Mid-Century Modern Sculptural Ruby Red Art Glass Vase by Czesław Horbowy for Huta Barbara, Poland, 1970s

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A "Cyntia" vase in ruby and colourless glass, designed by Zbigniew Horbowy for Huta Szkła Artystycznego "Barbara" in Polanica-Zdrój, Poland, … Read more A "Cyntia" vase in ruby and colourless glass, designed by Zbigniew Horbowy for Huta Szkła Artystycznego "Barbara" in Polanica-Zdrój, Poland, 1970s.

The profile is built from four plain elements set one above the other: a flat collar rolled outward at the lip, a short waist drawn in beneath it, a full rounded body, and a straight cylindrical foot. Nothing is cut and nothing is applied — the whole design is the relationship between those four volumes and the colour laid into them.

The colour is the point of the model. A broad band of colourless glass runs diagonally out of the foot, crosses the body and carries on up onto the neck, meeting the red along a soft freehand edge. Where the band crosses, the wall turns transparent and the red lightens towards orange against the light, so the vase reads dense and closed on one side of that line and open and luminous on the other. The band was laid in at the blowing stage and inflated with the rest of the wall, so it falls differently on every piece. Other examples of the model carry the same diagonal band in opal white or cream, which stops the light; here it is clear, and lets it through.

The base has been ground flat and polished by hand, and the concentric rings left by the grinding wheel are still visible across it. The clear band reaches the base and can be read there as a colourless segment cutting across the red, which shows how the two glasses were assembled. The polished base is also the mark of a piece finished in a proper cold shop: the vase was blown on a pontil rod, and the scar left where the rod was broken away has been cut back and polished out rather than fire-polished over or left rough. Moulded glass carries no such scar and needs no such finishing.

Zbigniew Horbowy (1935-2019) took the first glass design diploma awarded in Poland, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław in 1959. He spent fifteen years at the Sudety glassworks, then served as artistic director of Barbara at Polanica-Zdrój from 1974 to 1990, running an experimental studio alongside the production line. He taught at the Wrocław Academy from 1963 and was its rector from 1999 to 2005, and was awarded the Gloria Artis gold medal for services to Polish culture in 2009.

Horbowy is the figure through whom Polish post-war glass is usually read, and his Barbara period is the part of that work now most sought after outside Poland.

Cyntia was produced as a set in several heights, from roughly 15 to 29 cm. This example stands 20 cm high. I have official proof of authenticity such as vintage catalogs,
designer records,
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