Pallme-König

PALLME-KÖNIG. Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, ca. 1910.
Art Nouveau inkwell.
Moulded glass with iridescent finish. Metal mouthpiece and lid.
No signature.
Slightly chipped on one side, barely noticeable.
Provenance: Private Spanish collection, formed between 1970 and 1995.
Measurements: 6 cm (height) x 12 cm (diameter).
This Art Nouveau inkwell is made of moulded glass with lobed shapes. It has an organic-looking circular lid made of metal. The body has an iridescent finish, widely used in Central European modernism, characterised by its chromatism, which changes according to the angle of incidence of light on its surface, and by its metallic appearance. This material, the result of intensive technical research carried out in the artistic glass workshops of the second half of the 19th century, is obtained by adding various metallic oxides to the base mass of glass.
Of the glass produced in the Czechoslovak Art Nouveau period, perhaps the most distinctive, and most frequently imitated by others, is that of the firm of Pallme-König. In 1888, Josef and Theodor Pallme-König founded their glass factory, under the name Elizabethhütte, in honour of their mother. Although this was always the official name, the factory is better known as Pallme-König. Around 1900, Wilhelm Hable, co-owner of the factory, patented the technique that would make them famous, which can be seen in this vase. It is a process for producing glass decorated on its surface in a special way, with glass threads encircling the piece. This technique eventually became known as spun glass, and was in common use in virtually all Bohemian modernist glass factories, such as Loetz or Kralik. The personal trademark of Pallme-König production is based on the maximum exploitation of the possibilities of glass. Pallme-König pieces are kept in important museums specialising in Art Nouveau, such as the Brohan Museum in Berlin, the Passau Museum in Passau, also in Germany, and the Corning Museum in the United States.