(6) International Art Glass Sculptures. Includes pieces marked Daum, Hoya, and by Robert Eickholt.
Size: 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.
Robert Eickholt (born 1947) is an American glass artist known for his distinctive and colorful art glass creations. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he initially pursued a career in business management and computer science before becoming disillusioned with the work. Inspired by a presentation by glass artist Fritz Driesbach, Eickholt moved to Berkeley, California to study glassblowing under Marvin Lipofsky. He returned to Columbus in 1975, where he eventually opened his own studio in 1978. Eickholt’s work is recognized for its unique style, which incorporates precious metals like gold and silver and rare oxides like cobalt and copper. He officially retired in 2013, but his studio continues to produce art glass creations and inspire new generations of glass artists.
Daum is a crystal studio based in Nancy, France, founded in 1878 by master glass craftsman Jean Daum (1825-1885) and expanded substantially by his sons Auguste Daum (1853-1909) and Antonin Daum (1864-1931) during the burgeoning Art Nouveau period. During the Universal Exhibition of 1900 Daum was awarded a ‘Grand Prix’ medal, and their glass became more elaborate in the early 1900s as acid etching by Jacques Grüber was often combined with carving, enameling, and engraving on solid pieces of glass. Their most complicated creations also featured applied glass elements, such as handles and ornamental motifs in naturalistic forms, and in 1906 Daum revived pâte de verre (glass paste), an ancient Egyptian technique of glass casting in which crushed glass is packed into a refractory mold and then fused in a kiln. Today Daum is one of the only crystal manufacturers still employing the pâte de verre process for art glass and crystal sculptures. All their pieces are still handmade by hundreds of employees at the main manufacturing location in downtown Nancy, as well as an auxiliary plant in a nearby village called Vannes-le-Châtel, and Daum also has a store on Park Avenue in New York City.
In 1941 brothers Shogoro and Shigeru Yamanaka founded the Hoya Corporation in a town near Tokyo, Japan, focused on producing optical glass. The first of its kind in the country, they quickly expanded into wartime lenses and materials, but shifted towards making lead-free crystal after 1945. In 1960 the Hoya Crystal brand division was formally established, and in the late 1980s they expanded dramatically with galleries opening in New York City and Chicago. Known for exceptional clarity and modern design in both sculptural and tableware items, Hoya began to face growing difficulties in the wake of the Japanese economic collapse, and closed its luxury crystal operations in 2009 to focus instead on medical and information technology.
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