Grand Hotel Union |
Although the principles of glass etching had already been invented in the late 17th century, ornamenting of architectural glass flourished only at the time of Historicism, from the middle of the 19th century onwards. However, it seems that Ljubljana, the provincial capitol of Carniola, a city on the fringes of the great monarchy, right up to the earthquake of 1895, was not richly furnished with this type of decoration.
The Rudolfinum, today's National Museum, erected ten years before the earthquake, is fitted with glass panes with very simple etching, and the motifs are also modest.
The Slovenian Philharmonic, built in 1891, has very high quality etched panes of glass on the portal. They are technologically the most demanding of Ljubljana clear etched glass, since the direct drawing of an acid resistant mask was not used, but the paper transfer of a metal plate engraving was used. This method, which was first mentioned two years earlier in a professional article in the glassworking journal, Sprechsaal, made it possible to produce essentially more precise, thinner lines, which is also apparent on the beautifully designed allegories.
The Opera house from 1893, is undoubtedly the building in Ljubljana most richly furnished with ornamented etched glass, above all in terms of quantity, since motifs are fairly repetitious, and the execution of the etching also has deficiencies.
It is hard to establish whether the etched glass of buildings erected in the years immediately prior to the earthquake was put in at the time of the building's completion, but there is at least no sign that some panes were perhaps broken in the earthquake and later partially supplemented with new ones.
In the period after the earthquake, Ljubljana experienced a fundamental renovation and developed into a modern capital. Immediately after the earthquake, the Provincial Palace was completed, and like the Palace of Justice,was fitted with glass that had etched ornamental borders, with plant and geometric
motifs. A year later, Narodni dom was built, today's National Gallery, with ornamented etched glass of average quality, and in 1903, the construction was completed of the City Savings Bank, Urbanc emporium and Grand Hotel Union.
The last three buildings mentioned were already decorated by etched glass in the spirit of the new times and sezession style. In the Savings Bank, it is more modest, but in the Urbanc emporium, the interior glass display windows, in size, in the excellence of execution and the very beautiful sezession motifs, are undoubtedly among the very peak of Ljubljana etched glass.
Grand Hotel Union, with its panes of etched decoration stands out sufficiently from all other buildings in Ljubljana that it certainly deserves special attention. It is worth mentioning that it was possible at the turn of the century to order decorative etched glass from catalogues and only exceptionally are Ljubljana buildings fitted with etched glass produced especially for them: In the furnishings of Hotel Union, the architect Jozef Vancas, a Czech born in Sarajevo, used a considerable amount of etched glass from catalogues, but for all the important entrances to the street, and for the vestibule of the hotel he ordered glass in Rehwald's workshop in Pilsen in Bohemia, such as Ljubljana had never before seen. The motifs on the panes in the entrance from the street are etched on colourless glass, the motifs in the hotel vestibule and on the central staircase are engraved on flashed glass. The Paris resident painter, Alphonse Mucha, had a powerful influence on Bohemian arts and crafts, and painting, since he was good enough and sufficiently different to have given rise to mass imitiation and copying. Bohemia arts and crafts found in him their model and their orientation, which successfully distinguished it from Austrian art and craft style directions
The two blue-green and two violet panes for Hotel Union with motifs of women, were created in the manner of Mucha, and represent, above all the violet ones, the peak of decorative etched glass on a world scale. A higher level was achieved nowhere, and after the first world war, etching of glass completely died out in central European countries.
Four panes with motifs of women formerly decorated the entrance to the vestibule of Hotel Union, the blue-green were in the windows, and the violet in the swing doors between the vestibule and the restaurant.
The panes on the hotel staircase were produced in the same technique, where on the violet flashed glass were engraved chrysanthenums, woven into typical sezession ornamentation, the upper floor higher imaginary landscapes (one of these panes also has the signature of the workshop), and still higher a slightly different motif of chrysanthenums. The top storey is fitted with modest colourless etched panes. In the passage of the first floor, in the wooden partition wall there were orange flashed glass panes with motives of nasturtiums.
In less important parts of the hotel, simpler etched panes were used, including such as can be found in the catalogue of Herb & Schwab from Vienna. Vancas undoubtedly knew what was available from Bohemian craft workshops, and chose the best that could be obtained.
It is worth mentioning at the end that there was a pair of orange etched glass panes in an American retrospective exhibition of Bohemian/Czech glasswork, produced directly from postcards with allegories of the four seasons which Mucha had produced in Paris. However, the mentioned panes are less completely executed than the violet pair of panes with motifs of women from Grand Hotel Union in Ljubljana.
Ales Lombergar
Glass-etching studio
Ljubljana
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