Charlottenburg Glass Target Ball (German)

Our Price: £450.00

Charlottenburg Glass Target Ball (German)

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Glass Target Ball from the 1880's

Amber - rare

"Dr A FRANK CHARLOTTENBURG GLASSHUTTEN"

Some time later, different CHARLOTTENBURG target balls were found. Some are scarce, some rare and others are simply not available.
Charlottenburg is now part of Berlin, and according to my records had two glassworks in the 1870s. Neither of the owners coincides with the owner names embossed on the center band of the target balls. Another intriguing point is the fact that the embossed German word GLASHUTTEN is the plural for glasshouse. According to this fact, Dr. A. Frank and F.W. Otte owned more than one glasshouse in Charlottenburg.
Of the "GLASHUTTEN F.W. OTTE jun. Charlottenburg" balls, two different patterns and four different colors, yellow-amber, clear, olive green and grass are known.
One pattern is identical to the Dr. Frank balls, the other pattern has elongated oval shapes above the center band and some of the ridges turn wildly into ovals. Also, the embossed letters on the center band are much bigger; because of this, "Jun" extends over the vertical mould seam.
About 14 of those balls were found, one each of the olive green and grass green example, the rest clear and yellow amber with the different pattern about evenly split in half. This makes the F.W. OTTE target balls very rare.
The next ball is embossed GLASHUTTEN Dr. A. FRANK CHARLOTTENBURG. Collectors who own both the F.W. OTTE and the A. FRANK balls will, by closer inspection, notice that one example of the F.W. OTTE balls and all the A. FRANK balls were blown in the same mold.
About 70 of the Dr. A. FRANK balls were found in the same beautiful yellow-amber, some of them with straw inside, others with feathers. Some originated from the grounds of a castle in Denmark, the rest came from areas in East Germany that now belong to Poland — for instance, Silesia and Pomerania.

ref http://www.glswrk-auction.com/215.htm