“Bacchanalia” Vase

Simon Gate, chief designer at Orrefors, was responsible for the company’s shift from using their traditional coloured and smoky glass to the use of high-quality optical glass with its brilliance and clarity. Their high quality wares won prizes at the 1925 Paris exhibition, at which a version of this vase was shown. The subject of the engraved decoration is a procession of dedicated to Bacchus, the God of wine, which was carried out by one of Orrefors’ best engravers, Ernst Åberg. This particular bowl is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Orrefors’ engraved glass from the interwar period.