Theresienthal Glass Goblets, ca. 1905
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GUEST:
These glasses were from my grandfather. My grandfather was German, and he and my grandmother went to Germany in the early 1900s on vacation, and I was told they brought them back, and they were in my grandparents' family, and then my mother and father had them, and now I have them.
APPRAISER:
Well, that's where they're from. They're from Germany.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
They were made in Bavaria, a part of Germany that was almost on the Czechoslovakian border. The name of the company that produced these glasses was called Theresienthal, and the company was established in 1836 by Franz Steigerwald, and one of the reasons why the company was established is that the king wanted to make glassware in his own country. He didn't like the idea that they were importing glassware from other foreign factories, so he was very supportive of Steigerwald at the time. Now, of course, these were not made in 1836. These were made just around 1900, maybe even 1910, so your timing is absolutely accurate. And these are from the Art Nouveau period of glassmaking. Many of the designs were inspired by artists named Hans Christiansen and Bruno Mauder. This very well could be a Hans Christiansen design. When we see this type of glass, they usually look like flowers. You see these lovely delicate pastel petals.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
They're very stylized, which is typical of an Art Nouveau design, and when you look inside them, it's actually looking at the interior of a flower.
GUEST:
It is.
APPRAISER:
It's very delicate, very, very beautiful. They're hand-blown. You have the stems that are made and then the upper part of the goblet.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And then the enameling is applied afterwards.
GUEST:
After.
APPRAISER:
It's hand-painted with a stencil. So it's very labor-intensive. We don't see many of these as sets. How many do you have?
GUEST:
I have 12 of each.
APPRAISER:
You have 12, okay, that's a lot. It's unusual. For this type of glass, I probably could see a dealer selling them for $400 for the larger goblet, and $300 for the champagne goblet.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
So the entire set would be somewhere close to $8,500.
GUEST:
That, that's absolutely amazing. Oh, that's really great.
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