Pair of Bohemian Art Nouveau Iridescent Glass Vases, Loetz Style, Gilt Botanical Decoration, c.1890

Someone in Bohemia around 1890 decided that a vase should look like it was made from captured moonlight. They were not wrong. These two hand-blown glass vases have the characteristic iridescent finish of the great Bohemian glasshouses of the Art Nouveau period — a soft, shifting shimmer of pearl, rose, and gold that changes with every movement of the light. The style is closely associated with Loetz Witwe of Klášterský Mlýn, whose iridescent glass defined the aesthetic of an era.

The form is pure fin-de-siècle theatre: a teardrop body on a circular foot, a slender neck wrapped in a coiled glass rope that spirals upward like a climbing vine, and a wide flared trumpet mouth. The body of each vase is painted with delicate gilt botanical decoration in the Art Nouveau manner — trailing foliage, hanging seed pods, and fine grasses rendered with extraordinary precision. The whole thing glows rather than shines, which is exactly the point.

Both vases have a small flea bite chip to the rim — entirely consistent with 135 years of existence and utterly irrelevant to their beauty. They are sold as a pair and belong together.

• Bohemian hand-blown iridescent glass, Art Nouveau, c.1890
• Loetz style — characteristic pearl-rose-gold iridescent finish
• Coiled glass rope stem, flared trumpet mouth, circular foot
• Gilt botanical decoration: trailing foliage, seed pods, fine grasses
• Minor flea bite chip to rim of each vase — consistent with age
• Sold as a pair
• 17.5 cm high, 146 g each (292 g total)
• Bohemia (Czech Republic), c.1890

WARNING: Once you place these on a surface near a window, you will spend an unreasonable amount of time watching the light move across them. Maison de L'oro accepts no responsibility for any lost productivity that may result.