Wine Glass, c. 1907

Quite in line with the goal of artistic embellishment of all areas of human life, the Viennese architect and artisan Otto Prutscher (1880–1949) created delicate objects of glass art, for example, long-stemmed sherry and champaign glasses as well as artful vessels for wine and liqueur in all shades of color. The fragile drinking glasses—also called stalk glasses—were designed by Prutscher from 1907 for the Bakalowits glass company and were produced by the Bohemian manufactory of Meyr’s Neffe. They were made of colorless crystal glass which was overlaid with differently colored glass and then cut, with shape and decoration always informed by an austere geometric pattern. Tulip shapes and overly long stems give the mouth-blown vessels their special elegance.

Text Leopold Museum