Footnotes

Designed by Girard and Rehländer, from the 'Persian Series'. The design of this vase is very similar to drawings by Georg Rehländer in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna. Rehländer is known for creating Orientalist interiors for his wealthy Viennese clientèle, as well as his monumental architecture. He was one of a number of well-known architects who designed glass for Lobmeyr. Very similar vases, but with calligraphic script around the neck, are in the collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, accession no. 2009.3.10, and have been sold by Sotheby's London, 31 October 2006, The Great Exhibition Sale, lot 595, and by Christie's New York, 26 November 2013, lot 220.

Originally established in Bohemia in 1822/23, the glasshouse of Josef Lobmeyr (1792-1855) produced high quality glass during the second quarter of the 19th century, but also sold the products of different manufacturers. The firm was later entitled J. & L. Lobmeyr and was run principally from 1855 by his two sons Josef and Ludwig. By this time they no longer operated their own glassworks but commissioned glass to their own designs from Haida and elsewhere in Bohemia.

The first major exhibition in which Lobmeyr participated was in London in 1862, where they were awarded a gold medal 'for excellence in the making of crystal glass, tableware, and candelabra'. Ludwig Lobmeyr, who took over the firm after the premature death of his brother Joseph, contacted Rudolf von Eitelberger, the founder of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, during the period of the exhibition. Their objective was the promotion of good taste in design. Ludwig Lobmeyr used the museum's exhibits as inspiration for his glassware and regularly exhibited his new creations at the museum and at the World Fairs.

Lobmeyr was one of the leading glass sellers of the second half of the 19th century, and their new glass took the exhibitions by storm. At the Vienna exhibition of 1873 Lobmeyr was singled out for the highest praise. Lobmeyr continued to exhibit at all the major international fairs throughout the last quarter of the 19th century.