#MiddleburyCT #Antiques
It’s a Wiener dog from a Wiener workshop! Vienna, Austria, or “Wien” in German, was a major European cultural center. The Wiener Werkstatte may be the most famous Viennese workshop of the 20th century, but it was not the only one.
“Wiener” dogs may not come from Vienna, but this gold-colored letter opener did. It was made by Werkstatte Hagenauer and sold for $813 at a Rago auction. (Kovels.com)
This dachshund-shaped letter opener sold for $813 at a Rago auction. It was made by Werkstatte Hagenauer, which was founded in Vienna by goldsmith Charles Hagenauer in 1898. Like many studios, it was a family business. Hagenauer’s sons became influential art deco designers. The workshop closed in the 1980s. Now there is a museum and shop on its former premises.
Despite their name, Wiener dogs did not originate in Vienna, but in Germany. Officially called dachshunds, the breed has plenty of nicknames based on its long, thin, sausage-like shape.
Q: I have a necklace made of clear faceted beads that I was told were crystal. Does this mean they are cut glass or rock crystal?
A: “Crystal” can be used for both rock crystal and cut glass. Some makers and collectors use the term for any colorless clear glass. To add to the confusion, both rock crystal and glass beads are found in antique and vintage jewelry.
Rock crystal is a clear, colorless quartz stone fashionable in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some 19th-century cut glass was made to resemble rock crystal until about 1860, when colored glass became popular. “Paste” stones, or glass stones that imitate precious gems, were invented around 1730 and have been used in costume jewelry since then. Glass jewelry was especially popular in the early 1900s.
From about 1918 to the 1930s, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) exported glass beads, faceted glass stones and finished jewelry all over the world. The necklaces are often marked “Czechoslovakia” on the clasp.
To tell whether your beads are stone or glass, hold them in your hand. Glass feels about room temperature and will grow warmer as you hold it. Stone is colder to the touch and takes longer to warm up. Natural rock crystal is more valuable than cut glass.
TIP: Your diamond or precious-stone jewelry – antique or modern – should be reappraised every other year for insurance value.
Current Prices
Cut glass vanity jar, diamond cutting, goldtone ormolu bands, round, hinged lid, 1800s, 2 1/2 inches, $110.
Toy M-4 Combat Tank, tin, decals, bump and go action, rotary cannon tower, spinning light, battery operated, box, 12 inches, $275.
Silver American dish, swan form, cut glass liner, marked, Theodore B. Starr, N.Y., c. 1920s, 3 x 5 inches, $410.
Lamp, electric, arts & crafts, patinated copper, four-sided stem, flared out toward bottom, shade with copper frame and four yellow textured slag glass panels, ball and chain pull, 14 inches, $690.
Flag, United States, woven cotton, 36 hand sewn stars, 1865, 71 x 116 inches, $1,560.
Subscribe to the Kovels’ free weekly email newsletter, Kovels Komments, at www.Kovels.com.
© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.
You must be logged in to post a comment.