ca. 1913. Manufacture: Johann Loetz Witwe, Klostermühle (Klášterský Mlýn, Czech Republic) Opal-colored bluish glass
with green overlay and etching. WI 1594 / 1915
Vienna, 1914/15. Manufacture: Meyr’s Neffe or Johann Oertel & Co. for the Wiener Werkstätte (Mod. Nr. A I 516
/ 531 resp. A ja 43) Purple colored cut glass. Gl 3111 / 1972
Jardinière, Part of a “FLOWER SET, OVAL, SCALPED”
Bohemia, 1912. Manufacturer: Urban Janke & Ludwig Heinrich Jungnickel Colorless glass, matte etched, bronzite
decoration. WI 1647-1
CUP
Blottendorf near Haida, Bohemia (Polevsko, Czech Republic), before 1835. Copper ruby staining: Friedrich Egermann;
green glass from the Harrach Glassworks at Neuwelt (Nový Svět, today a district of Harrachov), Bohemia; cut lythaline (imitation
stoneware) glass. Gl 1232 / 1875
CUP
Vienna, ca. 1830. Design and Manufacture: workshop of Anton Kothgasser Curved cup with fluted base, with enamel
decoration and gilding; colored veduta painting in a rectangular, bordered field with inscription: “Place de la Bibliothèque
Imp.le et Roy.le et la Statue Joseph II à Vienne”. Gl 2365 / 1917
CYLINDRICAL GLASS WITH LID
Venice or Imperial Glass Factory, Innsbruck, ca. 1570. White threaded pattern melted into colorless glass. KHM
316/1940
LIDDED COBLET WITH COURT OF ARMS
Bohemia, ca. 1720. Glass, with faceted shaft, gold and ruby threading, face matte and polished, the knob of the
lid continues the gold and ruby threading of the shaft, engraved coat of arms of Duke Christoph Wilhelm von Thürheim the Older(1661–1738),
from 1713 “Captain of the land on the Enns”. Gl 172 / 1867
Oswald Haerdtl: Lidded Box, Drinking Service No. 260 "AMBASSADOR"
Vienna, 1924/25. Manufacturer: Karlsbader Kristallglasfabriken A.G. for J. & L. Lobmeyr Colorless glass. Gl
2432
With unique holdings from between the Middle Ages and the present, the MAK’s Glass Collection is among the world’s
most important collections of its kind. The optically and technically impressive products made from fragile materials bring
to life the hand of the artist and the zeitgeist of the epoch.
The over 7,600 objects of the MAK’s glass collection include outstanding examples of the most important European manufactories’
output and provide an overview of the development of stained glass between the 15th and 19th centuries, as well as of blown
glassware from the 16th century to the present. The collection’s focuses include engraved and cut glass, as well as coat of
arms glasses painted in enamel and Schwarzlot painting from Bohemian and Silesian glass factories, as well as a diverse collection
of 16th-to-18th-century Venetian glass.
A further collection focus lies on medieval stained glass; the MAK’s holdings include works from St. Stephen's Cathedral in
Vienna which number among Austria’s oldest extant stained glass works. The Biedermeier period is documented by a collection
of quality cased glass and hyalith and lithyalin glass, as well as glass works with translucent enamel painting including
examples by the glass painters Sigismund and Samuel Mohn and from the workshop of Anton Kothgasser.
Of particular international significance are the holdings of Art Nouveau glass from Austria. The abundance of fine turn-of-the-century
glass works in the MAK Collection—which aside from those of Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser also include designs by Jutta
Sika, Carl Witzmann and Michael Powolny—is thanks to individuals including Ludwig Lobmeyr, who worked as a curator at the
Museum for Art and Industry (today’s MAK) from 1874.
Even back then, Lobmeyr—along with other merchant-employers from Vienna including E. Bakalowits & Söhne—spearheaded efforts
to further the interests of the glass-working trade. Through numerous donations, above all the gift of ca. 1,000 original
factory drawings of his glass creations from 1824 onward, Lobmeyr made a major contribution to the MAK collection—which today
represents the largest museum collection of glass by the company J. & L. Lobmeyr outside of the manufactory itself. The MAK‘s
glass collection also includes high-quality holdings of Art Nouveau glass objects from the various regions of the former Austro-Hungarian
monarchy, from France and from America.
Furthermore, the glass collection is home to important examples of French glass art from the Art Déco period as well as simply
formed and strongly colored Italian and Scandinavian glass objects from the 1950s and 1960s by Italy’s Venini and Seguso,
Sweden’s Ørrefors and Finland’s ITTALA.
The 21st century is represented above all via objects produced by the company J. & L. Lobmeyr. The tradition of collaborating
with contemporary artists has moved merchant-employer Lobmeyr to continue producing designs by contemporary designers such
as Barbara Ambrosz, Florian Ladstätter, Miki Martinek, Sebastian Menschhorn, and Polka (Marie Rahm and Monica Singer) in Bohemian
production facilities.
Outstanding exhibits from the MAK Glass Collection are on display in the rooms of the MAK Permanent Collection Baroque Rococo Classicism and Renaissance Baroque Rococo, as well as in the MAK DESIGN LAB/thematic area Eating and Drinking, opened in 2014. This area invites visitors to come on an impressive historical journey to discover the different styles
of laying the table throughout the ages, with glass objects ranging from the Middles Ages to the 21st century.
MAK Studies 6 German/English 152 pages, b/w and full colored illustrations 21,5 x 26 cm, softcover MAK, Vienna / Prestel Publishing Ltd., Munich.Berlin.London.New York 2006
With representative holdings of ceramics from Austrian production from the sixteenth century until today, unique groups of
objects such as the legacy of the Wiener Porzellanmanufactur (Vienna Porcelain Manufactory) and the extensive collection of
tiled stoves, hafner ware, and majolica of the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The MAK’s Ceramics Collection is
one of the foremost collections of its type in the world.
