Vienna Werkestatten BIMINI Glass Vase Austria Antiqu (04/01/2011)...

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Vienna Werkestatten BIMINI Glass Vase Austria Antique

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Vienna Werkestatten BIMINI Glass Vase Austria Antique

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Sold Date: 04/01/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Glass

PICTURES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES...

Wonderful Bimini Vase

Viena Werkestatten

Great Shape. A truly Art Work.

This is a very beautiful piece – highly collectable!!!

Please review all pictures and ask questions before buying, this is an “as is” sale…. You won’t easily find such a nice Bimini Vase like this one!

If you want to know more about Bimini Glass, here’s some history about the factory :

Bimini Glass was in existence from 1923 to 1955, and most examples are in museums. In 1923 Fritz Lampl rented a basement, employed an out-of-work industrial glassblower, and invited his brother-in-law, Joseph Berger, to design fantasy shapes and sit beside the glassblower working together to convert the designs into glass. They worked with glass tubes of different diameters and colors, some of them striped. Joseph Berger described their work as follows:
First a mouthpiece was formed and then the man suddenly turned up the burner until the glass grew red hot and pliable, expanding as he blew into it, twisting, reheating, and finally cutting the bubble with a knife to form a foot; a vase had been born. There was great virtuosity in handling such brittle material, like taming an obstinate animal. It had to be married to sensitivity to turn craft into art.
We learned quickly from each other and soon fantastic animals, vases and figures emerged, which the glass blower then multiplied on his own. Fritz soon took my place as the designer and other artists were attracted by the fascinating game.

Joseph and Artur Berger were active in the firm both as designers of actual glass objects, which were then realised by the craftsmen, and also as designers of the Bimini showrooms, display cabinets and even notepaper.
Joseph Berger, who wrote an account of Bimini and Orplid shortly before his death in 1989, maintained that he and his brother acted as a restraint to some of the more kitsch and sentimental aspects of the glass.

Distinguishing features of Bimini, on the whole, were the delicacy of the lamp blown glass and the elegant design. Many of the items featured swirling patterns, either in white or coloured glass, somewhat in the Venetian latticino style.

The success of the firm was considerable, gaining a number of prizes at a Paris exhibition of 1925 and exhibiting throughout Europe and the USA . In Vienna the Bimini showrooms were set up in Stubenring, a fashionable address near the Museum of Arts and Crafts . Their glass became collector’s items and they were very popular.

But Bimini was to be overtaken by world events, and the rise of Nazism in Austria meant that it was no longer safe for Jewish people to live and work there. Joseph Berger emigrated to England in 1936, and Artur Berger moved to Russia where he was to spend the rest of his life, working as an Art Director for Mosfilms. Fritz Lampl stayed in Vienna until 1938, when he joined the queue of alarmed Jews who hoped to emigrate to England . The British interviewers were encouraging craftsmen to emigrate to Britain ; they were not accepting many merchants. Fritz took some samples of Bimini glasses and photos of his wife's model dresses to the interview, and successfully gained a visa for himself and his wife.

Secret Nazi organizations had penetrated Viennese society by this time, and people in Vienna stopped trusting one another. Fritz and Hilde made their preparations to leave in secrecy, and took with them only a few examples of his work. They left so secretly, in fact, that his assistant did not know he was leaving, and arrived for work at the Bimini shop to find that her boss had fled. She was later to donate many examples of Bimini glass to the Applied Arts Museum in Vienna .

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PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING BEFORE BUYING :

The photos speak for themselves and are followed by the most detailed description. We’re not experts, we describe items doing our best. Remember you are buying/bidding on an old or/and used product, wh...