PALLME-KÖNIG Art Nouveau vase; Bohemia, ca. 1910.
Iridescent glass. Silver mouthpiece.
No signature.
With punches.
Provenance: Private collection, Spain between 1970-1990.
Measurements: 13,5 cm (height); 9 cm (diameter).
PALLME-KÖNIG Art Nouveau vase, in iridescent blown glass with veined decoration. The vase has silver fittings with English Birmingham punches by the silversmith C. Robathan & Son.
Of the glass produced in the Czechoslovak Art Nouveau period, perhaps the most distinctive, and most frequently imitated by others, is that of the firm of Pallme-König. In 1888, Josef and Theodor Pallme-König founded their glass factory, under the name Elizabethhütte, in honour of their mother. Although this was always the official name, the factory is better known as Pallme-König. Around 1900, Wilhelm Hable, co-owner of the factory, patented the technique that would make them famous, which can be seen in this vase. It is a process for producing glass decorated on its surface in a special way, with glass threads encircling the piece. This technique eventually became known as spun glass, and was in common use in virtually all Bohemian modernist glass factories, such as Loetz or Kralik. The personal trademark of Pallme-König production is based on the maximum exploitation of the possibilities of glass, of its viscosity. Pallme-König pieces are kept in important museums specialising in Art Nouveau, such as the Brohan Museum in Berlin, the Passau Museum in Passau, also in Germany, and the Corning Museum in the United States.