Summary

Bronze glass ewer featuring an enamelled and gilt design of a stork and reeds in an oriental style, attributed to the Harrach glass factory, Neuwelt, northern Bohemia (now Harrachov in the Czech Republic), circa 1880.

Count Harrach of Nový Svet (Neuwelt) presented the largest display of Bohemian glass at the Melbourne International Exhibition. Effusively described in the description of the Austro-Hungary Court, Harrach's display was awarded a First Order of Merit (gold medal).

Glass workshops were established in Harrachov in 1712 by Elias Müller, who had gained permission from the then Count, Alois Raimund von Harrach. The Harrach family acquired the glass works in 1754, and the growth of the glass industry in the region is partly due to the long-standing reputation of the factory's output. Glass blanks manufactured at the Harrach factory were used by a number of the other major Bohemian glass manufacturers and designers in the late nineteenth century.

The orientally inspired art work on this ewer indicates it could well have been decorated by Ludwig Moser, a fellow glass manufactuerer known to have purchased blanks from Harrach, and who was influenced by Islamic and Japanese (Japonisme) decorative styles.

The Harrach glass works were privatised in 1993, and continue today under the name Sklarna Novosad and Syn (Novosad and Sons) Bohemia Harrachov.

Physical Description

Single handled ewer with fluted spout and slightly bulbous body. Lustered finish in very dark green/ black, enamelled in relief in gold, green and brown with an image of a stork among leaves.

More Information