View glass
The Biedermeier glasses and tumblers with incised views of cities and landscapes that the spa guests brought with them as souvenirs at that time are called ` ` sight glasses '' . They are also called "bath glasses" or "bath cups".
Origin and motives
The tradition of viewing glass began with glass painting . The first vedute from Dresden is known from the house painter Samuel Mohn , who was originally a porcelain painter . The Viennese Anton Kothgasser , who worked with transparent enamel paints between 1815 and approx. 1830 , also depicted motifs from his homeland on glasses and mugs. Glasses signed by these two artists can be found in numerous museums and have become very rare.
Around 1830 the idea of depicting city views on glasses was transferred to the large Bohemian health spas Karlsbad , Marienbad and Franzensbad . Now the views were no longer painted, but cut. Most of the time, the recessed parts of the glass are colored ruby red, amber yellow or blue (less often green) by staining or glazing, which makes the view more clearly visible. Another technique was the overlay decoration , in which an upper - colored - layer was sanded out.
Between 1840 and 1850 a brisk production of this type began in Bohemia; Bohemian and Silesian landscapes are mainly represented. From here the sight glass spread throughout Germany; Views of Dresden and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, castles and cities in the Rhineland, Wiesbaden and the health resorts in the Taunus are often shown.
Glasses with an additional motto or a date sometimes only emerged in the second half of the 19th century. However, it can also be a later addition of a real Biedermeier glass (before 1850). This variant is also known as a friendship glass.
The spa guests bought these glasses and mugs as souvenirs when they were made. Today they are popular with collectors and are available in antique shops and at glass auctions.
literature
- Hertha Wellensiek: Antiques in the picture. A guide for collectors and enthusiasts. Keyser, Munich 1969
- Claudia Horbas, Renate Möller: Glass. From the baroque to the present. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich et al. 1998, ISBN 3-422-06214-9 .
