Rich, meticulous design from Josephine Glassworks, Silesia, circa 1898-1905. Jugendstil-Art Nouveau. Photo by Barbara Newhall
By Barbara Falconer Newhall
Spotted at the labyrinthine Glasmuseum Passau — wonderfully outrageous, phantasmagoric decorative glass. Gotta share it with you. Take a look. Cheap thrills.
Yeah. Yeah. I’m definitely indulging in a bit of smug irony here. The folks who created, appreciated — and paid for — these concoctions no doubt took them quite seriously as high decorative art in very good taste. But I’m a denizen of the twenty-first century, born in the less-is-more mid-twentieth century. So if I love these things, it’s precisely because they are so outrageously over-the-top — and in some cases, gorgeous.
You’re seeing these pictures because Jon and I took in the Glasmuseum at Passau during a river trip last month. More about that travel adventure up the Danube and down the Rhine in the days and weeks to come.
OK. This one’s actually ugly. Way too fussy for my taste. It’s an example of late 19th century Bohemian-Bavarian Historicism. Photo by Barbara NewhallBut I like this pink and white confection, also in the Historicism tradition, circa 1880-1920. Photo by Barbara Newhall
Art Nouveau – Jugenstil Glass
Jugendstil-Art Nouveau bowl from Josephinenhuette, Silesia, 1899-1900. Photo by Barbara NewhallI wish I could tell you more about all this outrageous glass. But my German is only so-so these days and it was hard to decipher the labels. This egg — shell? nut? — had a date of 1860-1900 and an origin of “Silesia-Bohemia-Bavaria.” Looks like Art Nouveau to me. Photo by Barbara Newhall
Mid-Nineteenth-Century Decorative Glass
Mid-nineteenth-century mirror. Twenty-first-century photographer. As you can see, the rooms are small at the Glasmuseum Passau. You go up and down stairs and around corners to discover ever more vitrines packed with the museum’s collection of 30,000 pieces from Silesia, Bavaria, Bohemia and Austria dated 1550 to 1950. Photo by Barbara NewhallMid-19th-century goblets from Josephinenhuette. Photo by Barbara NewhallAlso from the mid-nineteenth century: Painted glass with chinoiserie motifs, Bohemia circa 1835-1845. I wonder, who had more fun? The artisans who cooked up these confections — or the aristocrats who ate off of them? Photo by Barbara Newhall
Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.
Please feel free to share links to my posts with one and all and to quote briefly from them in your own writing, remembering, of course, to attribute the quote to me and to provide a link back to this site.
