A Little Box Named After the Roman Goddess of Fire

 

QUESTION: A few months ago, I was out antiquing and came across several little silver boxes in an antique shop. They didn’t seem to have an obvious use, as they were too small to fit much in. The owner of the shop told me they were vesta cases and that they used to hold matches back in the 19th century. One had been decorated in repousse while the other two were rather plain. What can you tell me about these little boxes? Are they worth collecting?

ANSWER: Vesta cases were small portable boxes, made from precious and non-precious metals,  used to keep matches dry and to prevent them from igniting. Usually the base of the vesta case had a serrated edge, known as the striker. The user dragged the matches, called vestas, across the striker to ignite them. And, yes, they’re highly collectible.

Vesta cases first appeared in 1832 when an Englishman named William Newton patented a match he called the wax “vesta.” The vesta, also called a “strike anywhere match,” had a tip of phosphorus and a wax stem over cotton threads. As the name suggests, these matches would ignite when struck on different surfaces, making them prone to accidental combustion. So they needed to be enclosed in a metal case. 

Named for Vesta, the Roman goddess of fire, home, hearth and family, vesta cases often depicted her as the fire in her temple. In the United States, vesta cases became known as match safes because they kept matches safe in a non-flammable case. 

Before the invention of safety matches, matches were often struck on rough surfaces, but they were also highly susceptible to moisture. Vesta cases protected matches from both dampness and damage.

There were three main types of vesta cases—portable pocket vestas, table or mounted vestas, and “go to bed” vestas. Men often hung a pocket vesta from their watch fob chain. People kept a larger table vestas near fireplaces around their homes, as well as by the kitchen stove. And they used a “go to bed” vesta, attached to a chamberstick, to light their way to their bedroom at night. .

Manufacturers made vesta cases from a variety of materials, including silver, brass, tin, gunmetal, nickel silver,  ivory, bone, tortoiseshell, gold, pewter, and enamel. The more unusual materials included leather, wood, horn, and ceramics for table vestas. Wealthy individuals often commissioned custom cases with intricate designs, engravings, or even gemstone embellishments, transforming a practical item into a work of art.

Although most manufacturers produced vesta cases of less expensive materials, most often brass or nickel silver, thus making them more affordable, sterling silver was perhaps the most common material, especially in England. Wealthier users often carried vestas made of  gold or decorated with enamel. More expensive vestas often had a gold wash interior to prevent corrosion by the chemically active match heads.

Silver vesta cases, often hallmarked and intricately engraved, featured repoussé work, , adding texture and visual interest. People could also purchase enameled vesta cases,  adorned with miniature paintings, floral motifs, or whimsical scenes.

Besides being rectangular, vesta cases came in many different shapes and decorations. As well as plain and decorated square, oblong and round cases, many came in novelty shapes. Silver, brass, or white metal pigs with hinged heads were popular, as were vesta cases in the form of Mr Punch, hearts, skulls, books, musical instruments, owls, boots and shoes, bottles, suitcases, birds, ladies' legs, and so on. Sporting decorations were also common, especially for golf and cricket, as were hunting scenes and armorial decorations.

Jewelers often engraved decorations into metal vestas, with floreate patterns the most common, though they sometimes used other techniques, including repoussé and chasing, guilloché, engine turning, cloisonné, cold-painting, enameling and niello for more expensive cases.

Wealthier people commissioned or purchased hallmarked gold or silver vesta cases which a jeweler would often personalize by inscribing their initials in a cartouche on the front. 

As well as being status symbols, vesta case were an excellent form of advertising.  Prestigious companies engaged master silversmiths to craft vesta cases from precious metals to promote their famous brands.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, manufacturers created vesta cases to celebrate special events such as commemorating Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Anniversary or promoting companies, serving as a form of advertising. Vesta cases also promoted  cigar and tobacco brands, as well as commemorated moments in history. Many vesta cases were miniature works of art, with beautiful craftsmanship. 

Manufacturers worldwide, including those in the United Kingdom, in the U.S.A., continental Europe, Japan and Australia, produced vesta cases. Noted English goldsmiths such as Charles Murat, Asprey, Mappin & Webb, and William Neale & Sons and Sampson Mordan, also crafted sterling silver vesta cases for discerning clients.

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It's All About the Patterns

 

QUESTION: When I was a little girl, I used to sleep over at my grandmother’s house. While there, I used to stand in front of her china cabinet looking at all the beautiful china. Each piece had some sort of scene, usually a landscape with people. Most of the dishes were blue but some were pink and one or two were lavender. After my grandmother passed, I got her china collection. I just love it but don’t know much as these beautiful pieces. The name Spode is either stamped or impressed on the bottom of most of the pieces. Can you tell me who made them and where they got the ideas for the scenes on them?

ANSWER: What your grandmother collected and you now have is Spode china. All those with scenes and borders are what’s known as transferware, a technique for transferring prints to pottery.

During the early years of the 18th century, Spode achieved success because of  his mastery of transfer printing.  An Irish engraver named Brooks invented the process. It involved first, engraving a copper plate, then inking it and applying to it to thin tissue paper. The impression on the paper could then be transferred to wares of any shape.

Spode produced a variety of pottery wares, often imitating those of Wedgwood, including creamwares, basalts, stonewares, redwares, Jasperwares, and of course blue-printed pearlwares and early experimental porcelains.

In 1784, Spode began printing under the final glaze in blue on earthenware. He copied the early patterns from Chinese porcelain imported wares. By that time, London customers who had originally purchased Chinese porcelain dishes needed replacements. The engraver Thomas Lucas brought with him to Spode’s pottery the knowledge of designs from his previous employer, Thomas Turner at Caughley. 

Most of the early blue transfer-printed patterns were Chinese in style.  As Spode's production advanced and its customers' tastes evolved, the variety of patterns grew. Interest in Chinoiserie patterns later gave way to patterns that depicted rural scenes, exotic places, literary themes, as well as floral and botanical examples.

The earliest pattern produced by Spode around1790, was “Willow,” now known as “Blue Willow,” printed examples of the Willow pattern, commissioned by Josiah Spode and made around 1790, and its copperplate, engraved for Spode by Thomas Minton. 

In June 1805, there appeared the first of 20 monthly issues of a publication called Oriental Held Sports, Wild Spurts of the East, published by Edward Orme of Bond Street, London.  Each issue included a printed story and two large aquatint prints engraved from drawings by Samuel Howitt, a distinguished animal painter. Spode adapted the prints to his dinnerware depicting various hunting scenes with animals and birds. Some views show mounted hunters carrying spears with native bearers on foot. The ’Indian Sporting’ series alone had 21 different hunting scenes.

Another popular series formed a travelogue of views in the Eastern Mediterranean. Spode based these on engravings in Mayer's Views in Asia Minor, Mainly in Caramania, published in 1803. "The Castle of Boudron;" The City of Corinth" and “Antique Fragments at Lissimo” were all part of this series. 

From around 1800, most of the patterns painted by Spode's artists were recorded in Pattern books.  These books contained watercolor paintings of tens of thousands of patterns made from about 1800 up to the end of production. Many are beautiful works of art in their own right, but they also acted as a historic document of changing design styles over two centuries. Georgian simplicity, Regency opulence, Victorian Naturalism, sentimentality, Pre-Raphaelite styles, Japanese Revival, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, and 1950s Modernism.

Spode introduced his more famous pattern, “Blue Italian,” around 1816. It became immediately popular and remained a best seller. Over the years, the company produced it on a wide variety of earthenware shapes. One Spode catalog from the 1920s and 1930s records over 700 different shapes available. 

Unlike many of the other classical scene patterns on Spode wares of the early 19th century, the origin of the view for the Italian pattern isn’t certain. Some experts believe Italian artist G.P. Pannini, well known for his painting style, inspired pictures of ruins and quiet pastoral Italian scenery fpor Spode pieces. The Spode engravers derived many of their pictorial subjects from scenes which had appeared as prints. Publications of prints of scenes associated with the Grand Tour became the inspiration for many patterns. Merigot's Views Of Rome and Its Vicinity, published in 1798, was the source for several Spode patterns, including Tower and Castle, but experts agree that none of these views inspired the Italian pattern.

Furthermore, there is no one location in Italy that seems to correspond to all the features included in the original “Blue Italian” scene. It seems to be a composition made up of several elements. The ruin on the left, although architecturally incorrect, might have been based on the Great Bath at Tivoli, near Rome. The row of houses along the left bank of the river is similar to those of the Latium area near Umbria, north of Rome. The castle in the distance is of a type which occurs only in Northern Italy in the regions of Piedmont and Lombardy.

Could it be that a traveling artist from Northern Europe made sketches of the scenes he encountered as he made his way through Italy? Upon returning home, did he combine his sketches into an attractive scene which, later, Spode used and chose to call the Italian Pattern? Unfortunately, there is no proof of this. The inspiration for the Italian scene may have even come from a print of a painting and then another painting taken from the print by a different artist.

In the early 19th century, most of the pieces Spode produced in the “Blue Italian” pattern were on dinnerware items used by the rich---asparagus servers, huge meat dishes, enormous soup tureens with ladles, cruet sets, foot baths, and more. Wealthy households set their dinner tables with Spode’s Italian. And there were many variations of the pattern. 

“Blue Italian” was an immediate success from its introduction. Though it’s impossible to say what created this strong appeal, it’s perhaps due to the unique combination of a classical scene with a Chinese border which had been directly copied from pieces of Chinese export porcelain, dating from around 1785.

By 1822, Spode had developed other colors, in addition to blue, that could withstand high-temperature firing.  The production of these additional printed colors enabled Spode to expand his line of wares.  While not nearly as popular as Spode's various blues, these new colors included green, brown, manganese purple, Payne's grey, and black.  

Soon afterwards,  in 1824, two-color underglaze printing began.  Spode also employed other methods to add color.  One method was to transfer print outline patterns and then paint in or between the lines of the pattern in other colors. Other methods included enameling with additional colors and gilded decoration over the glaze to further expand the variety of offerings.  Near the end of the early Spode period, the pottery also began producing wares in pink.

Spode introduced about 150 patterns a year.  By 1833 Spode, they numbered nearly 4,000. Most Spode wares bear a pattern number, as well as the name Spode printed, painted, or impressed on the bottom or reverse side.

Some Spode collectors collect just the “Blue Italian” pattern while others specialize in collecting only the oldest pieces dating from 1816 to 1833. Since Spode china continues to be made, newer pieces are often passed off as older ones. It’s important to check the provenance if possible. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Ancients" in the 2021 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Just Who Was Josiah Spode?

QUESTION: My mother collected English Staffordshire transferware dinnerware. She passed away recently and now I have her collection which consists of plates, cups and saucers, gravy boats, sugars and creamers, and assorted other items. On the bottoms of some of these are marks saying “Spode and a number,” “Spode Stone-China,” and “Copeland Spode England.” I realize they refer to the pottery that made them, but who was Spode and what did he have to do with Copeland?

Spode Stone China

ANSWER: The name Spode on your pottery pieces refers to English potter Josiah Spode while the name Copeland refers to William Copeland, who was in the tea trade.

Josiah Spode

While English transferware is a common antique/collectible, coming in a wide variety of forms and styles, it was Josiah Spode who started it all by perfecting two techniques that made this form of pottery such a worldwide success—the technique of transfer printing in 1783 and the formula for fine bone china around 1790.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the cluster of towns in North Staffordshire, now know as the Potteries, was a series of villages, hamlets and farms. Forty or so potteries, concentrated around Burslem produced all the Staffordshire wares.

On April 9, 1749, Thomas Whieldon, a potter who was already producing early Staffordshire wares, including agate wares in variegated colors, tortoiseshell table-wares, creamwares, black basaltes and black-glazed wares, hired Josiah Spode at age 16. Spode stayed with Whieldon as a journeyman potter until about 1762, when he took the job of manager of a pottery at Stoke which produced mostly creamware and white stoneware.

Spode Creamware

By 1776 Spode had purchased his own pottery works. His first produced pottery, then porcelain, and finally a superior kind of ironstone china which was almost porcelain, which Spode invented in 1805. After some early trials, he perfected a stoneware that came closer to porcelain than any previously and introduced his "Stone-China" in 1813. It was light in body, greyish-white and gritty where it wasnt glazed and approached translucence in the early wares. Later stoneware became opaque.

Spode plate from Indian Sporting Series

By 1785 Spode had a London warehouse and showroom_He met William Copeland who was in the tea trade. Copeland opened a warehouse where the Spode wares could be displayed and offered for sale to the London "China men."

Spode’s mastery of the transfer printing process contributed to the firm’s success in the early years of the 19th century. The process, which appears to have been invented by an Irish engraver named Brooks, involved first, engraving a copper plate, then inking it and applying to it a thin tissue of paper, the impression on the paper could then he transferred to articles of any shape.

Spode Oriental Field Sports Wolf Trap

Contemporary book illustrations often inspired the decorations Spode used on his pottery. China experts consider one of Spode’s  most interesting patterns, the Indian Sporting Series, to be one of the most original in its use as a design for tableware.

In June 1805, there appeared the first of 20 monthly issues of a publication called Oriental Field Sports, Wild Sports of the East. Each included a printed story and two large aquatint prints engraved from drawings by Samuel Howitt, a distinguished animal painter. Spode adapted the engravings to his dinnerware, which depicted hunting scenes with animals and birds. Some views showed mounted hunters carrying spears with native bearers on foot.

Another popular series formed a travelogue of views in the Eastern Mediterranean. Spode based these on engravings in Mayer’s Views in Asia Minor; Mainly in Caramania, published in 1803.

Spode platter "City of Corinth" from Eastern Mediterranean Series

Spode also used illustrations from “The Castle of Boudron;" "The City of Corinth" and "Antique fragments at Lissima" in this series. He based another series on views in Italy, usually of ruins or classical landscapes, from Merigot's Views of Rome and its Vicinity,  published in 1798.

Spode's most popular series, Blue Italian

The most famous pattern was the "Blue Italian," described as Spode's masterpiece in his Blue and White series. Spode took his inspiration for this from the painting of ruins and quiet pastoral scenery by 18th-century Italian artist H.P. Pannini.

From 1800 to 1827 the mark consisted of the name Spode in printed letters, impressed, and the name of the pattern in blue, purple or red. On the stoneware the mark was "Spode, Feldspar Porcelain" or "Spode, Stone China." After this date, if the name Spode was used, it appeared as "Late Spode."

In addition to tea wares, Spode produced a variety of useful and ornamental pieces in bone china, from miniature ewers and basins and toy tea sets to richly decorated, sometimes flower-encrusted vases.

Early Spode blue and white serving platter

The factory pattern books which still exist show that Spode introduced new patterns at the average rate of about 150 year. By 1833 the pottery’s patterns numbered in the 4,000 range. Over its lifetime, the Spode Pottery produced about 75,000 patterns. Most Spode wares carry a pattern number along with the name Spode.

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Jewelry for the Dinner Table

QUESTION: I’ve been collecting napkin rings for quite a while. To date, I have about 50 or 60. I’ve always been intrigued by the multitude of designs and materials from which they’re made. Recently, I was thinking that I don’t really know how they got started. Can you tell me the origin of napkin rings? To they go back a long time or are they a relatively recent invention?



ANSWER: While most people today use napkin rings for special holiday dinners or special dinner parties, in fact, they had a totally different use when they first appeared.

People use napkin rings, sometimes called christening bangles, to hold table napkins neatly on a dining table. Historians believe they were originally handmade from strips of fabric and used to identify the napkin of each user between weekly wash days so each person could continue using the exact same one as a way of keeping illnesses at bay.

The Chinese invented paper in the 2nd century BCE and soon after created paper napkins. People used paper folded in squares, known as chih pha, when serving tea.

Around 1800, members of the French bourgeoisie originally gave single silver napkin rings engraved with the name of the owner as christening gifts and pairs of them as wedding gifts. Soon, they became available in numbered sets of 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 in all countries of the western world. Most 19th century napkin ring makers made them of silver or silver plate, as well as bone, wood, pearl embroidery, porcelain, glass, and other materials. In the 20th century, bakelite and other new materials were used.

Napkin rings appear as single items with the name or initials of the owner, notably given as christening presents, or pairs often given as gifts at weddings and silver weddings. In the English speaking countries, numbered sets of 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12 napkin rings are found. Napkin rings are an invention of the European bourgeoisie, first appearing in France about 1800 and soon spreading to all countries in the western world. Most 19th century napkin rings were made of silver or silver plate, but others were made in bone, wood, pearl embroidery, porcelain, glass, and other materials. In the 20th century, they used Bakelite and other plastics.

Almost every silversmith in Europe and in the United States made sterling silver and plated napkin rings. Even the basic rings sometimes had fluted borders, scrolled patterns, and sections of satin finish.

Americans loved figural napkin rings—a simple napkin ring part of which was a small figure or sculpture that could take any shape and show any motif. Special rings made for children with little chicks, dogs, and cats were a favorite gift for christenings and Christmas. But beautifully designed rings with floral motifs, monograms and other design elements were just as popular.

Upper middle and upper class Victorian families used napkin rings for fashionable and refined dining from shortly after the Civil War to shortly before World War I. During this time, napkin rings were especially elaborate and artistic. Many makers created napkin rings set on a platform base along with an ornate figure of a bird, flower, or cherub.

People considered napkin rings personal items, so they had them engraved with an individual's name, initials, or family designation such as Mother and Father.

Sculptured fruit such as cherries and gooseberries, flowers including lilies and roses, a snail and shell, a frog and lily pad, a dog house with a dog at the door, butterflies and fans, are only a few of the Victorian fancies now available to the collector as a result of the variety which were manufactured.

The Meriden Britannia Company Probably was the largest and most prolific of the silver plated napkin ring manufacturers. Their catalogs sometimes included a half dozen pages of just rings.

Other sterling silver napkin rings came from Reed and Barton, William Rogers, Gorham, Tufts, Unger Brothers, Wilcox and even the legendary Tiffany. By 1893 Marshal Field Company of Chicago was proudly offering napkin rings of "engraved satin” or of 'bright silver and gold lined."

 To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the early 20th century in the Fall 2018 Edition, "20th Century Ltd.," online now.

From Boredom to Art

QUESTION: I belong to a reenactor group that specializes in Revolutionary War reenactments. Some of the men carry powder horns as part of their equipment. Most of these are plain reproductions. They serve the purpose. At several larger gatherings of reenactment groups, I’ve seen some beautifully engraved horns. What can you tell me about these engraved horns?  Might they be original or are they reproductions?

ANSWER: Powder horn collectors are a very specialized group. The horns they collect are usually engraved but not all of them are valuable. Today, there are a number of very good reproductions and contemporary powder horns being made. They’re so well done that it’s often impossible to tell the authentic ones from the reproductions.

Powder horns once provided a practical, inexpensive way to carry gun powder for use in the early flintlock and percussion firearms. They were America's first art form. Early settlers had to work so hard there was no time to make art.



The French and Indian War was the catalyst for horn art. Soldiers had a lot of time on their hands and were lonesome. So on their horns they drew images of their houses, trees, their gardens, their dogs, their girlfriends and other things that reminded them of home. But the simple powder horn of the early frontier evolved into personal works of art out of necessity. Soldiers, and perhaps groups of hunters, had to have an obvious way of identifying their horns.

Sometimes they used only their initials. If the horn owner was literate, or knew someone who could copy letters, dates, names and places, he had them engraved onto his horn. Eventually, animals, mythical creatures like mermaids or griffons, birds, snakes, various styles of flowers and vines and all sorts of geometrics decorated powder horns. To make their horns more personal, some men engraved rhymes on their horns. Next to his wife and children, a man’s powder horn was often his most cherished possession.

This high level of artistic competence among common soldiers and pioneers shows that many people in the Colonies must have had art training. Children who went to school learned penmanship and calligraphy which helped in engraving their horns as young adults.



Less artistic soldiers could pay professional hornsmiths, who traveled with the troops, set up tents, and took orders, to customize their horns. Better-paid military officers could afford to set the trend around camp for horns with similar designs. Historians believe there was a community of horn carvers who observed and borrowed from each other's work.

The earliest known American engraved horn, inscribed with the name Daniel Tuttle, dates from 1727. But older doesn't translate into more valuable. Seventeenth-century "pilgrim horns" sell moderately because they were plain and lacked artwork. Most of the classic engraved horns are 13 to 17 inches long. But horns may vary from a few inches to over two feet long. Usually, the bigger the horn is, the older it is, because men took longer forays into the forest to hunt in the 18th century.

Early on, settlers hunted for weeks at a time. As they got more settled, they would go hunting in the afternoon, so they didn't need to carry two or three pounds of powder with them. Because of this, they took smaller horns which they would carry in their bags or pockets.

Early settlers often carried two horns. One was a smaller horn which held fine-grain, faster burning gunpowder used only for priming the pan in early flintlock mechanisms. When percussion replaced flintlocks beginning in the 1830s, most men carried only a single horn in the field.



But many hunters and soldiers ceased using powder horns altogether in the 1830s with the advent of brass flasks and leather pouches.

So how can a collector tell an old horn from a new one. Old engravings often start deep when the knife first enters but then pressure is decreased and the rest of the line has uniform depth. Lines made with a knife and not a dentist's drill won’t end abruptly but will extend beyond the image's outline.

Collectors look for the "warmth and glow" emanating from an antique powder horn. The most prized horns are those with maps engraved on them. Often they show forts or towns along a river. Some originated as guidelines allowing soldiers to find their way back to forts. They became popular Ind eventually were professionally made by hornsmiths. Some map horns, though are believed to have been carved long after the war when soldiers returned tome. In some cases, horns were used as proof of military service, thus qualifying their owners to a pension.

While ordinary 18th- and 19th-century horns are common and usually sell for $10 to $40, those engraved with intricate artwork have attained the level of treasured American folk art worth thousands of dollars. Engraved horns can sell for as little as $34 and as much as $34,000. Many engraved horns came from the area around Lake George, New York, site of Fort Ticonderoga. Horns inscribed with historic names from that region are more valuable.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "Early Americana," online now.

The King of Glass

QUESTION: I have a beautiful green glass cordial set that belonged to my great grandmother. It’s been passed down to me. I just love this set and would like to know more about it. I was told that it was made by the Moser Glass Company in Czechslovakia. What can you tell me about it?

ANSWER: It’s difficult to tell if your cordial set is in fact made by Moser. It’s definitely in its style but other company copied it. Moser was one of the only Bohemian glass companies to sign some of their works. Usually the signature is in gold enamel somewhere on the piece, but many pieces remained unsigned.

Of all the Bohemian glassmakers of the 19th century, Ludwig Moser, known as the “King of Glass,” is probably the most famous. The company was well known for its heavy and intricate gold enameling. But Moser wasn’t the only glass decorator to adorn blanks with this type of decoration. Glassmakers copied each other in an effort to get their share of the market. Like many Bohemian firms, Moser sold blanks to other companies for decoration and decorated blanks bought from other companies, such as  Loetz, Meyr's Neffe and Harrachov, so it can be difficult to tell if Moser indeed made a particular piece.
                   
Ludwig Moser was born in 1833 and began his apprenticeship in the glass business at age 14. From there, he became a skilled engraver. In 1870, he opened a refinery in Karlsbad, Bohemia, today Karlovy Gary in the Czech Republic, and employed other glass cutters and engravers who decorated glass blanks purchased from other companies. The firm's work earned Moser international recognition for his engraved drinking glasses.

By 1880, Moser was making the intricately enameled glass that’s most often associated with him. He designed them for the Oriental market, intending them to resemble the work of Arabian goldsmiths. In 1893, he took over a glassworks factory in Meierhofen bei Karlsbad, employing 400 workers, under the name of Karlsbaderglasindustrie Gesellschaft Ludwig Moser & Söhne and where his sons Gustav and Rudolf also worked. Here he produced shaded transparent engraved glass. Within a short time Moser’s company gained the reputation as the most prestigious producer of crystal in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Because of the excellent quality of his work, Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed Moser as the exclusive supplier of glass to the royal family. He won numerous awards at the World Exhibitions in Paris in 1879, 1889 and 1900, and the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893.

The firm also introduced pieces with applied glass flowers and fruits. These remained popular through the 1920s and marked Moser's departure from the intricately enameled luxury glass he had made earlier. By 1922, Moser Glass became the largest producer of luxurious drinking and decorative glass in Czechoslovakia. Moser's son, Leo, who had taken over the firm upon the death of his father in 1916, sold the firm in 1938. When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia, the government took over the Moser glass works but continued to use its name.

Moser glassware commands top prices, so collectors need to know their glassware or purchase pieces from reputable dealers to avoid paying top dollar for similar work by a less famous firm. Cups and saucers run about $300 a set, with larger pieces or those with unusual forms hovering around $2,000.

Prices for Moser engraved glass run about the same. Amethyst or green en-graved miniature rose bowls run around $275 to $350. Larger, more detailed pieces command more money. An amethyst intaglio engraved perfume and stopper runs about $650, a covered box about $800, and a tray about $500. Vases run $600 to $1,000 and up, depending on size and design. Green and crystal enameled pieces, which date anywhere from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries sell for under $200.