Preliminary drawings for Vorbilder für Fabrikanten und Handwerker. Part 2, section 2, sheet 5: Designs for glass containers

For the second plate featuring designs for the collection entitled Vorbilder für Fabrikanten und Handwerker (‘Designs for manufacturers and craftsmen’) (see inv. 37.06-1991), Schinkel created this illustrative drawing of artfully arranged glassware, depicted in the style of a Baroque still life. The lower section is filled with contour drawings of additional examples of glassware, probably intended to help give a better sense of how the designs might be turned into the finished product. The forms of these various vessels mostly derive from Venetian and Netherlandish-German designs from the 16th and 17th century. Glassware made using Venetian thread techniques enjoyed widespread popularity in Prussia, so much so that in 1839 the Association for the Promotion of Trade and Industry offered a prize to incentivize the art industries to develop a manufacturing process that could replicate this long-since forgotten skill.