Goblet with cover

After glass had been refined through cutting and carving at the highest level in Bohemia, Silesia, Brandenburg and other regions in the late 17th and during the 18th century, new approaches emerged towards the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Carved and cut decoration now adorned glasses of a different shape and above all, many new inventions led to impressive results. Bohemian glassworks were leading the way in many of these efforts. An example of innovations practiced at that time are glasses with inserts set into the wall of the bowl as in the example shown here.

With the exception of a few square centimetres, the surface of this covered goblet is engraved and polished. On the front side, a small relief bust made of biscuit porcelain is glazed into an oval panel, i.e. covered by glass on both sides. It depicts a profile portrait of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who held the throne from 1825 to 1848. A silver crown thaler from 1828 could have served as a model for the relief, on which the small beard on the lower lip, which is typical for depictions of Ludwig I, can also be seen.

The Harrach glassworks in Neuwelt on the Bohemian side of the Krkonoše Mountains was founded around 1712 by the family of the Counts of Harrach. In the first half of the 19th century it was one of the leading companies in this important glassworking region and was praised for having produced the best work with glazed inserts around 1830. The porcelain reliefs were ordered from elsewhere, and some of them were imported from far away, for example from Paris. The processing of portraits of Ludwig I. for the period from 1830 to 1833 has been proven. Pieces with this kind of decoration, made of highest quality glass and additionally cut, were considered luxury objects at the time of their creation. They were probably used exclusively for representational purposes.