1900s Art Nouveau Bacchus Vase by Karlsbader, Carl Knoll

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This incredibly stunning Art Nouveau Bacchus vase by Carl Knoll, from the Karlsbader Porzellanfabrik (Carlsbad Porcelain Factory), was crafted around … Read more This incredibly stunning Art Nouveau Bacchus vase by Carl Knoll, from the Karlsbader Porzellanfabrik (Carlsbad Porcelain Factory), was crafted around 1905. These vases are extremely difficult to find with only a handful in existence.

This porcelain vase embodies the Art Nouveau style, particularly influenced by the Viennese Secession movement, with its decorative emphasis and flowing lines. The vase features a relief of a woman's face, symbolizing Bacchus, the god of wine, and incorporating related motifs like grapevines.

Carl Knoll founded his porcelain factory in Fischern (now Rybare), near Carlsbad, Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic) in 1848. His sons continued the business after his death, and by 1913, the factory employed over 400 people, producing both utilitarian and decorative porcelain and ceramic ware.

The vase is characterized by its tall, ovoid cylindrical form, tapering slightly at the mouth and base. Hand-painted and stamped with a manufacturer's mark on the underside: a crown over a lozenge containing "Carlsbad" and "MADE IN AUSTRIA".

An excerpt from one of the few previously sold:

BACCHUS VASE by KARLSBADER PORZELLANFABRIK CARL KNOLL (KARLSBAD PORCELAIN FACTORY CARL KNOLL), hand-painted porcelain. The tall ovoid cylindrical form tapering slightly at the mouth and the base, stamped in red on the underside with the manufacturer’s mark: a crown over a lozenge containing the word “Carlsbad” and “MADE IN AUSTRIA” underneath; c. 1905, measuring: 12.5 x 7 The molded face, grape leaves and vine take on a greenish tinge like old moss-covered stone. The golden floral hair adornments, grape clusters and golden rootstock which forms the vase’s lip and handles all create a quality of otherworldliness. Smooth, well-articulated features on this androgynous head accentuate the sensual rather than privilege measured reason. The eyes are open, but the gaze is askance. Nostrils are flared on the long, narrow nose. The mouth opens wide to reveal the tongue and both sets of teeth. The long, flowing locks of hair sweep across the brow and down the sides of the face to join just under the chin in a subtle suggestion of a goat’s chin whiskers. The typical devices associated with Bacchus, the god of wine, such as grape vines and an allusion to a goat, are present. Symbolist in style, the vase, however, is really an allegory where Bacchanalian attributes are attached to a modern morality. The greenish tonality adds a rather ghoulish effect. The eyes and interior of the mouth, with accents in ochre, take on a sickly parlor. This is not so much a face of care-free debauchery, but a bodiless apparition seemingly lost and haunted by unknown and unnamed horrors. About the manufacturer: The town of Fischern (now Rybare), near Carlsbad, Bohemia, in the Karlovy Vary region was a good source of kaolin, a key ingredient for making hard-paste porcelain. See less