Rock Crystal Bowl
Artist: Josef Hoffmann (Austrian, 1870-1956)
Date: about 1905
Dimensions:
H: 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm); L: 11 1/8 in. (28.2 cm); W: 7 1/2 in. (19 cm)
Medium: Rock crystal bowl, carved. cut, and polished; chased silver mount
Classification: Metalwork
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1980.9
Label Text:For millennia, glassmakers have aimed to imitate the appearance of naturally occurring rock crystal, the clear and colorless variety of quartz prized since antiquity for its transparency. The most precious rock crystal vessels were large in scale and flawless, without quartz’s more characteristic striations and mineral inclusions. In the early 20th century, craftsmen and designers like Josef Hoffmann recognized the naturally occurring internal lines and bands of the mineral as inherently beautiful and more expressive of nature than the flawless specimens preferred earlier.
On view
In Collection(s)