{"product_id":"hand-cut-cathedral-glass-mosaic-bottle-brass-collar-c-1955-1975","title":"Hand Cut Cathedral Glass Mosaic Bottle, Brass Collar, c. 1955–1975","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Bottle\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA flattened oval glass bottle clad entirely in hand cut stained glass, set in a pale sanded grout. Deep ruby fills both faces. A band of amber runs the full perimeter and carries up over the shoulders, so the piece reads red from the front and gold from the edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThree or four pale mauve tesserae sit in the middle of the red field on each face. They are not accidents. Whoever laid this chose them and placed them at the center, and they catch light differently from everything around them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe neck is finished with a brass collar over the glass, and the bottle closes with a cork stopper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe piece is unmarked, so it has to be read from how it was made, and it turns out to have a good deal to say.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tesserae are cut from sheet glass, not molded or tumbled. The edges show the conchoidal flaking a glass cutter or a mosaic nipper leaves, no two pieces repeat, and where an edge catches the light it runs the faint green of ordinary soda lime sheet seen end on. Several pieces carry visible striations through the body of the glass, the reaming of hand rolled cathedral or semi antique sheet. This is window glass, cut by hand, laid one piece at a time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe grout is a cream colored sanded cement, coarse enough that the aggregate reads at arm's length. It was floated over the whole surface and wiped back, the way a tile setter grouts, rather than buttered behind each piece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe most interesting thing on the object is underneath the glass. The bottle beneath is a molded commercial bottle, and raised lettering runs across it along with a vertical mold seam. Both are visible through the transparent red tesserae. The mosaic covers most of the text and it cannot be read out, but the substrate is a factory bottle that someone took out of circulation and made into something else.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is the whole character of the piece. Glass on glass mosaic ran through American craft from the years after the war into the nineteen seventies, and cladding a bottle was one of the things people did with it. The floor for the dating is the availability of cathedral glass and sanded grout to a home worker, which is the nineteen fifties onward. The ceiling comes from the work itself. Hand nipped cathedral glass and pale cement grout are not what the later import mosaic trade produces, which runs to uniform machine cut tesserae, mirrored and iridized glass, and dark grout. Nothing here points later than the nineteen seventies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1955 to 1975. Dated from the making rather than from a mark. Hand cut cathedral glass and sanded cement grout set the floor in the post war craft period, and the absence of machine cut, mirrored or iridized tesserae argues against the later import trade\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUnmarked. Hand work, laid piece by piece. No workshop or country of origin established\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFlattened oval bottle, mosaic clad on all faces, with a brass collar at the neck and a cork stopper\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterials\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMolded commercial glass bottle, hand cut transparent cathedral glass tesserae in ruby and amber with a few pale mauve, cream sanded cement grout, brass neck collar, cork\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRaised lettering and a vertical mold seam on the bottle beneath, visible through the red glass and mostly covered by the mosaic. Not legible. No maker's mark on the mosaic work\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTo be confirmed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGood. The mosaic is complete with no lost tesserae found and no cracked pieces found. Grout intact with light surface soil in the joints, consistent with age. Brass collar with a soft aged surface. Cork present. Offered as a decorative bottle and not as a vessel for food or drink, because the grout is porous and the interior has not been certified for use\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBacklight is what this object wants. The tesserae are transparent, not opaque tile, so a window sill or a shelf with a lamp behind it turns the whole body into color and the grout lines into a dark lead like web. Away from light it reads as a quiet red and gold form. Those are two different objects and you get both.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe scale suits a mantel, a bar shelf, a bathroom counter or a bookcase, anywhere a small piece can hold a spot of strong color without committing the room to anything.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a dealer or a designer, the appeal is that it is genuinely handmade and reads that way at close range. The pieces are irregular, the border was laid with care, and the mauve accents in the center of each face are a decision rather than a pattern. It is the kind of thing that photographs well, prices approachably, and does not look like anything else on the shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67567069167721,"sku":"VE-1780","price":219.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_74be238b-b14b-4008-a611-efaa2110f783.jpg?v=1790739200","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/hand-cut-cathedral-glass-mosaic-bottle-brass-collar-c-1955-1975","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}