ArtistAustrianb.1769–d.1851
Anton Kothgasser
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Anton Kothgasser was born in Vienna on January 9, 1769, and spent virtually his entire working life in the same city, yet left a body of work that now sits in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. His career was shaped by two distinct institutions - the Vienna Porcelain Factory, where he worked for over five decades, and the intimate workshop he established independently for glass painting.
Kothgasser enrolled at the Wiener Kunstakademie in 1781 and studied figural drawing under the German painter Heinrich Füger. From 1784 he was employed at the Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur, where he became the most significant decorative painter on the payroll - listed as painter no. 96 - working there until 1840. Over those fifty-six years he painted porcelain cups, covered vessels and decorative wares with the veduta scenes, floral arrangements, allegorical figures and portrait miniatures that were the house vocabulary of high-end Viennese decorative production.
In 1811, the young Gottlob Samuel Mohn arrived in Vienna and introduced Kothgasser to transparent enamel painting on glass. Mohn had developed the technique, which used translucent enamel colours that could be fired at relatively low temperatures without damaging the thin-walled glass beneath. Kothgasser took to the method with notable speed and soon surpassed his teacher in technical refinement, opening his own glass painting studio around 1813.
The object he made his own was the Ranftbecher - a conical beaker with a distinctive ridged base ring, thin walls, and a form well suited to detailed painted decoration. Kothgasser painted these beakers with motifs that ranged from floral baskets and roses to views of Viennese monuments such as the Stephansdom and the Josephsplatz, portraits of generals and nobles, scenes from playing cards, and allegorical subjects. The timing was propitious: the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) brought thousands of foreign visitors to the city, and finely painted glass beakers became among the most sought-after souvenirs of the occasion. His pieces circulated across Europe as gifts and mementos among the nobility and upper bourgeoisie.
The subjects recorded in his known works follow consistent categories. Sacred architecture - the Stephansdom, Karlsbad, Prague - appears frequently. Floral compositions with sentimental inscriptions such as "Ehret die Frauen" (Honour women) and personalized name acrostics were produced for gift-giving. Portraits of military commanders and political figures recorded the events of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic eras. Through all of it the technical achievement was the same: the luminous, jewel-like quality of transparent enamel, which allowed light to pass through the colour and reflect off the glass beneath in a way opaque enamels cannot match.
Kothgasser received awards for his work from 1811 onward, and in 1816 was granted official permission to conduct glass painting at home alongside his factory duties. He continued working until his death in Vienna on June 2, 1851, at the age of eighty-two.
At auction, Kothgasser's Ranftbecher are handled almost exclusively by the Viennese house im Kinsky, which accounts for all 16 lots in the Auctionist database. Prices have ranged from 7,500 to 12,000 EUR for individual beakers, with a "Blumenkorb" (flower basket) example achieving the top recorded result of 12,000 EUR. Works attributed to his workshop rather than his hand alone typically command lower figures, and condition of the painted surface is the primary determinant of value.