Marcel Boucher

Marcel Boucher part two

Marcel Boucher

During World War II, when base metals were restricted for war use, Boucher moved the company to Mexico in order to exploit the country's silver supplies. After the war was over, the Mexican operation was sold and Boucher moved back to New York City.

Marcel Boucher

In 1949, Boucher's business partner, Arthur Halberstadt decided to leave the company. Consequently Boucher invited French designer Sandra Semensohn to become his design assistant. Scmensohn left to work for Tiffany & Co. from 1958 to 1961, before returning to Boucher. Later she became his second wife.

The company's work under Boucher and Semensohn in the 1950s followed the more sober trend for elegant, classic-looking pieces resembling fine jewelry. Boucher's standard—both for materials and design—remained high, so these items are also valuable.

Marcel Boucher

Key pieces from this period include buckle motifs; leaf-forms decorated with rhinestones, especially in parurcs; and animal pins. Boucher also designed some plain gilt pieces that are likely to become highly collectible.

Marcel Boucher

His work with cabochon pastes during the 1950s and 1960s is especially fine: he used unusual lozenge-shaped pastes that suggested uncut precious stones, and set them in exquisite metalwork alongside myriad small, faceted rhinestones to create fabulously intricate pieces.

Marcel Boucher

Early pieces were marked "MB"—topped with a Phrygian cap, the symbol of the French Revolution from 1944 onward. This mark can be hard for the untrained eye to identify, as it was very small, so if in doubt contact a reputable dealer.

Marcel Boucher

 A lesser-quality line was marked "Marboux." Later pieces were signed "Marcel Boucher" or "Boucher," with the copyright symbol.




 Additionally, almost all pieces produced from cl945 onwards were marked with a style-inventory number, which can help 

Marcel Boucher

with dating, although consideration should also be given to later production runs.

When Boucher died in 1965, Scmensohn took over the company,

maintaining the quality of the work. In 1972, Boucher et Cie was sold to Dovorn Industries, an American watch manufactory. In 1976 Boucher et Cie. was sold again to the Canadian company D'Orlan, which was run by Maurice Braddcn, who had trained under Boucher himself. Until 2006, when the company closed its doors, D'Orlan produced replicas of Marcel Boucher's designs using his original molds.

Marcel Goupy Glass Review

Marcel Goupy

A multitalented designer in a variety of media, Marcel Goupy created a distinctive series of elaborate enamelled designs for a wide range of decorative tableware and art glass in the Art Deco style 

Marcel Goupy (1886-1954) was primarily a designer rather than a glassworker.


 He studied architecture, sculpture, and interior decoration and was also a talented painter, silversmith, and jeweller. From 1918, Goupy began to design a range of clear glass tableware that included carafes,

jugs, and liqueur and lemonade sets.


 His " attractive clean designs had simple, enamelled decoration, much of which has survived in good condition because it was evenly applied and fused well with the glass.

Goupy s range expanded to include hand-blown vases and bowls, which were often decorated both inside and out. The ^ inner enamelling provided colour or

shading that set off the increasingly stylized motifs on the outside.


 The motifs included such Art Deco standards as leaping deer, repeating patterns, and figural and floral subjects. The vases offered the best surface for decoration and provided scope for complex designs in colours that were typically bright, but harmonious rather than garish.

Many of Goupy's designs were executed by August Heiligenstein (1891-1976). A talented designer in his own right, Heiligenstein was not allowed to sign his work for Goupy. Most Goupy pieces carry an enamelled "M. Goupy" signature.

Michael Powolny

Michael  Powolny

Michael  Powolny

 Is perhaps best known for his figura

Michael  Powolny

earthenware ceramics. From 1913, he also began to work in glass and produced a small range of distinctive and highly stylish pieces in association with the Wiener Werkstatte.

Michael  Powolny

Powolny's first loves were ceramics and sculpture. At the Wiener Keramik studio he founded in 1906 with Berthold Loffler, he designed a specialized range of decorative figural ceramics featuring cherubic, distinctly

 Germanic-looking boys. These small sculptures were made in white earthenware with black detailing and often incorporated stylized flowers and distinctive black chevrons around the base.

The Wiener Keramik studio employed designers from the newly formed Wiener Werkstatte  with whom, from 1907, Powolny developed close professional contacts. He became one of their leading designers, and they began to sell and distribute his glass designs.

Michael  Powolny

From 1913,Michael Powolny produced designs for such leading Austrian glassworks as J. & L. Lobmeyr (est. 

1822) and Loetz Many of these designs were in the style associated with the Wiener Werkstatte, and consisted of blown-cased forms with dramatic contrasting black linear detailing that accentuated the shapes.


 Although first produced about 1914, these stylish linear pieces anticipated the Art Deco style and continued to sell successfully into the 1930s

Blenko

Blenko

Blenko 

William John Blenko's early and lifelong passion for stained glass allowed him to overcome early difficulties and go on to establish a highly successful glassworks that combined technical expertise with shrewd marketing.

Born and trained in Britain, William John Blenko (1854-1933) had three failed attempts at setting up an American glassworks before succeeding in 1922 with Blenko glassworks.




 His expertise had initially been applied to stained glass, but when demand fell in the 1920s, Blenko began to develop a range of brightly coloured domestic glass

Blenko 

. By 1932, Macy's of New York was carrying the Blenko range and by 1935 department stores across the country had followed suit.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Blenko's glassware included vases and bowls in the vibrant range of colours that became the company's trademark and that help to date the glass.



 Most pieces were in one of Blenko's vivid single colours, although some had applied decoration in a second colour. The heat-sensitive Amberina range has graded shades ranging from red to amber.

Three resident designers in particular helped shape Blenko's When Winslow Anderson

joined in 1947, he introduced the softer, more organic forms associated with the Scandinavian style. In 1952, his Bent Decanter was chosen by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of the Good Design exhibition at the Chicago Mart Show. Wayne Husted was designer from 1952 to 1963, and he introduced the range of large, boldy coloured and shaped decanters.




 While Joel Myers - resident designer from 1963 to 1972 - created Blenko's more restrained glass designs: vases and decanters took on the more geometric cylindrical shapes and textured surfaces typical of the 1960s.

Blenko 

Blenko is primarily associated with colour, and it is the more vibrant and dramatic colours that tend to be more popular, together with a combination of interesting shapes and sizes.

BLENKO STAINED GLASS

William John Blenko's expertise as a master colour-maker was originally dedicated to antique stained glass, which he produced using the traditional method of mouth-blown flat panels of coloured "in the pot" stained glass.


The company received several commissions for ecclesiastical stained glass, including the magnificent Rose Window in the National Cathedral at Washington, DC.

Here Joseph Reynolds used Blenko stained glass for his symboldepiction of St John's vision of Heaven, taken from Revelations 4. God is seated on a throne, dressed in a mantle of brilliant gold, surrounded by a rainbow and figures of the Four and Twenty Elders holding golden crowns.

Legras

Legras 

Legras 

The Legras glassworks was a great commercial success. Its early cameo range in the Art Nouveau style catered for the huge market created by the popularity of the glass of Emile Galle and Daum Freres and followed their style of enamelled decoratio

At the turn of the century, the Legras glassworks employed some 150 decorators and well over 1,000 glassworkers.

Legras

 This workforce for the most part concentrated on following prevailing styles rather than initiating them.

One of Legras's more original contributions was a range of acid-etched cameo vases and bowls with an opaque pinky- beige glass body that resembled cornelian. 

The other was the Indiana range, 

which also successfully incorporated acid-etching, cutting, and enamelling. The red enamelled interior surface was used to create the dramatic poppy design.

Legras

 The outer colour casing was removed to allow the red enamel to shine through the transparent glass and create the illusion of depth.

In the 1920s and 30s, when the factory had reopened after World War I with Charles Legras as director, production concentrated on acid-etched Art Deco intaglio designs.

Legras

 Legras also produced a range of vases and lamps with a mottled surface that was then hand painted with enamels.


 Many of the floral and landscape patterns were in the style of pieces by Daum Freres, with similar designs,

Legras

as well as the technique of taking the effect of the design over the lip or rim.

Most pieces are signed "Legras".