Vase, c. 1900

From 1898, Koloman Moser (1868–1918) started to explore not only ceramics but also glass as a material for his works. A teacher at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, he established close ties with external manufacturers and producers to execute his own designs as well as those of his students. The chandelier manufactory E. Bakalowits Söhne, with whom Moser would collaborate closely, had their designs executed by the major glass foundries in Bohemia at the time, including Johann Lötz Witwe and Meyr’s Neffe. While Moser’s early glass receptacles, created between 1898 and 1900, frequently boast flowing, rounded and at times even vegetal forms, and often feature a highly colorful decor, he worked with rather simple basic forms from 1901. The reduced design vocabulary went hand in hand with a more muted coloring, the polychromatism giving way to distinct color accents.

MTh, 2021