Heinrich Hoffmann (1875 – 1939) and Henry Schlevogt (1904 – 1984) were relatives as well as business partners, Schlevogt having married Hoffman’s daughter. They worked together on a variety of designs and from the moulds they produced came pieces exclusively pressed by the family glassworks of Josef Riedel established in Polaun (Polubný), Bohemia. The collection was marketed under the brand name ‘Ingrid’ and had an immediate success in Europe and the United States, being introduced at the Spring Trade Fair in Leipzig in 1934 and later in the same year presented at the Chicago World’s Fair. Hoffmann died around the time of the beginning of the second world war but Schlevogt remained in Bohemia until his capture by the invading Red Army in 1944. Eventually rescued through the intervention of influential friends, he settled in Paris and in the 1950s founded a highly successful wholesale business trading in crystals and glassware which he sold in 1972. The Czechoslovak government meanwhile nationalised the glass industry after World War II and some of Schlevogt’s moulds were reused with pressings known from the 1970s made as before at the glassworks of Josef Riedel.

Dating of the pieces is extremely difficult since the later versions resemble the earlier ones so closely and there are few firm guidelines. But the example here, even if there is the possibility that it does not date to the 1930s, is an extremely accurate reflection of the model types produced. The design is striking with the malachite effect glass formed into a two section box the deep base fitted with a shallow domed lid and both parts decorated with naked ladies swimming amidst waves in a swirling design of life and movement. The joins of the moulds can be clearly seen at the sides (see images 8 & 9). The style is quintessentially Art Deco and this is a ‘must have’ for collectors of pieces from that era.