In "ID Challenge 2" I covered a line of vases which appear in the Poschinger case at the Passau Museum, and I provided a picture of where they were located in 2000. As of 2006, they had been moved to case 29:
 1: VASES IN POSCHINGER CASE, PM
I happen to own three pieces from this line: a barber bottle, powder or sugar shaker, and an inkwell, the first one I ever bought. Of course, I paid for it as Loetz!
 2. POSCHINGER . . . OR KRALIK?
This glass family poses an identification problem. I first found the inkwell in Siegfried Wichmann's excellent 1984 book, JUGENDSTIL, ART NOUVEAU: FLORAL AND FUNCTIONAL FORMS, where it is described as Pallme-König (54-55). I immediately recognized it as the one I owned, but in the white/red color combination. This one in Wichmann is similar to this one:
 3. AVC COLLECTION-SIMILAR TO INKWELL IN WICHMANN
In 2006, I found two more inkwells, in clear glass with blue, and in clear glass with green, in the Kralik case at the Passau Museum. and on that same trip I found vases matching mine in the Poschinger case! To make it short, this inkwell could be identified under four different companies. The one above certainly could be PK. But what to do with the others? The determining factor is shape. I recently came across this one on the internet, in a new color combination:
 4. VEINED PURPLE--INT.
So far, we have five different inkwells, identical shapes, four of them threaded (blue, green, purple, brown) and one feathered. However, there are other feathered inkwells in a variety of shapes but all showing red feathering. I want to thank Mary Mcatee and Barbara Bureker, from the Society of Inkwell Collectors, for providing pictures.
 5. MM COLLECTION
 6. BB COLLECTION
Notice that the red feathering comes from under the sides, and seems to cover the bottom. The next one is absolutely stunning, for it shades into blue over opalescent white:
 7. BB COLLECTION
Inkwells 4 and 6 have the same shape. Another shape is found in 2, 4, the two inkwells in the Kralik case at the PM and my own feathered red.
 Now I am ready to formulate a working ID hypothesis:
1. All of the inkwells above were made by the same maker.
2. There are two main decors involved: veining (as I define it, a thick threading fused into the glass or its surface) and feathering.
3. The veining appears in many color variations, the feathering, however, only in red, with that unique bluish variant.
I apologize for having covered material already introduced in "Kralik 3: ID challenge 2" but I am being urged to produce documents and catalogs to prove the veracity of my claims. I have an easy answer: Why? From Wichmann in 1994 to the Passau Museum in 2006, the experts have gone every which way. I myself trusted their expertise and first called these inkwells Pallme-König and then Poschinger, and even Rindskopf. However, no other inkwells have appeared in decors attributed to these three manufacturers, and by now it should be clear that Kralik probably was the period's largest inkwell manufacturer.
UPDATE!!!! I have been looking for definitive proof that all these inkwells are Kralik. and here it is. From the internet, a banded kralik inkwell in the same shape as n. 5 and n. 7.  9. Banded inkwell , front view  10. Banded inkwell, side view. |