|
|
Petrus Regout was a Maastricht manufacturer of ceramics and owner of the Sphinx glass factory. In 1902 Louis Stella (who owned the Mosa porcelein factory) started the Stella glasswoks, but all four businesses struggled after 1900, so that in 1915 the two glass factories merged to form Kristalunie Maastricht under the director De Neree tot Babberich. Maastricht was the only Dutch competitor for Royal Leerdam and the rivalry between the two factories was to continue until the two businesses were amalgamated in the 1960's. Bomb damage during the war as well as limited resources caused the factory to close during the war but it was rebuilt and returned to production again in 1949. Alhough the Limburg factory was always considered 'second fiddle' to Leerdam , Rozendaal's reputation has continued to grow with collectors, and prices have continued to rise. A complete index of Kristalunie patterns is being constructed on our sister site www.kristalunie.nl |
Maastricht: Glass at a Glance (1917-1961) |
|
After the First World War the Maastricht factory built up a new collection of stemware by known designers and architects, including Jan Eisenloeffel, J.B A. de Meyer, H.G.H. Cuypers, and H. Kannegieter until, in 1928, they decided to place their creative direction fully in the hands of 29 year-old Willem Jacob Rozendaal. The Kristalunie maintained its strong reputation for cut crystal stemware , but they also produced a range of other glass products: in the 1930's they responded to market demand with popular optic vases (such as Mira) and 'half crystal' drinkware (such as Logos and Omar) . They made kitchenalia and hyacinth vases as well as pressed glass flatware. They also responded quickly to changing fashions by producing two collections each year which were launched in catalogues for the twice yearly National Household Fair ('huishoudsjaarbeurs') in Utrecht. Despite these growing responsibilities and reputation Rozendaal's designs were only provided with his etch mark for a short period and though his name appeared in the catalogues of 1929 and 1932, therefter his name disappeared from the catalogues. Following the success of the Jan Eisenloeffel pattern, service designs with a lot of cutting were popular in the 1930's and Kristalunie patterns often incorporate far more detailed cuts than were used at Leerdam. Designs such as Odo, Volutus and Donati often required 100 or more careful cuts in order to reach a perfect result. |
| W.J. Rozendaal (1899-1971) was a designer of woodcuts, prints and stained-glass even before he was recruited in 1928 to become the main designer of the 'Crystal Union' where he tried to develop designs which would compete with Leerdam's best-selling domestic glassware. In 1937 he was appointed Professor at The Kunstacademie Den Haag and is well-known for his designs on ceramics, and wood cuts including 'ex-libris' book-plates and illustrations for children's classics. |
|
|
|
|
Rozendaal, like Copier, worked with tin craquele to create his Manuvaria designs which competed with Leerdam's Vitrica and Sonoor ranges for the upper end of the market. The most successful of his designs was the Coquille fruitbowl (available in silver or gold craquele). but there was also a wider range of items produced in smaller numbers including vases with various decorative effects. He also developed a decor named Mont Blanc (an irregular satine effect and made use of a 'resist' layer to produce a unique and distinctive frosted pattern. During the 1930's he worked for three days each week and produced a huge number of glass designs to provide the Kristalunie with a constantly changing range of products. A new collection was launched twice a year with optic vases, new stemware patterns and a selection of houselhold glass. Pressed glass flatware was a popular choice for the breakfast table, and Rozendaal's Labyrinth pattern became a bestseller. In 1934 The Kristalunie launched a range of new crystal designs under the name 'Antic Stff' and a wider range of hard glass designs with distinctive coloured details in purple, green (turquoise) and gold fumi. In 1938 the Kristalunie made an unexpected nationalistic statement by producing an orange vase to celebrate Queen Beatrix. The simple globular shape was produced in thick crystal which was suitable for a wide variety of standard and experimental cuts and in later years was made from 'hard glass' in various colours. |
|
|
In the post war period designs for cut crystal stemware were simplified and the basic shapes became increasingly interchangeable. The US market was very important to the factory in the reconstruction period and many patterns were given new names which were easier for americans to pronounce. Many of these designs used a small range of blank shapes with a wider range of cut designs which could be applied to any of the shapes. Four basic decanters and five waterjugs were produced in blank crystal and then cut to match the stemware as required. This led to a rather complex naming system which had to be revised a few laters to avoid confusion, although even after this revision many of the names had already been used in the past or were also names in use at the Leerdam factory. Services with similar or simple pattenrs are consequently very difficult to identify with certainty. It has often been suggested that the Maasticht factory was 'copying' Royal Leerdam designs but there is very little evidence for this. Both factories made use of basic techniques, but so did almost all of their foreign competitors, simple cuts such as 'hobnail', flat-rib', 'cross-hatch' and 'pyramid cut' were in almost universal use (factories in Belgium and Germany made use of almost identical cutting styles). In 1941 the Maastricht factory was wound down ' due to circumstances' (including lack of supplies and bomb damage), and existing stocks were sold off. |
|
Rozendaal was much in demand as a book illustrator and supplier of wood cuts. While Copier had increasingly tried to establish glass-design as a legitimate branch of fine arts, Rozendaal was more pragmatic and his glass designs were led by practicality and a sharp eye for commercial appeal of his products. Copier established the Leerdam Glass School in 1940 and (with the Leerdam factory protected by its German owners during the occupation) he subsequently spent much of his non-teaching time making Unica (one-off) items. In contrast, Rozendaal returned to teaching at The Hague Academy of Arts. Until 1939 he continued to design, and supplied drawings to the factory, but most of them were only taken into production in the post war years. As far as we can tell, he did not continue to design glass at all in the post-war period and devoted his non-teaching efforts to print making and graphics.
|
Verboeket - Manuvaria, 1959
