Technical Description
A truly exceptional amethyst glass pokal dating to c1840.
It has its original slice cut lid with gilded scrolls and edges, the cutting and gilding continuing all the way down from the finial through the bowl to the foot which has a polished pontil.
The style of cutting, weight, gilding, thickness and age of the glass would all point to a good match for Austrian Biedermeier. However, although you can find other heavy Biedermeir amethyst and gilded goblets and examples of the scrolls and type of gilding and cutting on many other Bierdermeir glasses from this period, we havent, as yet, come across another example in this form with a lid and double ogee bowl.
An exceptional and rare piece.
Part of a large exclusive private collection of 19th and 20th century glass, brought together over many years, that Exhibit will be presenting over the coming months.
Date & Origin
Austria, c1840.
Condition
Excellent, no chips cracks or restoration, some loss of gilding to the edges of the cuts.
Dimensions
Height: 27cm (which includes lid) 11cm diameter
Historical Context
Biedermeir is a style of decorative art favored by the middle class in Germanic Europe between about 1815 and 1848. The name is derived from Gottlieb Biedermeier, the pseudonymous author of the satirical verses of Ludwig Eichrodt (1827-1892) and Adolf Kussmaul (1822-1902). During the period in which the Biedermeier style was popular, glassmaking revived in Bohemia, where new kinds of glass such as Lithyalin and elaborate flashed, wheel-engraved, and enameled glasses were produced for middle-class consumers.
