Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 8. (Budapest, 1984)

VARGA, Vera: Art Nouveau art glasses

13. Vase (ornamental glass), Leó Pantocsek, c. 1870. Blown, iridescent glass. Ht. 30,5 cm. At the beginning of his carreer István Sovánka (1858—1954) — as almost everybody — used the forms and motifs of traditional historism, his baptizing basin, designed for the Millenary Exhibition is the undoubted, unambiguous proof of that. The baptizing basin was made of cased glass, the outer layer is of gold-ruby glass, partially or totally, as the patterns require, acid-etched. At the same period of his activity, Sovánka designed ornamental plates with aoid-etched decoration, based on original photos and drawings. According to the few data we have about him, his finely coloured vases, that obviously show the touch of French Art Nouveau and the influence of Gallé, were made from 1900 to 1914. Decorating his vases, Sovánka used the characteristic floreal motifs of Art Nouveau, e. g. the dandelion flower was one of his favourite decorative subjects. In the collection of our museum, there are two vases by Sovánka, on their surface, there is metallic irization. Sovánka used that technique probable with full knowledge of Leó Pantocsek's invention, the so called „íriszes" (irizing) glass. Leó Pantocsek (1812—1893) succeeded in producing iridescent glass after a long period of experimenting, he wanted to reproduce the metallic irization of the surface corrodation of Roman glasses. (It is probable that he used stannous chlorid in his experiments.) His irizing glasses remind of Tiffany's lustered glasses, but Pantocsek used different technics to achieve an in many respect similar effect. In their shaping the glasses of Pantocsek follow the Roman tradition but some of them seem to be extremely original. It is obvious that the works of Sovánka reflect the efforts of Art Nouveau more characteristically than the art glasses of Leó Panto112