Featured Cut amethyst glass vase

Another grab from this morning. I'm guessing Czech. It's about 20cm tall. The exterior of the rim is rough glass. Makes me feel that maybe something went over it. A collar or lid maybe? Base is smooth polished.

 

Very nice vase that, no doubt, had a silver collar that was lost along the way or sold for scrap. Bit of a secessionist look to it, which might point to Germany or Austria. Czech is certainly a possibility.

 

Agree. It looks Secessionist or Jugendstil.

 

Thanks Brad. I'll have a search with those key words. Starting to think it is a one off though. Nothing too similar out there.

 

Oooh a new word. Thank eeee.

 

Not finding anything exactly like this. Closest is this Val Saint Lambert vase I found on Pinterest Looking at more VSL vases with color cut to clear, it could be a possibility.

 

Jugendstil is not really used in the US but I am certainly familiar with it. I always took it to be synonymous or certainly more akin to art nouveau. Whereas, I have always taken secessionist to be closer to arts and crafts or art deco. Maybe a bridge between the two. I realize that when describing an item, we are sometimes splitting hairs when making a determination. These various movements overlapped a bit and did not occur in a vacuum despite possibly being removed in geography. I am interested in other peoples takes on this. What do these various design movements mean to you? Any scholarly takes you can point us to?

Edit: This might be a discussion worthy of its own thread in the antiques forum. If there is interest, I could start a new thread there.

 

Oooh that's a nice one. Currently looking for a silver collar to try and finish off. Maybe theres a broken vase I can find somewhere. Getting the right size would be tricky though.

I've come across the term secessionist before but never quite got it. I always thought it was like some movement that broke away from the norm. Jugendstil I have yet to explore. Agree that there is a great deal of subjectivity in what definition to use and objects can often fall into multiple brackets depending on the creator's main influences. Then there are mavericks such as Christopher Dresser eg who create their own movements.

 

Jugendstil is often called the German Art Nouveau, but it isn't.
It is also a 'new art' and developed around the same time as Belgian and French AN, but it is different. True, some (jewellery, WMF) designers copied the Belgian and French Art Nouveau to some extent, often for commercial reasons, but most didn't.
Most designers followed their own German designs, which never had the floral flowing lines, whiplash motifs or extreme focus on women of AN. True Jugendstil is much more stark than Art Nouveau, with bold straight lines and angular corner motifs.

There is certainly an overlap between the Arts&Crafts-Vienna Secession-Jugendstil movements, and it is often difficult to differentiate. In the German-speaking world Vienna Secession is known as the Viennese Jugendstil, so it is considered one of the schools within the Jugendstil movement.

The artists from Arts&Crafts-Vienna Secession-Jugendstil often travelled and worked in the countries of their related traditions or they spent time together in the German cultural centre and artist's colony Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. Mathildenhöhe was co-founded by Vienna Secession architect Joseph Maria Olbrich, who also designed the Secession building in Vienna.

 

This is the German language wiki page on Mathildenhöhe:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstädter_Künstlerkolonie_Mathildenhöhe

You can tell from the photos that Jugendstil is related to Secession.

Fun detail, there is a black and white photo of a house by the Dutch architect Gewin. The style looks different again, it is very much Dutch Nieuwe Kunst, and a type of house you see in every Dutch town.
Nieuwe Kunst (New Art) is related to both Jugendstil (style as published in the art magazine Die Jugend, the Youth) and Art Nouveau (New Art).

 

Thanks for the discourse and link. I am familiar with Olbrich but not so much with most of the other names provided. Have some research to do While the design movements were quite often shaped by architecture, of which I have great interest, it is the decorative arts that I am particularly interested in. It seems that information is harder to find on many of the artists.

Some of this may be due to my US-centrism. Many Americans seem to be a bit of a snob when it comes to design that is not home-grown. I try not to be and some of my most prized items are not American. In the link provided, there was mention of the furniture maker, Julius Glückert. Certainly not a household name here in the US but I think I probably have heard of him in passing. Searching now, I see a new rabbit hole to go down.

 

Or maybe just not familiar with it?

We live in an interesting world.

 

I think there is active dismissal. While Americans are exposed to other designs, many only want to collect American. American items out-perform European counterparts in American auctions as a rule. This is particularly true in the field of art pottery, which is a primary interest of mine. Stickley furniture regularly outperforms English and European counterparts. Personally, I find some of the English and European examples in both pottery and furniture to be superior.

 

Now I will read AJ's link later (translated into English because my German is limited to Danke, Bittle and Gutentag!), but in my muddled head Secessionist and Jugendstil are variations on a similar theme. Minton produced some Secessionist type design. Like Brad, I see roots from Arts and Crafts design, but modern (of the period) design and colour. Yes! More rabbit holes!

 

Whereas Canadians tend to be a bit snobby about British versus American items. Canada was pretty small in population compared to Britain and the US, so there isn't a whole lot of Canadiana to collect (although there are devotees for sure) from early days. But as for me, I collect anything from anywhere as long as it piques some spark.

 

Thanks for the link. Such beautiful architecture. I have the urge to go there right now.