Transparent amber-colored glass with polychrome enamels and gold; blown, tooled, applied, enameled and gilded. Large footed vase has round body with applied handles which narrows to cylindrical neck opening to a slightly flared rim. Piece is decorated overall with colorful flowers and foliage evenly spread over entire vase all in neo-Persian style. On the neck are Arabic letters in white on a gilded ground, and the foot, neck and rim have bands of gold.

The type of enameled decoration found on this two-handled vase had been used for centuries in the Islamic world. It was first adopted in Austria by Ludwig Lobmeyr (1829–1917), following Philippe-Joseph Brocard (1831–1896) in France. The Viennese company of Joseph and Ludwig Lobmeyr—founded by their father, Joseph Sr., in 1823, and in family hands ever since—was widely recognized for its quality colorless tableware. By introducing Oriental patterns and enamel painting, the firm displayed its penchant for fashionable decorative styles. This vase is probably the largest piece in the “Persian” series, and its attribution to Georg Rehländer is based on closely related design drawings by Rehländer in Vienna’s Museum für Angewandte Kunst. He was one of a number of well-known architects who designed glass for Lobmeyr. Like Johann Machytka (1845–1885) and Franz Schmoranz (1845–1892), who designed Lobmeyr’s “Arabian” series (the Museum has an enameled plate from this series, 2009.3.11), Rehländer excelled in creating interiors in Oriental styles for wealthy Viennese customers, and in making monumental architecture. Orientalism is the name given to the 19th-century European revival of decorative styles that originated in Eastern countries, including those with Islamic and Moorish cultures. Lobmeyr’s glass offered contemporary interpretations of these stylistic influences, and it fueled the fashion for the exotic and the unknown. Although these objects were popular, they were made in small numbers. For more on Lobmeyr, see Waltraud Neuwirth, ed., Schöner als Bergkristall: Glas Legende Ludwig Lobmeyr = Surpassing the Beauty of Rock Crystal: Glass Legend Ludwig Lobmeyr, Vienna: the editor, 1999, p. 358; Waltraud Neuwirth, Orientalisierende Gläser: J. & L. Lobmeyr, v. 1, Vienna: the author, 1981, pp. 79–81; and Robert Schmidt, 100 Jahre österreichische Glaskunst: 1823 Lobmeyr 1923, Vienna: A. Schroll, 1925, fig. 13.