From our Fine Arts and Americana Collection, a ONE-OF-A-KIND MASTERPIECE crystal sculpture by Varga. People generally familiar with Varga crystal know it as a high-end manufacturer of crystal stemware: Wine glasses, goblets, champagne glasses and the like, handcrafted in Budapest Hungary by four generations of specialist engravers practicing the copper and diamond wheel technique. But what most people do not know, is that before Varga focused their production in this highly commercialized sector (modern stemware), they actually first made their entry into the American marketplace as creators of crystal sculpture masterpieces. These first broke onto the American art scene in the early 1990s. All of these early pieces were pounced on by art crystal collectors as soon as they hit the market, and have been squirreled away into private collections ever since. We haven't seen new Varga pieces like these produced in over a decade, and if anybody knows otherwise, we would love to hear about it. We assume that Varga is now totally focused on commercial production of stemware, which on a mass-production basis certainly must be more profitable, as these one-of-a-kind art crystal masterpieces take months to create a single piece.
We were incredibly lucky to get our hands on this piece, and we hope our photos can do it justice. The piece is done in some sort of Indo/Persian motif, we're not entirely sure of the subject matter. But frankly, for us, the subject matter here is less important, though the piece is of course amazingly beautiful. What counts is the extraordinary technical mastery in its production: The figures here are not linear nor two dimensional, they are in fact, carved with real depth as though they were in 3 dimensions. Draw your attention to the breasts of the women, the knees and fingers of the central male figure. These are just two areas where it is easier to see from the photos where this amazing technical and artistic feat has been achieved. Just an absolutely extraordinary item for the most serious crystal collections. One-of-a-kind and a true crystal masterpiece if there ever was one.
Size: 11 inches in diameter, 3 inches tall.
