Glass

The many facets of these precious objects are impressively mirrored in the MAKK’s large glassware collection.

Opaque or transparent, uncoloured, iridescent or colourful, with a thread finish, with knobs or with silver or gold inclusions: the entire spectrum of this coveted material is represented in our collection. The historical range is huge, starting with glass objects from antique times and early Islam, followed by Persia and Spain, by medieval and modern bottles, beakers, krautstrünke (cabbage stalk) and roemers (Roman wine glasses) with knobs made of green glass, as well as by magnificent mould-blown glasses from the 16th to the 18th century.

There are delicate Venetian masterpieces made from reticella glass, from colourless glass decorated with white brushed thread, from ice glass, from millefiori and aventurine glass in the form of plain or tooled-stem glasses, foot bowls or covered beakers. Furthermore, there are 16th to 18th century jugs, tankards and goblets with colourful enamel painting from Bohemia, Saxony or Franconia. The panorama of baroque glass art is completed with polished, cut, diamond-etched and diamond point-engraved glasses and with magnificent

Zwischengoldgläser (gold between glass technique) from the 18th century.

Nineteenth and twentieth century European glass manufacture is represented by Gottlob Samuel Mohn’s and Anton Kothgasser’s early 19th century beakers with transparent painting, by Emile Gallé’s or the Daum brothers’ art nouveau glasses from Nancy in France, as well as by glass chandelier fittings by Johann Loetz Witwe from Klostermühle in Bohemia. There is also a comprehensive collection of 20th century studio glasses by renowned artists such as Dale Chihuly, Erwin Eisch, Harvey K. Littleton, Paolo Martinuzzi, Hanns Model or Klaus and Isgard Moje, while Peter Behrens’ early glass designs for the Ehrenfeld glass factory in Cologne presage the variety of today’s glass-based product design.