Flight Into Egypt/St. George and the Dragon

The earliest objects in the exhibition, the bottle-shaped vase and the cup with applied prunts, represent the kind of popular pieces that Eisch designed for his family’s glassworks, the Glashütte Valentin Eisch. The bottle, enameled by Gretel Eisch, depicts religious scenes on the front and back: Saint George and the dragon and the Flight into Egypt. The small cup, covered with prunts, evokes the long heritage of glassworking in the Bavarian forest. The goblet, dated 1968, is a memento of Erwin Eisch’s trip to the United States to see Harvey Littleton and to teach at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It is made of #475 Johns Manville glass marbles, which have a low-temperature melting point. These marbles were commonly use by American studio glass artists at that time.