Presentation Bowl with Lid

Artist Edward Askenberg Swedish

Manufacturer Johansfors Glasbruk Swedish

Date1929

DimensionsH: 13 in. (33 cm); Diam: 11 1/4 in. (28.5 cm)

MediumColorless glass; blown, applied, molded, engraved, cut and polished.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2004.17A

Not on View

Exhibition HistoryBukowskis Modern Spring Sale, Bukowskis Auktioner, Stockholm, Sweden, April 29, 2004, lot 1146.

Toledo Museum of Art, "New Aquisitions in Glass." Oct. 8 - Dec. 26, 2004.

Comparative ReferencesSee also The Brilliance of Swedish Glass, 1918-1939. An alliance of art and industry, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, 1996, title page and cat. No. 70.Label TextEngraved for the Barcelona World’s Fair in 1929, Edward Askenberg’s bowl for the small Johansfors Glassworks exemplifies the term "Swedish Grace." The vessel is divided into three zones, representing a sky with clouds and birds on the lid, crashing waves with cheerfully jumping fish on the bowl, and a seashell-littered, sandy ocean floor on the foot. The inscription on the cover—“Drink to the dawn and the fleeing (night)” (Drick för det gryende/ och de flyende ”)—is probably taken from the 1915 poem Ur Kolvaktarens visor (Charcoal Watcher's Songs) by Daniel Andersson, one of the most popular Swedish poets. Between the years 1905 and 1908, Andersson (1888–1920) was a charcoal burner, and later drew on his experience in several poems. The line expresses the charcoal watcher’s joy observing the new day, but is also a metaphor for the circle of life.