's unlabelled but the same design is in Leslie Pina's excellent 2004 book, Fratelli Toso: Italian Glass 1854-1980 and is described as a design of Ermanno Toso. After the slices of glass are placed randomly on the flat white glass base, the bowl is formed and the stretching of the hot glass deforms the murrines to some degree. Our example is superior to Pina's, in my opinion, in that the murrines are cleaner and sharper. The LAST IMAGE is a scan of Pina's example. Width: 21cm (8.5 inches) Height: 6.5cm Weight: 950g Condition: Excellent. A handful of light scratches and scuffs around the outside, a 1mm nibble to the rim. Moderate wear to the base Thu, 07 Jun 2012 10:06:48 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2998/stylish-ermanno-toso-design-for-fratelli-toso--triangular-bowl-with-murrines http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2761/bargain-christer-sjogren-vase-for-lindshammar I initially attributed this vase to Iittala. However, it was unsigned and unconfirmed so I listed it at a giveaway price of $50. It turns out that I was wrong. Carola, a very knowledgable correspondent from Sweden, has provided me with the last two pictures which show the same design with a midcentury Lindshammer label. She believes the designer to be Christer Sjogren (1926-2008) who was the main designer at Lindshammer from 1962 until 2003 and this seems likely, though we can't confirm it at this stage. I'll leave the price unchanged as penance for my mistake. Height: 22.5 cm Width: 8 cm Weight: 380 g Condition: light wear and a 3x4mm fleabite to the base, faint marks from water Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2761/bargain-christer-sjogren-vase-for-lindshammar http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2676/signed-lindstrand-kosta-offcentre-green-vase-set We love these Kosta off-centre green vases. The off-centre design was the innovation of master glassblower Bengt Hientze and designer Vicke Lindstrand. The bold green confounds those who see Swedish mid-century glass as being all austere greys and browns. Tall vase - our reference: 2676 Height: 18.5 cm (7.5 inches) Width: 8.5 cm Weight: 1510 g Engraved "Kosta LH1444/27" to the base Condition: light wear to the base, a few small scuffs and scratches (longest 2mm), sommerso part somewhat uneven (see pictures - note that this piece was approved and signed in the factory and therefore cannot be considered a second), a 7 cm long scratch to the interior. Shorter vase - our reference: 1958 Height: 8.5 cm (3.25 inches) Width: 8 cm Weight: 555g Engraved"Kosta LH 1449" to the base Condition: light wear to the base, two 0.5mm fleabites, a 0.5x1mm fleabite to the outer rim, some scuffs and scratches to the exterior (longest 1cm). Mon, 16 May 2011 21:07:18 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2676/signed-lindstrand-kosta-offcentre-green-vase-set http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2598/signed-1960s-vicke-lindstrand-kosta-bowl-with-controlled-bubbles This is a heavy piece at more than 2kg. It would display well with other Lindstrand controlled bubble pieces such as Lindstrand signed Kosta bowl with bubbles or Pair of mid-century Vicke Lindstrand Kosta vases. Height: 5 cm Length: 21 cm (8.5 inches) Weight: 2220 g Engraved "Kosta LH 1806" to the base Condition: light wear to the base aside from a handful of less than 0.5mm fleabites, a 1mm burst bubble underneath (see closeup of signature), a few light scratches elsewhere (longest 3mm) Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:21:28 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2598/signed-1960s-vicke-lindstrand-kosta-bowl-with-controlled-bubbles http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2992/labelled-finnish-ashtray-designed-by-markku-salo-for-arabia-1984 This doesn't have a cigarette rest, but it was probably designed as an ashtray (now a rarity because no-one makes them anymore). This piece by Finnish designer Markku Salo pays homage to the seminal Aalto bowl (see the last photo), the design of Alvar Aalto for Iittala. Salo's inspired twist is the vertical grooves. I like this a lot. Salo was born in 1954 and still designs for Arabia today. Height: 4 cm Width: 16 cm (6.25 inches) Weight: 850 g Condition: Light wear to the base. Tiny wear inside, 8x2 mm. Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:15:05 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2992/labelled-finnish-ashtray-designed-by-markku-salo-for-arabia-1984 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2233/magnor-norway-vintage-label-2opening-art-glass-vase- This is a very elegant Norwegian Magnor vase. It's been made either by blowing, in essence, two vases, then joining them together, or, more likely, blowing a long vase, pinching the middle, then creating another opening at the closed end. Either way there's a great deal of skill involved. You could use either end as a vase. Judging by the sticker and the style this appears to be a 1960s piece. For a more expensive version of the same concept, see Signed 1959 Vicke Lindstrand vase #1 for Kosta and Signed and labelled 1959 Vicke Lindstrand vase #2 for Kosta Height: 24cm (9.5 inches) Width: 6cm Weight: 135g Stickered "NORSK MAGNOR GLASS" (norsk=Norwegian in Norwegian) Condition: a 1mm white mark inside the glass from manufacture, a few scratches over all (longest 5mm) Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:11:18 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2233/magnor-norway-vintage-label-2opening-art-glass-vase- http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2261/labelled-midcentury-reijmyre-glass-bird-on-egg-base This a clever little twist on the relatively common bird sculpture. It's sitting on a sandblasted, opaque egg. Height: 13.5cm (5 inches) Width: 9.5cm Weight: 370g Stickered "REIJMYRE 1810 SWEDEN" Condition: very light wear to the base and a less than 0.5mm fleabite, little wear to the sticker, a 2.5cm faint scuff just beside the sticker, a less than 0.5mm unintended bubble Sun, 24 Apr 2011 17:32:13 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2261/labelled-midcentury-reijmyre-glass-bird-on-egg-base http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2621/1970s-goran-and-ann-warff-candleholdersculpture--signed-unikt-unique Here's a special piece from Ann and Goran Warff. There are three important points to note about this piece. First, it's an early design. This is the third variation of this design that we've listed over the years (see also http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2580 and http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2496). The others were signed "G Warff Unikt", meaning that it was a unique design of Goran Warff, but this one, interestingly, is just "Warff Unikt". That tells us that this design was a collaboration between Goran and Ann, prior to their divorce in 1972, and that means that it was the earliest variation of this design that we have seen. Note also the relationship to Ann Warff's design at http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2519 Second, this will have been technically challenging. It looks to have been created in a mould, but it has lots of fingers of glass. If you search our site for the word "mould" you'll find that the other moulded pieces we have listed are much simpler. It's not a technique which suits fingers of glass and they will have had lots of failures, I suspect, which will be why this one didn't get to general production (though a simpler version in clear glass ultimately did). And third, it's a weird and wonderful design. We've sold other Warff pieces that are designed to look as though they are solidified water, or carved from ice or from rock. This one is almost a combination of those themes, though it also has a hint of sea anemone. It has a mix of colours as shown by the pictures. It was designed to hold a candle but displays well as a piece of sculpture and, personally, I wouldn't put a lit candle in a unique piece of art glass. Height: 16 cm (6.5 inches) Width: 14.5 cm Weight: 2290 g Engraved "Kosta Warff Unikt" Condition: light wear to the base, a couple of marks from manufacture underneath the base (see closeup of signature), a 1mm white mark from manufacture a few centimeters above the base, a few small unintended bubbles Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:51:10 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2621/1970s-goran-and-ann-warff-candleholdersculpture--signed-unikt-unique http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2995/1970s-pertti-santalathi-humppila-finland-bowl The glass designs of Santalathi tend to be roughly-hewn and rough textured, as this one is. However, when you look at the picture of this one upsidedown, you'll see that it has little knobs on the base to prevent scratching and that nothing sticks out at the top to make it wobble too much when it's reversed. Good practical design with attention to detail. We also have another listing of Santalathi designs - Signed set of Finnish Pertti Santalahti bowls Signed "Pertti Santalathi Humppila Finland". Height: 115 mm Width : 180 mm (7 inches) Weight: 850 g Conditon: Light wear to the base. Scratches on the inside(bottom), each approx 2-3 cm long. Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:44:57 +1200 http://www.modernistglass.com/glasspieces/view/2995/1970s-pertti-santalathi-humppila-finland-bowl