Eiselt brothers

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The brothers Hermann Eiselt (* 1895 in Steinschönau ; † 1974 in Wilhelmshaven ) and Paul Eiselt (* 1887 in Steinschönau; † 1961 in Rheinbach ) were Art Nouveau - engravers at the Glass School of Steinschönau.

Life

The brothers Hermann, Paul and Arnold Eiselt come from Steinschönau in the Lusatian Mountains, where glass production and refining have a 700-year-old tradition. Steinschönau itself did not get its own glassworks until 1886 , but this location was already of great importance for glass processing at that time. The Eiselt brothers were trained as engravers at the oldest glass school in Central Europe, which was founded in 1856. Hermann and Paul stayed there until the Second World War and set the trend for the style developed there between 1925 and 1938.

Arnold switched to the glass school in the neighboring community of Haida, which was merged with that of Steinschönau in 1926. He was professor there for seven years and later worked for the world-famous Viennese glass manufacturer J. & L. Lobmeyr . As an employee of this large company, Arnold naturally had to do without his own handwriting.

The glass engraver was also his cousin Josef Eiselt (* 1896 in Steinschönau, † 1975 in Hadamar ), who worked in Haida before the Second World War and after the expulsion took up a teaching position at the glass college in Hadamar.

The political upheavals after the Second World War put an end to the German glass tradition in Steinschönau. The expelled Eiselt brothers settled in Rheinbach , where they resumed their traditional techniques.

plant

The work of the brothers Hermann and Paul is characteristic of Art Nouveau glass art in Steinschönau. They provided colored glasses, foot mugs, bowls and pots - often in amber, wine red or cobalt blue - with gold-plated needle etching in a floral decor, and sometimes they also put tiny white enamel beads on top. The finely elaborated decors are unmistakable and also have a clearly identifying signature that was previously read by experts in auction houses as "Etching Best" (acronym for "Eiselt Steinschönau Brothers"). There was also a circulating - albeit not very credible - theory of a Viennese that “best” should be understood as an abbreviation for “constant” (in the sense of unbreakable). Only recently, the riddle was cleared up through a contact with the daughter-in-law of Hermann's daughter Ursula Eiselt (-Würdemann): The signature can be read as "Etching hest", acronym for "Hermann Eiselt Steinschönau". Auction catalogs have adopted the new reading.

In addition to the signed objects, which can still be regularly acquired at glass auctions and in antiques, there are also unsigned pieces from the period in similar ornaments, which are believed to have come from the workshop. However, it is difficult to provide evidence of such an attribution in individual cases. Unknowledgeable collectors have occasionally been offered unsecured works of this kind at excessive prices as J. & L. Lobmeyr provenance.

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