Unmarked | Faceted Cobalt Glass Vase | Art Deco Geometric Style | Central European | c.1920s–1950s

Some objects carry the full weight of a movement without needing a name on the base to prove it.

The geometric faceting of glass as a design language reached its most concentrated expression in the work of Josef Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstätte circle in the 1920s, and the glasshouses of Bohemia — Moser among them — were the workshops that translated those ideas into production. Hoffmann's designs for faceted coloured glass vases, characterised by their angular planes, broad tapering bodies and octagonal rims, became widely influential, and the aesthetic they established was adopted and continued by Bohemian and Czechoslovakian manufacturers throughout the mid-twentieth century. Unmarked pieces in this exact idiom circulate regularly in the European and American antique markets, and the style is well-documented in reference works on Wiener Werkstätte glass and its period successors.

This vase is formed in deep cobalt blue glass and cut on all sides with broad flat facets that divide the body into a series of angular planes meeting at sharp vertical ridges. The form tapers from a wide octagonal rim downward through a broad shouldered body before stepping inward at the lower section, where a second register of shorter, differently angled facets creates a geometric base transition. The result is a compact, weighty object that handles light actively — the cobalt intensifying and darkening as the facets change angle. Viewed from above, the rim presents a clean octagon. Viewed from the side, the body reads as a slightly coffin-shouldered column of cut planes. The glass is heavy for its size, consistent with the dense, high-quality metal associated with Bohemian production of the period.

There are small chips and fleabite nibbles to the rim and base edges, consistent with age and handling. The body retains its full colour saturation and the facet cutting is crisp throughout with no grinding or polishing of damage evident.

Key Details

• Maker: Unmarked
• Style: Art Deco geometric faceted glass, in the manner of Wiener Werkstätte / Hoffmann-influenced Bohemian production
• Material: Faceted cobalt blue glass
• Period: c.1920s–1950s, Central European
• Height: 12cm
• Weight: 327g
• Condition: Good — small chips and fleabites to rim and base edges; body and facets intact

Glass holds colour the way few materials can — this particular blue has been answering to light for the better part of a century, and it has not tired of the conversation.