Art Nouveau Glass Set Of 3 Vases By Wilhelm Steigerwald

Wilhelm Steigerwald crystal factory.
Three-piece toiletry set comprising a triangular section bottle and two quadrangular section bottles in opaline glass, with gold enameled decoration of friezes of waves and concentric spirals enhanced with green glass cabochons in relief.
Germany, Wilhelm Steigerwald Crystal Factory. Art Nouveau period
.
Height: 14.5 cm (large) Height: 8 cm (small)
Wilhelm Steigerwald (1804 – 1869) was a Czech-German industrialist.
In 1832 he was a glass merchant in Haida, northern Bohemia, at the Kinsky Palace, with Friedrich Egermann.
In 1836, he and his brother Franz Steigerwald began construction of the Theresienthal glassworks in the Bavarian Forest.
On July 1, 1837, he joined the company as a co-shareholder and in 1839 moved to Theresienthal, where he served as technical director of the factory and obtained a five-year privilege from the Bavarian government for the golden ruby glass he produced in 1840.
In December 1842, after disputes with shareholders, he resigned as director.
In 1844 he rented the Schachtenbach glassworks in the Rabenstein glass estate and operated it from April 23, 1844.
He obtained inheritance rights for the regenhütte, which also belongs to the Kiesling estate, in 1847 after the extinction of the von Kiesling family.
In 1849, King Max II and his wife visited him, then in 1853, Prince Luitpold, future prince regent.
In 1855, Wilhelm Steigerwald was the only German manufacturer to receive a gold medal in Paris.
Under his leadership, Schachtenbach had achieved a leading position among Bavarian Forest glassworks.
On March 30, 1859, the rental contract with the Spiegelglasfabrik Fischer/Ziegler in Erlangen ended and Steigerwald became heir.
At the request of the state forestry administration, he conducted negotiations on the transfer of the hut from Schachtenbach to Regenhütte and, after the conclusion of the contract on September 22, 1863, began the construction of a new glassworks in Regenhütte, the building of which still stands today.
The Schachtenbach glassworks was abandoned, almost all the inhabitants moved to Regenhütte.
Steigerwald himself also moved to Regenhütte in 1865.
Wilhelm Steigerwald was married to Henriette Reinhold, originally from Zweibrücken, who died three years after him.
Their children were their daughter Louise (1832-1840), their son Oskar (1837-1840), their son Wilhelm Jr.
(March 17, 1843-1880) and the glass artist Henriette [later von Poschinger] (December 1, 1845-1903).
Henriette Steigerwald was therefore not only the daughter of the owner of the estate and the glassworks Wilhelm Steigerwald and Henrice Reinhold, but also the niece of Franz Steigerwald, founder of the Theresienthal glassworks in 1836.
In 1863, Henriette Steigerwald married the son of Johann Michael (II) von Poschinger, Bavarian royal trade advisor Johann Michael III, in Zwiesel.
Ritter and Edler von Poschinger (1834-1908), landowner and now, following the death of his father in a stagecoach accident, also owner of the Theresienthal glassworks.
Henriette Poschinger, née Steigerwald, was a distinguished student of the famous painter Franz von Lenbach (1836-1904).
For several decades, she worked in her glassworks as a designer of trophies and römers/roemers/rummers.
During the era of historicism, she also copied glass from the Bavarian and Germanic National Museum in order to create modern glass using ancient techniques.
Her two grandsons, Egon von Poschinger (1894-1977) and Hans von Poschinger (1892-1951), inherited the artistic talent of their grandmother Henriette and became renowned painters.