Graal

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On display

V&A South Kensington
Glass, Room 131

Artist/Maker	Orrefors Glasbruk (manufacturer) Gate, Simon (designer) Bergkvist, Knut (glassmaker) Wollman, Heinrich (engraver (inciser))
Place of origin	Småland (made)

Vase decorated using the "Graal" technique. Dished bowl with stem of three knops which lead to a slightly flaired flat foot. It is hand blown and engraved. It is designed with blue vertical bands of calligraphic patterning.

Object details

Categories	Glass Vases
Object type	Vase
Title	Graal (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques	Graal (Grail) technique glass, hand blown, engraved Glass Hand-Blown Engraved
Brief description	Vase from the "Graal" range, designed by Simon Gate, made by Knut Bergkvist and engraved by Heinrich Wollman at Orrefors glassworks, Sweden, Småland, 1916-18
Physical description	Vase decorated using the "Graal" technique. Dished bowl with stem of three knops which lead to a slightly flaired flat foot. It is hand blown and engraved. It is designed with blue vertical bands of calligraphic patterning.
Dimensions	Height: 26.4cm Maximum width: 26.2cm
Style	20TH CONT
Marks and inscriptions	'SGraal Orrefors 1918 HW KB' incised (Makers's marks)
Gallery label	The 'Graal' technque was developed by Knut Bergvist, with the designers Simon Gate and Edward Hald and first launched in 1916. The first gather of glass is engraved or acid-etched with a pattern and then covered with further layers of glass, some of them coloured. Re-heated, the glass is then blown to the required shape and this process accounts for the 'stretched' appearance of the pattern. This early example is recorded in the photographic archive at Orrefors. It cost Kr.200 when new. The numbers made and the dates are unknown but no other examples have come to light.
Bibliographic references	Orrefors archive, no/684. Burlington Magazine, April, 1994, Opie,J:... Ann-Marie Herlitz-Gezelius. Orrefors: A Swedish Glassplant. Stockholm: Atlantis Publishers, 1984. See pp. 30-31 for the archive photo of c. 1918 showing the Orrefors display including this glass on the left.
Other number	7569 - Glass gallery number
Collection	Ceramics Collection
Accession number	C.363-1993

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Record created	December 13, 1997
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O4488/graal-vase-gate-simon/

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