Featured "Poor Mans Tiffany?" WMF Myra Krystal

"Myra Krystal" was created by Karl Wiedmann and was produced by WMF in Germany from c1926 to c1936/7. The glass has often been wrongly termed as being "poor mans Tiffany" and several examples have had fake Tiffany signatures applied over the years in order to dupe the unwary, as Myra Krystal wasn't signed, and only carried small paper labels.

It is an extremely delicate, brittle & fragile glass with a wafer-thin wall thickness, and pattern-types also tend to be small in size, simple in form & shape, and light in weight. The glass was formulated using silver nitrate (instead of lead) which gives a rich translucent amber colour, however blue examples were also produced. These two basic colours of amber and blue only became evident upon the surface of the glass after the annealing process and the glass had cooled.

The iridescent qualities took several days to complete by heating & cooling the glass between applications of silver and metal salts in thin layers which eventually produced a bluish-green golden lustre with a matt finish. Further developments included 'blown-out' examples to achieve a crackled surface, and other experiments produced a bright red opaque surface to the glass with accents of greenish & golden iridescence, whilst some examples will display shimmering iridescent hues of purple & pink subject to variations of light.

It is close to impossible to capture the multitude of colours of iridescent glass in a photograph. The colours constantly alter & change upon its surface with the slightest of movement, and as each piece is totally unique even matched pairs will display themselves differently...

Shown above (to provide a sense of size & scale) with a
large 10" diameter 'rose-quartz' iridescent glass vase by J. Ditchfield, England.

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I've a WMF lamp if I can find the images of it. Ah, got it. Lamp inside the base as well.

 

It's a bit like Steuben's Aurene too eh?

 

@Ownedbybear A NICE LAMP! Its WMF Ikora glass rather than Myra.

wmf ikora lamp - Bing images

 

It is indeed, isn't it fine? I'd no idea what it was when I bought it. The auction house didn't know either.

 

Yes, some of it is. Aurene is more expensive though... It was also produced before Myra was, in around c1904 by Frederick Carder, he previously worked at Thomas Webb in England. I've never owned a piece by Steuben, or any examples by Quezal either. Its difficult to locate in the UK apart from on eBay etc.

 

Yep! many auction houses don't have a clue what they're selling. If you're in the right place at the right time all manner of bargains can still be found.

 

Here's a piece of Aurene from my stash ..

 

Very nice it is too @blooey

 

It could be yours

 

Size & Price?

 

PM me!