Henry Schlevogt (d. 1984)
Vanity Set
Atmomizer, perfume bottle, and nudes mirrored tray
From the Schlevogt Ingrid Studios
Malachite glass, c. 1930
Gift of Gale Bellafiore in memory of Kurt Thomas

Henry Schlevogt (d. 1984) produced a famous series of artistic pressed-glass items. In 1934 he introduced a line of ornamental crystal sculptures at the Chicago World’s Fair, and named it for his daughter Ingrid. It was well received, and Schlevogt began producing it on a large scale. He wrote, “I told myself that artists used marble for their sculptures; we should make marble out of glass. And we should get the designs for this marble-glass from sculptors.” He introduced sculptors and designers to the medium and produced and ornamental sculptures, perfume bottles, liquor sets, devotional items, figurines, tableware, and vases. Most readily identifiable of Schlevogt’s items are those made of jade and lapis marbled glass. Using technology that existed in the Czech Republic, craftspeople working for Schlevogt ground out mold marks and frosted or polished the surfaces of the items. By 1940, the Schlevogt firm owned more than 1,300 glass molds, coin molds and hand presses. It had its own cutting, sand-blasting, and acid-etching workshops and produced bottles in various Art Deco shapes, stoppers with relief-pressed nudes, couples, flowers, and butterflies. The Czechoslovakian government nationalized the glass industry after World War II, and sentenced Henry Schlevogt to prison in Siberia. When he was finally released in 1948 he accepted an offer to manage the glassworks in France. In 1972 he sold his firm and died in Paris twelve years later.