Photograph by Ed Pollard, Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital slr-2010.

Vase

CultureEnglish

Dateca. 1885

MediumBlown and optic-mold blown glass

DimensionsOverall: 6 in. (15.2 cm)
Overall, Rim: 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm)
Base: 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.5472

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 116-5, Case 34

Label TextEnglish Vase, ca. 1885 Blown and optic-molded glass Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.5472 Although it was period of rapid imperial and industrial advancement, Victorian Britain grappled with defining a national style. Manufacturers and designers re-imagined historical styles as part of a design reform. A rediscovery of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Venetian glassmaking techniques took place around the middle of the nineteenth century and greatly influenced the British glass industry. These two vases were made in a Venetian style. They are blown very thinly in a soda-lime formula glass versus the lead formula glass used in cut and engraved items. They have optic molding, hand-tooled stems, and finely blown feet. They are extremely delicate and transparent in appearance. However, the pale green color of the vase on the left and the slightly iridescent surface of the vase on the right would not have occurred in Renaissance glass, indicating that nineteenth-century glassmakers were not limited to exact replicas. Exhibition HistoryLent to VA Museum for LA BELLA MANO, 9/14 to 10/24/82 and listed in their bulletin; returned 12-7-82. "Cheers to Queen Victoria: British Glass from the Chrysler Collection," Waitzer Community Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, September 22, 2010 - March 20, 2011.Published ReferencesWakefield, 19TH CENTURY BRITISH GLASS, pl. 85B; Corning/Smithsonian Exhibition Catalog, VICTORIAN GLASS, 1971, pl. 5, #1.