Kosta Boda Glass

Kosta Boda Glass 

Kosta Boda Glass 

From the 1920s, a succession of highly talented designers turned around Kosta Boda.

the fortunes of the ailing Kosta glassworks and gained international renown for the company, Swedish glass, and Scandinavian design.

Kosta's renaissance began with Elis Bergh (1881-1954), who was the company's art director from 1929. It was given a further boost when designer Vicke Lindstrand (1904-83) joined the company in 1950.

Kosta Boda Glass 

He subsequently produced a huge body of designs, both for art glass and domestic ware


. Lindstrand's heavy, blown, clear- cased pieces came to epitomize the Scandinavian style that enjoyed such success in the 1950s. Shapes tended to be simple and thick walled, with curvilinear organic forms, relying on the clarity and quality of the clear glass and subtle use of colour for effect.



 Internal decoration included spiralled and vertical stripes, threading, and the trapped-air Graal and Ariel techniques  that were initially exclusive to Orrefors and Kosta. Many designs incorporated

patterns of internal bubbles.


 Any obvious distortion or misalignment may mean that the piece was originally a second.

At the same time, the sculptor Erik Hoglund (1932-2001) redefined the image of the Boda glassworks with his radical new designs for blown glass in a collaboration that lasted from 1953 to 1973.

Kosta Boda Glass 

Venini-trained Mona Morales-Schildt (1908-99) joined Kosta in 1958, introducing a southern European influence that showed in her Ventana range of vases with thick, clear casing over colour and optical cutting.

Five years later, Bertil Vallien  1938), who had studied in the United States, joined Afors and created a series of designs - mostly in clear glass - that earned him a place in the pantheon of 20th-century Swedish glass designers.

LINDSTRA The talents of the Swedish designer Vicke Lindstrand were matched only by hismusician - he played the church organ - and had worked as a newspaper editor and book illustrator before turning his talents to designing glass, ceramics, and textiles.  At Orrefors and Kosta, his rich artistic background made tiim equally at home with figurative and abstract esigns, one-off studio pieces, domestic glassware, d sculpture, creating both small-scale pieces and e complex structures for public spaces.

Kosta Boda Glass

Holmegaard Glass

Holmegaard  Glass

Holmegaard  Glass

The story of the Holmegaard glassworks is the story of 20th-century Danish domestic and art glass, which was shaped by a series of talented designers who brought the company international recognitio

With his range of tableware in sober shapes and colours, Jacob Bang (1899-1965) established Holmegaard glass place in the modern glass pantheon in the interwar years. After World War II, that role fell to Per Lutken.

Holmegaard  Glass

During the 1950s, Lutken explored the supremely plastic nature of glass with a range of flowing, organic, free- blown designs, such as the famous series of Beak vases and heart-shaped Minuet vases, mostly in smoky grey, aqua blue, and a range of soft, clear greens. Although he was not a glass technician, Lutken had an intimate understanding of the glass-blower's art and developed several new techniques, such as "self-blowing", pin-blowing, and "swung-out" glass.

Holmegaard  Glass In the 1960s, the Holmegaard designs reflected the trend towards increasingly angular and geometric shapes and the bright colours

associated with Pop Art with such ranges as Liitken's cased and mould-blown Carnaby series. The mass-produced Carnaby shapes varied and became increasingly complex in larger sizes.



The Gullvase series designed in 1962 by Otto Brauer was based on a Lutken design of 1958. However, these vases were made in both transparent and cased (more popular, especially in red) brightly coloured glass and were part of the trend for inexpensive but stylish accessories for modern interiors; this remains their appeal today.

Holmegaard  Glass

Michael Bang (b.1924) continued the popular mass-produced Holmegaard ranges with his Palet tableware series (1968-76). The distinctive mould- blown shapes were made in a base layer of white glass cased in a bright colour, giving the pieces a fashionably bright plastic-like appearance.

PER LUTKEN      Holmegaard  Glass

The name of Per Lutken (1916-98) is virtually synonymous with Danish glass.

 Lutken originally trained as a painter at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen and designed his first piece of art glass for the Danish Handicraft exhibition in Stockholm in 1942. During his 56-year career at Holmegaard he created an extraordinarily broad and inventive range of designs - from one-off sculptural art glass, to mass-produced table and domestic ware - constantly reinventing himself, as well as adapting and discovering new techniques.


 Lutken was a generous and deeply respected designer, and acknowledged the skill of the glassmakers who executed his pieces by recording their names alongside his design sketches.

Railway Memorabilia

Railway    Memorabilia dates back to the start of steam travel in the 1800s In addition to locomotive nameplates and station signs, there are many evocative railway-related items around - and some are quite affordable

Railway    Memorabilia

By the early 20th century, there were more than 100 district railway companies operating in Britain. In 1923 these were amalgamated into four groups: the London, Midland <it Scottish (LMS); London & North- Eastern Railways (LNER); the Southern Railway (SR); and the Great Western Railway (GWR). 



The most popular memorabilia dates from the early 1920s until nationalisation in 1948. The Beeching Report on the British railway network, published in 1963, led to the closure of many lines and stations, yielding more collectables.

Railway    Memorabilia

Popular names

Nameplates, especially those from steam locomotives that operated on mainline routes, are prized. The class of locomotive, condition of the metal plate (often cast iron or brass), and even the name itself affect prices. The record for a nameplate is ,£-54,000, paid in 2002 for 'Sir William A. Stainer FRS'.

 As demand is high and the supply is limited, steam loco nameplates are rarely found for less than £10,000.

Even more recent electric or diesel plates can fetch high prices: a 'Queen Elizabeth I* nameplate from a 1991 Class 91 electric loco can cost £6,000-£7,000.

The numbers game

Locomotives also incorporated number plates ('cab side' and 'smokebox') and works plates. Cab-side plates are valuable, with rare brass examples commanding around ±10,000-15,000 or more. More common examples can cost less than ±1.000. Values have levelled out, so keep an eye on price trends before investing.

Railway    Memorabilia

Smokebox plates are smaller in size and less expensive than cab-side plates, although rarer examples can command high prices: a 1948 plate from the Duchess of Sutherland' is valued at £6000 to £7000.

Totems and trespassers.   Railway  Memorabilia

Railway    Memorabilia

Station signs - known as 'totems' - have increased in value over the past few years. When the railways were nationalised in 1948, British Railways set up a colour-coding system for each region, and this is reflected in the colours of the enamel. For example, the Eastern Region had dark blue totems, and the North Eastern region's totems were orange.

Railway    Memorabilia

 A common Southern Region totem can be bought for less than 300, but a rare North Eastern or Scottish Region example can be worth up to ±3,000.

values are starting to rise..

Station information notices, trackside signs, including Beware of the Trains' 

notices, and signal box name-boards are less expensive, with prices starting at around £50 and rising to more than £2,000 for unusual or pristine pieces. Other collectibles include ticket boxes and the 'key tokens' exchanged by train crews to prevent two trains from travelling in opposite directions on single-track lines.

Light and sound

Rare 19th-century signalling lamps can be worth thousands of pounds, but early 20th-century lamps can sell for about £50

Railway    Memorabilia

 Luxury carriage fittings are sought after, and Pullman table lamps can cost around £1,500- 2,000. Brass whistles can be a good buy: a pair of GWR whistles can cost less than £300.

Printed matter

Railway    Memorabilia

           Railway memorabilia  posters can be pricey, but postcards are more affordable at less than £2, up to around £50. Those showing stations before nationalisation are the most desirable. Vintage timetables are also popular and can cost less than £10. Jigsaws made by Chad Valley for the GWR between 1923 and 1939 are also collected: complete sets can fetch more than £40.

Cameo Glass

 
Cameo Glass

 Cameo Glass

The cameo glass technique was originally developed by gemstone engravers.

Glassmakers adapted it by blowing and fusing together layers of different coloured glass, and then hand cutting, acid etching, or sandblasting away the background layers to create a design that stood proud of the surface.

 Cameo Glass

The Portland vase, a well-known example of early two coloured hand carved cameo techniques, caused a stir when it was shown at the British Museum in 1810.

Later, British glassmakers experimented with hand carved cameo, introducing the use of hydro-frolic acid to etch away some of the background colour, and produce a world leading range of cameo, usually white on coloured background, in neoclassical shapes and with formal designs.

French art Nouveau cameo.

The cameo technique reached new heights in the hands of Emile Galle a pioneer of art Nouveau.

 Cameo Glass

He transformed the formal to colour vases into multi-layered compositions that expressed his spiritual vision of the natural world.

Using combinations of cutting and carving by hand, and wheel and acid etching, he has created organic designs from as many as five layers of coloured glass.

The flora and fauna of his native Lorraine provided inspiration for Galles motifs, often highlighted by gold or silver foil, with further detail added by hand painted enamels or carved are etched designs.

Galle experimented with frosted grounds and mould 

 Cameo Glass

blowing to provide further relief for decoration, especially fruit and flower motifs.

The piece was then hand carved to add detail such as Vining.

Galle cameo was imitated worldwide.

 Cameo Glass

I hope you have found this page on   Cameo Glass to be both informative and helpful, please feel free to peruse my blog for further items on different kinds of glass from around the world.

 Cameo Glass

Happy hunting from the collectibles coach.

Emile Galle

Emile Galle.

Emile Galle   

Initially inspired by historical cameo glass, Emile Galle went on to develop the technique with a unique blend of artistry and technical expertise that made him the supreme master of art Nouveau cameo and the inspiration for many French factories.

Galles rare early cameo vases are masterpieces of precision and manual dexterity.

They were produced using the same techniques that had been used in antiquity, different coloured layers of glass were fused, and the top layer of glass was then hand carved to make the design stand proud.

Emile Galle   

Galle took this basic process several steps further.

He increased the number of colours, sometimes using as many as five.

He eliminated the sharp colours contrasts, preferring to cut away the colours at various levels to create shading, subtle  colour gradations, atmosphere, and prospective.

Foil inclusions, fire polishing, and hammered metal effect technique added extra texture, as did further hand carving of the design, such as leaf vein.

Emile Galle   

From about 1899 Galle began commercial production of art Nouveau cameo, making increasing use of acid etching.

This was employed on Galles standard, are made ranged, cameo pieces, which were consistently high quality but lacked the creative spirit of the pieces uniques that were made either by Galle are one of his master craftsman.

Emile Galle   

After Galles death in 1904, production was streamlined.

The industrial cameo production included large quantities of lamps and vases in simplified shapes and colours.

The majority had two or three players of colour, and the decoration was stencilled on before the peace was acid etched.

Very few had any hand finishing.

Galles furniture design.

Emile Galle   

Galles designs for art Nouveau furniture was inspired and influential as those he created for glass.

Both were informed by his deep love and knowledge of the natural world, his talent for botanical drawing, and his desire to promote naturalism in design.

Emile Galle   

He challenged traditional furniture conventions and construction by treating would as a truly plastic medium, employing curving, organic shapes, such as dragonfly wings, for the basic forms and supports.

Plants, animals, and insects also featured on decorated marquetry, handles, and amounts.

In recent years, there has been an influx of reproduction Galle cameo glass, much of which is work quality.

Emile Galle   

As a rule of thumb if you are thinking about splashing out on one of these fine pieces of glass, I would insist on a written provenance from the seller.

I hope you have found this article on Emile Galle    both informative and helpful, please feel free to peruse my blog for one of my many pages on glass collecting.

Happy hunting from the collectables coach.