A pair of ruby glass tea bowls and saucers - image-1
A pair of ruby glass tea bowls and saucers - image-2
A pair of ruby glass tea bowls and saucers - image-1A pair of ruby glass tea bowls and saucers - image-2

Lot 763 Dα

A pair of ruby glass tea bowls and saucers

Auction 1159 - overview Cologne
13.11.2020, 09:30 - Decorative Arts incl. the Renate and Tono Dreßen Collection
Estimate: 1.000 € - 1.500 €
Result: 1.875 € (incl. premium)
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A pair of ruby glass tea bowls and saucers

Tapering bowls on rounded saucers with foliate cut decor. H tea bowls 4.3 and 4.5, D saucers 12 and 10.4 cm.
Central or Southern Germany, late 17th C.

The earliest ruby glass was produced by Johann Kunckel in Potsdam in 1683. However, in his publications on chemistry, Kunckel refers to a doctor in Lübeck named Andreas Cassius who was supposedly the first to make glass in a "beautiful ruby colour". Kunckel regarded his contribution to be in the improvement of the transparency of the glass, which he achieved through "great costs and experiments".
Several years after Kunckel, the manager of the Munich glassworks, Hans Christoph Fidler, also succeeded in producing ruby glass. It is not known if or where the production of this glass took place, but it is understood that Fidler acquired the knowledge of how to produce it in the glassworks of the Duke of Saxony-Lauenburg.

Literature

Cf. v. Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, Rubinglas des ausgehenden 17. und des 18. Jahrhunderts, Mainz 2001, no. 383, a slightly taller pair of tea bowls in the Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden (inv. no. IV 222 and 223).