Featured Bohemian Flash Ruby Casket- Ca. 1830 Egermann? Grand Tour?

Hi everybody,

I just received this beautiful bohemian sugar caddy/casket.
Apart from it being damaged, it's still a very impressing piece of antique.
And quite big too.

Dimensions:
Height: 10,2 cm/ 3,94 inch.
Width: 14 cm/ 5,51 inch.
Depth: 9 cm/ 3,54 inch.

Weight: 684,6 Gram.

This box is read cut to clear, glass/crystal?
The red is flash ruby, not all the way through, see bottom picture.
No original key.

Various animals can be found ( birds, deer, fox?, hunting dog?, rabbit?)

No I have been googling last weeks, and the best matches turned out to be EGERMANN, in many descriptions these are believe to have taken part in his/the GRAND TOUR.
Not quite sure what this means.

I just read an article saying the grand tour was a journey through Europe, dating back from the 18th Century. (See link: https://www.nicholaswells.com/the-grand-tour/ )

While I thought it was some kind of antique fair for established artists.

Unfortunately this casket heavily damaged, see pictures.
But even damaged I think it's a desired object.

Any additional information is very welcome of course!!
Thank you

 

As you know I'm not a glassie, but I always look at your threads because you treat us to nice pictures of beautiful items. You have impeccable taste.
This is just another example, I don't usually like Bohemian cut glass/crystal, but this is a little treasure.
Not sure about the Grand Tour in this case, Bohemia was not in the usual itinerary.
But Bohemian glass and crystal were exported to other parts of Europe, it fit right in with the Biedermeier and later taste for controlled extravagance. The interiors tended to be rather dark, so bright colours and things that sparkle in the light of candles and oil lamps were preferred.

 

Wonderful antique example of stained red cut crystal box, with the traditional Bohemian motifs. I would date it Circa 1900 in IMHO, due to the oval shape, this shape for low containers, table top decorative glass pieces, small jardinieres was trendy then. Can't give you a specific glass producer, most of the research books do not involve this type of glass for that period. This was the bread and butter of the export industry for a long period of time. Love it.

 

It's certainly possible that it was bought on the Grand Tour, but it might have been in a shop window in Amsterdam or the like and some tourist took a shine to it. It's not hard to see why; I'd have pounced on that too.

 

The designs in the glass has all the marks of Egermann. Their designs were a dead give away. We have several pieces.
This is a sweet little box perhaps for jewelry or little treasures.
Pat

 

Thing is Egermann is a style and also a company name, which survived the Communist regime past 1990. So, I don't know if you would call it Egermann as maker, or only as a style. It is unique, I also had a pair of very fine lovely crystal shot glasses in this decor, they were mid 1950-60s or so.

 

What a beautiful little box, exquisite .. I love it, Joy.

 

Not a sugar casket.
A jewelry casket.
Moser was known for these.
However, the cut to clear design definitely points to Egerman.

Whether the caskets were bought from Moser and then cut, I don't know.

https://www.google.com/search?q=mos...8oMKHQo1CfAQ_AUICygC&biw=1375&bih=876#imgrc=_

 

I think 1830 might be a little too early.

 

I didn't know that to be honest. I thought it was just the maker, but I guessed this by the symbols in the glass. The box itself and the shape is kind of rare, since most of 'em are square. The most boxes I found in this shapen, als o come with a mount on the bottom. But there are no signs that box had it's bottom mount removed. It also decorated and worn on the bottom.

 

I really have no idea. First thing that comes to my mind when you say Moser, is enamel decorations. Wheter with or without gold. By the way, all my assumtions are based on googling (pictures) for thousands of hours. I haven't really read any books or anything

 

This is part of the complicated Bohemia/Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic glass and crystal productions which spans more than a century or two of course.
They had traditional types of glass decorations, they kept making as there was a demand for it. Like the Egermann style, the Biedermann style with white exterior, painted flowers and round clear glass areas. I do have several books about this.
Always interesting to me, to figure out a date.

 

Most of the times I'm happy if I can determine the country already myself haha.
Dating it, and pinpointing it on a maker is something I should leave to the experts

By the way, talking about Bohemian glass books...

I have placed a blue glass set on this forum before, and I have contacted many forums, people and auction houses. Most of 'em giving no response, but none of 'em had a answer.

No I have found a vase made by Josef Riedel, which style looks exactly like one of my pieces I can't identify.

Does anybody have a book about Riedel glass? (Approx. 1800-1860)

Beneath see the blue bonbonnière.
The white one is the Riedel vase I found. I have been searching for days literally.
Couldn't find anything like it. Now the glass, I still believe is opaline glass, or biedermeier alabaster glass.

 

I remember the blue glass set, at the time I thought Harrach, Riedel is not known for this type of glass, does not mean he did not make it.... who says it's Riedel?

I do have a really big book about Harrach, producer of glass for about 300 years. There are examples in it of this type of glass from 19th century. The white vase is really beautiful. Keep in mind they did copy each other, and there are more recent decorative glass items these days being made in the Czech Republic based on the old shape and decors.

 

But have you seen anything of Harrach that looks like it?

From Riedel I didn't find anything on opaline glass neither.

The white vase can be found here:
(Scroll in the little square pictures, it's number 11 of 29)
http://www.cesonline.cz/arl-ces/cs/detail-ces_us_cat-psb0001757-11-Sklo-Riedel/


I have an auction house asking me for more pictures, they say it could be Biedermeier crystall. But could it? Also on this search I couldn't find anything.

 

@R.Antonis

I did say I have seen the blue glass style and color in my Harrach book, I also showed you some museum images on that post, as well as another blue example with the same glass rim design.

Biedermier is an old 19th century style of Bohemian glass, that is not anything like what you have.

My expertise is the Czech Art DECO period glass of 1919-1939, so I know a little about the earlier glass products, the companies, the types of glass they made, have several books about it. It is a vast and complicated subject, which frankly is not as well documented as the UK or USA glass antique glass, and even they attributed a lot of glass in error, in the older reference books of 1980 and before.

Trying to show that the topic is full of twist and turns, and there is only so much time in the day. I want to help, but I have strict limitations of my own projects and demands.




Here is another cabinet in the German Passau Bohemian Glass Museum, this one shows Harrach antique glass, in the white and blue type of style, shape and color. They participated in most of the Internation Exhibitions during 19th century, and made extra large pieces for those occasions. Hope this gives you more of an idea for identification.

 

Do you mean the casket or the blue glass?

Just an aside, not everyone outside Continental Europe knows the term Biedermeier.
Biedermeier is a Continental European stylistic period between 1815 and 1848. Mainly in, but not confined to, the German speaking countries.
The term Biedermeier is also used in The Netherlands, so a Dutch auction house would use it. We never say Georgian, Victorian, etc. unless an item was made in Britain or her colonies, or to clarify something when speaking English. And for French items, we use the French period terms, etc, etc.
Sometimes the term Biedermeier is used to refer to the style, even if an item was made after 1848. Just like Baroque, etc.

 

Thanks AJ, that is excellent to explain glass terms and when they are appropriate. That is why I always use 'Bohemian' glass that was made before 1919, and 'Czechoslovakian' after 1919, when the whole area changed post WWI, country borders and names as well.
When I see Victorian I think UK, but not a lot of sellers use it in that sense, it's more of a 'catch all' glass term for the time period or the style, instead of a country.

 

Excuse me, you're right. I remember the vase's rim. I have contacted the Passau Museum, but they haven't responded (yet). Thank you very much for the pictures and your help!

 

I meant the blue glass. So perhaps it's ca.1860-1880 then?