Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Bottle and stopper, glass; set on a flat oval base, straight sides with rounded edges and widening on either side towards the flattened shoulder, cylindrical neck flaring slightly to the lip, with four acid etched rectangular shapes below the lip; spherical stopper with a flattened underside to rest on the lip; thick walled clear glass encasing an inner layer of specks of mossy green and black with a few small bubbles, extending only to the base of the neck.

Maurice Marinot was a pioneer in the development of glass as a studio art form. He began his career as a painter, one of the Fauves (‘Wild Beasts’) of French art, whose bold use of pure colour earned them the nickname. Marinot made unique pieces, created using hand-methods and without the use of moulds. Using the full range of glassmaking skills, he blew and worked the hot glass, acid-etched and wheel-cut it when cold. He encased coloured glass within clear glass like geological strata. He created the effect of cracked ice by plunging hot glass into cold water, or a suggestion of moving water through the careful control of air bubbles.