Oval Table with Beadwork Top

Oval Table with Beadwork Top.

Possibly Vienna, Circa 1900.

Of irises on a variegated green ground, the frame of stained beech with bentwood rim and beech plywood stretcher. 

This technique of beadwork under glass is known as 'Cloisonné Glass' and was patented in London in 1897 by Theophil Pfister and Emil Barthels.(1) The Cloisonné Glass Company (presumably owned by Pfister and Barthels) of 40 Berners Street /Oxford Street, manufactured screens, windows, furniture and smaller items at the turn of century and was still in production in 1905, when they published a trade catalogue which describes the technique in great detail.(2) See also Dr. Sebastian Strobl's paper entitled, 'Painting with Beads - The work of the London Cloisonné Glass Company', for a description of the technique.(3)

Footnotes

1. Victoria Government Gazette for Oct 15, 1897: Patents No 14561 by Theophil Pfister of 65 Holborne Viaduct London, manufacturer, and Emil Barthels of Mattapoisette, Bedford Park, London, merchant, for 'Improvement of cloisonne work.'Patent Office, Lonsdale St. west, Melbourne E de Verdon, Commissioner for Patents.

2. National Art Library, Cloisonné Glass Company Catalogue, London, 1905 (Pressmark 89.M, Box 1).

3. Forum for the Conservation and Restoration of Stained Glass. Techniques of Stained Glass in the Nineteenth Century in Namur, Belgium, June, 2007. (We are grateful to Jutta Page, Curator of Glass & Decorative Arts at The Toledo Museum of Art, for this reference).

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Price

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance