Traveling Beaker Set with Butterflies
Manufacturer: PROBABLY Workshop of Samuel Mohn (German)
Date: about 1825-1835
Dimensions:
H: 4 3/16 in. (10.7 cm); Max Diam: 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm)
Medium: Glass; blown, enameled, gilded, cut, and polished.
Place of Origin: Bohemia
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 2004.14A-F
DescriptionThe set consists of six nesting drinking glasses of colorless glass that are painted in transparent enamels with butterflies and flies. Five of the glasses are of cylindrical form (so-called Walzengläser), while the smallest one has a waisted bell form with a conical foot. They are designed to travel nested together. The band of forget-me-nots and painted insects (butterflies and flies) is typical for the early Biedermeier period. The set has been previously attributed to Russia, but this floral garland already appears on glasses from Warmbrunn, Silesia, in the late 18th century, and continues to be popular into the 1830s. The expert execution of the decoration equals that of the best workshops, such as those of Samuel Mohn in Dresden, and his son S. Gottlob Mohn and Anton Kothgasser, in Vienna. A similar example is attributed to Samuel Mohn in Brigitte Klesse, Glassammlung Helfried Krug, pp. 328-329, no. 381, his sale sold at Sotheby's, 15 November 1982, lot 512. Butterflies are mentioned in Mohn's Preiscourant (see Gustav E. Pazaurek, Gläser der Empire and Biedermeierzeit, 1923, p. 164.) Samuel Mohn advertises in the "Leipziger Intelligenzblatt" of 1811 beakers enameled with specific butterflies, such as the swallowtail (Papilion machaon) of a mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) for 2 Thaler each, and a large, blue-iridescent butterfly for 2 1/2 Thaler. Such glasses have been recorded in the inventory of the kitchen at Terfort Castle near Weimar Germany (Pazaurek, p. 165). A nesting set of five cylindrical beakers with engraved stylized decoration near the rim with fitted leather case is in the Conring Museum of Glass (unpublished).
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In Collection(s)