Rare c.1925 Loetz Ausführung 237 Iridescent Art Glass Vase – Bohemian Antique
A striking and highly unusual Bohemian art glass vase attributed to Johann Loetz Witwe, Klostermühle, dating to around 1925, decorated in the documented Ausführung 237 style.
The vase has a wonderfully organic, bulbous form, narrowing through the waist before expanding into a spectacular deeply undulating, hand-formed rim. Its surface is alive with irregularly distributed fragments and trails of red, orange, yellow, green and darker tones, set against a luminous yellow-green/olive ground. The whole surface displays a beautiful iridescent sheen which changes considerably with the angle of the light.
Loetz / Ausführung 237
The attribution is based upon the combination of glass, decoration, colour and form, rather than an applied signature or surviving paper label.
The recognised Loetz reference archive Loetz.com records Ausführung 237 as a circa 1925 décor, describing a jade-green ground — occasionally lemon-yellow — with irregular multicoloured inlays. The archive illustrates a number of examples within this décor group and records several associated production numbers.
The decoration on this vase corresponds particularly closely to the documented Ausführung 237 group, with its unusual combination of a yellow-green ground, dense irregular multicoloured inclusions and highly iridescent surface.
The exact production number of this particular form has not been established with sufficient certainty, so it is offered specifically as Johann Loetz Witwe – Ausführung 237, circa 1925, rather than assigning an unverified production number.
Glass and decoration:
The ground glass is an unusual yellow-green/olive shade, giving the vase a particularly warm and almost autumnal appearance.
Across the body are numerous irregularly shaped coloured glass inclusions, incorporated into the glass during manufacture and worked into the flowing form. The colours include shades of:
Lemon and golden yellow
Orange
Red and reddish brown
Green
Blue/green and darker tones
The extensive iridescence produces striking changes in colour depending upon the lighting and viewing angle.
The combination of the unusual ground colour, richly varied inclusions and exceptionally sculptural rim makes this a particularly dramatic example of early 20th-century Bohemian art glass.
The vase is unsigned. This is not unusual for Loetz glass of the period, and the attribution is based upon comparison of its characteristics with documented examples of the Ausführung 237 décor.
A note for collectors:
An unusual and highly decorative piece of 1920s Bohemian art glass, displaying the characteristic experimental approach to colour, embedded glass decoration and iridescent surfaces for which the Loetz factory is particularly celebrated.
The vase is offered as attributed to Johann Loetz Witwe, Ausführung 237, circa 1925, with the exact production number unidentified.
Physical Specifications:
Height: 13 cm
Rim Diameter: 11 cm across the ruffled rim
Bowl Diameter: 9 cm at the widest part of the body
Weight: 480 g
Notably, the uranium oxide composition within the glass batch allows the entire body of the vase to fluoresce intensely vivid green under standard UV/blacklight illumination.
In exceptionally fine condition with no damage of any kind. A unrepeatable find.