FOREWORD

The  exhibition  “Loetz  Austria  1900”  at  the
Austrian  Museum  of  Applied  Art  and  the  catalogue ­
  which  accompanied  it  attracted  such
great  interest  that  it  seemed  only  natural  to
carry  out  further  research  into  this  world  famous
  glassworks  and  its  products.
Although  Loetz  was  still  producing  glass  in
the  turn-of-the-century  style  even  after  1905,
the  Creative  phase  of  art  nouveau  had  already
  come  to  an  end.  What  followed  defies
Classification  as  a  uniform  style,  but  in  my
view  it  is  precisely  this  variety  of  shapes,
decorations  and  techniques  which  gives
Loetz  glass  from  1905  tili  1918  its  particular
charm  (together  with  the  Loetz  glass  already
displayed  in  Vienna,  this  glassware  will  be  on
exhibition  at  the  Provincial  Museum  of  Upper
Austria  in  Linz  from  20th  November  1986  tili
31st  January  1987),
The  material  to  be  researched  necessitated
the  division  of  the  present  publication  into
several  sections:  introduction,  catalogue,
Photographie  documentation  and  a  summary
of  Loetz’s  collaboration  with  J.  &  L.  Lobmeyr
and  the  Wiener  Werkstätte.  The  introduction
is  devoted  primarily  to  the  Spaun  family:  the
people  whose  fate  was  so  closely  linked  to
that  of  the  glassworks  come  alive  betöre  our
eyes  through  Contemporary  photographs
which  represent  exceptionally  valuable  documentation, ­
  and  the  objects  from  the  collections
  of  their  descendants  at  least  give  us  an
idea  of  the  work  done  at  the  factory  in  the
late  19th  Century,  a  period  about  which  we
still  know  very  little.
The  catalogue  section  proper  contains  Loetz
glassware  from  the  Austrian  museums  already ­
  mentioned  in  the  volume  “Loetz  Austria ­
  1900”:  The  Austrian  Museum  of  Applied
Art  in  Vienna,  the  Provincial  Museum  of  Upper ­
  Austria  in  Linz  and  the  Joanneum  Provincial ­
  Museum  of  Styria,  department  of  arts
and  crafts,  in  Graz.  Most  of  these  items  are
Contemporary  acquisitions  (donations  or
purchases),  though  the  Austrian  Museum  of
Applied  Art  has  been  able  to  considerably
enlarge  its  collections  in  recent  years  under
the  guidance  of  Professor  Ludwig  Neustifter.
Items  from  private  collections  were  included
if  they  could  be  reliably  dated,  or  if  it  was
possible  to  incorporate  them  into  a  group  of
glassware.  The  Photographie  documentation
is  followed  by  a  section  which  underlines  the
importance  of  the  Viennese  firm  of  J.  &
L.  Lobmeyr  as  contractors  for  glassware  and
provides  vital  Information  from  the  complete
surviving  order  documentation  from  more

than  twenty  years.  The  Wiener  Werkstätte
also  commissioned  glass  from  Loetz,  and  almost ­
  all  the  designs  realised  for  the  latter  by
Loetz  from  the  period  around  1915  have
been  included.
An  overwhelming  assortment  of  materials
came  to  light  over  a  relatively  short  space  of
time  and  with  the  involvement  of  many  different ­
  people.  I  therefore  particularly  want  to
express  my  thanks  to  all  those  who  have
contributed  to  the  publication  of  this  book:
Professor  Ludwig  Neustifter  (Austrian  Museum ­
  of  Applied  Art,  Vienna),  Dr.  Inge  Woisetschläger
  (Joanneum  Provincial  Museum
of  Styria,  department  of  arts  and  crafts,
Graz),  Dr.  Wilfried  Seipel  and  Dr.  Brigitte
Wied  (Provincial  Museum  of  Upper  Austria,
Linz),  Harald  and  Peter  Rath  (Messrs.  J.  &
L.  Lobmeyr,  Vienna),  the  collectors  who  so
readily  allowed  me  to  study  and  photograph
their  glass,  the  descendants  of  the  Spaun
family  wfio  so  generously  gave  me  access  to
important  documents,  and  my  translators  Dr.
Hanne  Lore  Agius  (Italian),  Andree  Päzmändy
  (French)  and  Andrew  Smith  (English).

Vienna,  August  1986  Waltraud  Neuwirth

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