Large Scandinavian Sculptural Art Glass Vase by Tauno Wirkkala for Humppila, 1970s

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A large fan-form vase designed by Tauno Wirkkala for Humppila, Finland, 1970s. It carries three marks: the base is engraved … Read more A large fan-form vase designed by Tauno Wirkkala for Humppila, Finland, 1970s. It carries three marks: the base is engraved in script with the designer's name and the factory name, and the original orange Humppila foil label, with the Finnish flag and "Handmade in Finland", is still on the piece.

The form is unusual. A narrow ribbed foot rises and then opens, all in one continuous wall, into a broad flat fan: an oval blade standing upright, far wider than the vase is deep, with an opening no larger than the foot it stands on. It works as a standing object rather than as a container, and it throws a shadow shaped like a shell.

The whole outer edge is torn and ice-textured, broken into a close row of irregular points that take the light individually, so the rim reads as a bright serrated line around a smooth centre. Inside, fine ribs radiate from the opening out to that edge.

The colour is laid in bands that follow the form: dark brown gathering in the foot, warm amber through the body, and colourless at the outermost edge, with brown running back into the points of the rim.

Signed on the base "Tauno Wirkkala Humppila". Tauno Wirkkala (1924-2007), brother of Tapio Wirkkala, worked for Humppila through the 1970s, and the textured "ice glass" of this period is the work the factory is now best known for. Pieces carrying his engraved signature are a good deal less common than those with the factory label alone.

33 cm high. This piece has an attribution mark,
I am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
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