(The following reviews appeared in Glass Circle News in July 2011) |
The Golden Age of English Glass 1650-1775 Dwight P Lanmon
373 pages ISBN 9781851496563 The Antique Collectors' Club (2011)
A former director of The Corning Museum of Glass with 50 years experience in antique glass, Dwight P Lanmon has been writing this impressive book for the last
25 years. It is one of the most interesting books on English glass spanning the most critical period 1650-1775 in the development of the English glass industry.
The book differs from its predecessors because of its comprehensive survey of objects discussed in depth based on extensive research and experience.
After a short history of glassmaking in England, including tools used by glassblowers, and a survey of drinking in England, the author systematically builds up the book on English glassware of lead glass, gadrooning, drinking glasses with heavy-baluster stems, diamond-point engraving, wheel engraved English glass, panel-moulded stems, Jacobite glass, glasses with internal spirals in their stems, gilding on glass, glass candlesticks, 'branches' and chandeliers, window glass, plate glass and mirrors, English black-glass bottles and chemical analyses of the glasses. Many footnotes, an extended bibliography, and an index complete the book.
The heart of the book is built up around the important glass and bottle collection from John H Bryan illustrating in full colour one hundred and forty eight (148) items. Many of the objects in the book are of great rarity, importance, and beautifully photographed.
The history of English glass (1650-1775) and the collection is very well researched and written, easy to read and understand, magnificently illustrated by 192 figures such as paintings, engravings, the techniques used for glassmaking and decorating and so on. The chapter on English black-glass bottles illustrates the evolution of English 'wine' bottles from the beginning (c. 1650) up to 1809 with bottles sealed and dated for each decade starting with the famous and extremely rare 'Thomas Bydder /1674/ Thistle Boon' bottle. In order to better understand what the objects meant, the author expands upon the surrounding social, technological, and historical milieu for each object and reevaluates the history of glassmaking in England during the period 1650-1775, lead glass included.
The book is a luxury edition, hardback, attractive dust jacket, made of high quality paper inside, well bound, and excellent printing. The price is very reasonable for its quality. I highly recommend this book, which should be in each library of the serious glass collector.
Willy Van den Bossche
PS: Van den Bossche, author of the definitive book on bottles, 'Antique Glass Bottles: Their History and Evolution', Antique Collectors' Club, 2001, has written a well deserved complementary review on one of only four good books giving a comprehensive overview of Georgian and pre-Georgian glass. The others being, Hartshorne, 1897, Thorpe, 1927 and Charleston, 1984. Although many of the items pictured in this book are beyond the wallet of the average reader, not all are and the detailed history given in this book is just as applicable to more modest glasses.
The collector, John Bryan, had a focused attitude, a deep purse, was not in a hurry, and had good advisors. His interest in this period is deep, including furniture, needlework, brass (not silver) and Delftware, indeed it was the rocketing prices of Delftware in the 1980s that encouraged John Bryan to turn to glass.
John P Smith
Mohn & Kothgasser Transparent-enamelled Biedermeier glass
Paul von Lichtenberg
Hirmer, Munich, 2009, 524 pages, 760 colour plates
ISBN 9783777439952
Such books do not arrive on one's table daily: 524 pages, richly illustrated throughout in colour on heavy gloss paper and weighing almost 3 kilograms, usefully presented in two languages (German and English) where the author has not directly translated but written the English text. And then come the contents!
Between the board covers, the author has illustrated his book profusely with over 760 plates describing 399 enamelled glasses. He gives the background to the artists, their workshops and an introduction to the social and economic upheavals in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and the peace treaties following the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15. Careful research has resulted in many new insights in recognising and identifying authentic Biedermeier glasses.
Two novel peculiarities of this reference book should be noted. For the first, the significance and history of all the glasses mentioned in the text is provided in the form of small format images on the outside columns to the main pictures. For the second, the author works with these miniature pictures in association with enlargements of the most important details such as signatures. Used in parallel with the main text, these references save the reader constantly having to leaf backwards and forwards through the book.
Since Gustav Pazaurek identified 'Kothgasser glass' as a title of luxury - thus making such items more valuable than the best engraved glass - later copies have in the past been frequently and incorrectly attributed to the artist. Glasses from the Saxon workshops of Samuel Mohn were almost as frequently unsigned as those in Vienna by Anton Kothgasser, their attribution relying on their quality and tiny personal marks left by each artist, which are pinpointed and explained in this book for the first time.
There are two primary reasons for the lack of an artist's signature. The distinct division of labour and specialisation, particularly in the Viennese workshops, did not allow for the frequent signing by a single artist. The second reason, possibly for aesthetics, is that there was no suitable position - usually outside the picture itself - for the addition of a signature on the most expensive gilt glasses. The author points out that all signatures or monograms scratched into the glass were later additions by others; with only brush and the coloured enamel at hand why and with what instrument should Kothgasser have started to damage the glass surface?
Paul von Lichtenberg started to collect Biedermeier glass as a schoolboy in 1956. Since 1994 he began to publish books and articles on the subject, holding lectures and organising international exhibitions in Europe. In spite of his long studies, the author confesses not always to having retained the 'total overview' of the enamelling aspect of Biedermeier glass until the publication of the present work. All the more impressive, therefore, is the material he has gathered from countless international museums and private collections, his extensive study of the existing sources as well as the careful analysis of both the old and new literature. The different finely structured motifs are commented on in detail giving us an outstanding overview of the wide range of subjects handled by the artists together with the author's exemplary appreciation of genuine Kothgasser glass. In the Introduction the author shows in detail and argues comprehensively why certain glasses are outright fakes. There are so many popular later representations that have been successfully sold in the past that would otherwise exhaust any one artist's production!
Regarding the exhaustion, with his tongue firmly in cheek, the author demonstrates Kothgasser's humour in certain Ranftbecher (cogwheel-based beakers) showing cleverly painted 'cracks' in the glass. One is at first shocked and then forced to smile when the 'crack' is examined in closer detail. Perhaps he is suggesting that there is nothing perfect in art - however this book seems to be.
Simon Cottle
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