HALLMARK DESIGN: HEAVY SKRDLOVICE PALE AMBER & GREEN ATLAS VASE, DESIGNED BY JAN KOTIK

MAGNIFICENT & HEAVY ŠKRDLOVICÉ PALE BROWN / AMBER, GREEN AND TRANSPARENT 'ATLAS' VASE, DESIGNED BY THE FAMOUS ARTIST JAN KOTIK (1916-2002) IN 1955

A CLASSIC & RARE COLLECTOR'S ITEM WITH FANTASTIC OPTICAL QUALITIES !

ATLAS VASE : A FLAGSHIP DESIGN OF MID-20TH CENTURY CZECH GLASS

A SIMILAR VASE (LOT 713) SOLD FOR R5,969 AT STEPHAN WELZ & CO ON 2 MARCH 2016 

Rare hand-made art glass from behind the Iron Curtain : a unique opportunity to acquire your very own, very beautiful piece of 20th Century European History!

Beránek Glass was nationalised during communist rule in 1948 and became Škrdlovice glassworks. Ownership was returned to the Beránek family in 1992 when it became Beránek Glass again. The factory closed in 2008 and no longer exists : with armies of collectors internationally now snapping up the magnificent items produced by them, their high-quality art glass is becoming both harder to find and more collectable by the day. The form, visual and physical weight, optical effects created by the applications and use of transparent glass are typical of production at Škrdlovice during the late 1950s and 1960s.

Model : 5503 / Height : 190 mm / Weight : 2,295 kg

Vintage glass : minor and insignificant indications of its age on its base : overall in excellent condition

EXHIBITED : Magicke sklo, Sklarna Beranek ve Škdrolovicích, 1940-1980, Vychodocceske Muzeum v Pardubicich 26 June - 27 September 2009

LITERATURE : Very widely published, most recently in Bevan-Jones, Robert and Parik, Jindrich (authors); Hill, Mark (general editor). Škrdlovice & Beránek: Legends of Czech Glass, 2014, 128 pp (several reproductions) and highlighted as a 'hallmark design'.

Along with Scandinavia and Italy, Czechoslovakia was one of the leading European producers and exporters of glass across the world during the second half of the 20th Century. The 1950s-70s saw a renaissance in Czech glass design that confirmed and re-established the country's global reputation in this area. 

From behind the Iron Curtain, highly talented and exceptionally skilled designers pushed the boundaries of 20th century glass design and produced unique art glass masterpieces that went on to inspire visually stunning ranges and exquisite works of art in sparkling glass. Exported and sold around the world as art glass for the home, these modern and vibrantly coloured designs became enormously successful. 

During the last five years or so international tastes and fashions have brought Czech post war art glass very much into vogue once again and hence the renewed appreciation of the glass hierarchy and the public alike. Czech art glass has rapidly been becoming the latest highly sought after additions to prized art glass collections all over the world.

* Please note that glass from the mid-20th century is vintage glassware and age related signs of wear such as small fine surface scratches/marks should be expected. The items are hand-made, they may have imperfections such as bubbles, inclusions and lumps within the glass. Tool marks from where they have been shaped and worked in the manufacturing process can often be seen. As this indicates authenticity and forms an inherent part of the character of handmade crystal glass, these are normally not considered as faults by collectors.

* This magnificent vase is an original and rare, hand-made Czech art glass vase (and not Italian Murano, Daum, Kosta Boda, Orrefors, Flygsfors, Swarovski, Leerdam, Val St Lambert, Whitefriars or Lalique studio glass). I personally handpicked and imported this beauty from the Czech Republic.

* Appreciation and acknowledgement to Messrs Mark Hill and Jindrich Parik as well as the Vychodoceske Muzeum v Pardubicích for their invaluable archival and reference material. XKO3B