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Commemorative Pokal Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 1962 Toledo Glass Workshops and Fritz Dreisbach's 30 Years of Working with Glass
Commemorative Pokal Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 1962 Toledo Glass Workshops and Fritz Dreisbach's 30 Years of Working with Glass

Commemorative Pokal Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 1962 Toledo Glass Workshops and Fritz Dreisbach's 30 Years of Working with Glass

Object NameGoblet
Artist Fritz Dreisbach (American, b. 1941)
Assistant Lark Dalton
Studio Pilchuck Glass School
Made FromNon-lead glass, polymer
Date1993
TechniqueBlown, applied decoration, cut, engraved
SizeOverall H: 54.8 cm; Rim Diam: 16.2 cm
Accession Number93.4.26
Credit Line8th Rakow Commission, purchased with funds from the Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Endowment Fund
Curatorial Area(s)
Exhibitions
Decades in Glass: The 60's
Interpretive Notes
A studio glass pioneer, Fritz Dreisbach is an influential teacher, artist, and historian. He has spent his career teaching and demonstrating glassblowing across the United States and around the world. Dreisbach has also devoted much of his time to documenting the American Studio Glass movement's early years. The images and inscriptions on this Pokal chronicle important names and events in the history of American studio glass. This Pokal was inspired by the large toasting vessels made in Germany from the 17th to mid-19th centuries. These vessels were often decorated with elaborate motifs and inscriptions. Like its precursors, the Dreisbach Pokal has both Hochschnitt (relief) and Tiefschnitt (intaglio) engraving. Images include the American eagle holding a blowpipe, jacks, ladle, and shears in its talons; the hot shop at the Pilchuck Glass School; and Dominick Labino's furnace for melting glass. The applied and carved colorless snake wrap on the stem symbolizes the ancient Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio. The inscriptions mention the seminal 1962 Toledo Glass Workshops at The Toledo Museum of Art, the first important studio glass exhibitions, influential artists in the early days, and university and summer glass programs across the United States.
Place Made
United States, WA, Lopez Island; United States, WA, Seattle
Physical DescriptionGoblet, "Commemorative Pokal Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the 1962 Toledo Glass Workshops and Fritz Dreisbach's 30 Years of Working with Glass". Colorless, cobalt blue, manganese purple non-lead glass; some "Bondo" polymer on inside of joint for cushioning; blown with hot applications, hochschnitt (ribbon and map in relief), tiefschnitt (intaglio eagle) engraving and carving, diamond wheels and burrs, alumina and silica carbide wheels, polished with cerium oxide, pumice, wooden wheels, felt and horsehair wheels, some engraving with flexible shaft, some diamond stylus stippling and scratching, "matting" of map was done with a blend of diamond and cereum grits. Large amethyst goblet in two parts (bowl, hollow stem/foot), with overall engraving and carving (polished and unpolished); deep ovoid bowl with fire polished lipless rim; directly below rim is band of cut decoration of alternating large polished prunties and non-repeating pattern of lines and smaller prunties; bowl tapers sharply towards solid colorless ground shank that fits into hollow baluster-shaped stem with hollow conical foot; stem decorated with applied colorless decoration including ruffled and crimped wrap at top, two semi-symmetrical multiple-looped handles on upper half of stem, lower half of stem wound with snake in high relief with facet-carving to resemble scales, forked tongue, below head are shallow carved concentric circles. The decoration of the bowl is divided into four quadrants.
Provenance
Provenance information not currently available online. Please check back in the coming weeks.
Object copyright© Fritz Dreisbach
plate
Anthony L. Pope
about 1956
stand
T. G. Hawkes & Company
1900-1950
graver
T. G. Hawkes & Company
1900-1950
GV-3
about 1830
vase
about 1825-1875
fragment
probably 200-399