060622-15/RL-1455

This is a late 19th century art glass tortoise shell vase. The date is most likely late 19th century, circa 1890.

I don’t know the region or maker. During this time period tortoise shell glass was being produced in Germany, England and America (Boston and Sandwich.) This vase is high quality; the pontil is deep, round and polished.

The vase is 7 ¾” high and 4” wide at the lower belly.

The shape is one of spiraling lobes. The mouth flares out from a cylindrical neck, and the rim is round, not flat.

With tortoise shell glass, two colors of brown are trapped between two layers of clear glass, and it forms globs of color. With this vase, the lighter color is honey-amber. The dark brown is almost like congealing blood, or a dark brown red. The two colors are spaced around the vase in vertical columns and streak up the sides of the neck. If you look down into the vase through the mouth, you can see the colors swirl out, vividly, and it is quite beautiful.

There are air bubbles in the glass. I base my conclusion of the vase being circa 1890 on 1) the air bubbles, 2) the shape of the spiraling lobes, and 3) the polished pontil.

The estate had felt protective pads on the bottom, which I removed and cleaned off, but I could not find a signature.