There is a moment, somewhere in the late 1960s, when the Australian sideboard changed. The heavy floral arrangements and ornate European porcelain of the post-war years gave way to something leaner, more considered — a single stem in a tall glass vase, a cluster of coloured glass catching the afternoon light, a teak shelf arranged with the kind of deliberate simplicity that took real confidence to pull off. At the centre of that shift was Scandinavian art glass: exported from Sweden and Finland in enormous quantities, sold through department stores and gift shops across Australia, and now collected with the same seriousness that was once reserved for English bone china and French porcelain.

The Scandinavian Glass Tradition

Sweden and Finland have been producing exceptional glass since the seventeenth century, but the mid-century period — roughly 1950 to 1975 — represents the creative peak of both countries' glass industries. Swedish glassworks including Orrefors, Kosta Boda, and Åseda Glasbruk, and Finnish makers including Riihimäki / Riihimäen Lasi and Iittala, produced work that combined centuries of craft tradition with the clean, functional aesthetic of Scandinavian Modernism. The results were objects that were simultaneously beautiful, practical, and affordable — a combination that proved irresistible to export markets worldwide.

Åseda Glasbruk in particular became one of the most prolific suppliers of art glass to the Australian market. Based in Småland — the Swedish region known as the "Kingdom of Crystal" for its concentration of glassworks — Åseda produced a wide range of solifleur vases, bud vases, and decorative pieces that were exported through trading companies and sold under various labels. Their bone vase series, associated with designer Bo Borgström, is among the most recognisable and collected shapes of the era.

The Bullicante Technique

The defining feature of the most prized mid-century art glass vases is the bullicante base — a dense, uniform pattern of controlled air bubbles suspended within the glass. The technique has Italian origins — bullicante means "boiling" in Italian, a reference to the champagne-like appearance of the trapped bubbles — and was adopted and refined by Scandinavian and Japanese studio glass makers in the mid-twentieth century.

The process is technically demanding. Molten glass is pressed into a spiked metal mould, which indents a precise grid of tiny air pockets into the surface. A second layer of clear glass is then immediately applied over the top, sealing the air pockets before they can escape. The timing is critical: too slow and the bubbles collapse; too fast and the layers don't fuse cleanly. The result, when executed well, is a base that appears to contain frozen champagne — a perfectly uniform constellation of tiny spheres that catch and refract light from every angle.

Not all bullicante is equal. The density, uniformity, and clarity of the bubbles varies significantly between makers and between individual pieces. The finest examples have bubbles that are perfectly spherical, evenly spaced, and suspended at a consistent depth within the glass. These are the pieces that reward close examination — the more you look, the more you see.

The Bone Vase

The bone vase silhouette — a flared trumpet neck narrowing to a weighted spherical or lobed base — is the most iconic form of the Scandinavian solifleur tradition. The name refers to the organic, structural quality of the shape: like a bone, it is widest at the ends and narrowest in the middle, with the weight concentrated in the base for stability. The design is functional as well as beautiful — the heavy base acts as ballast for the tall slender neck, keeping the vase stable when holding top-heavy single stems like calla lilies, bird of paradise, or orchids.

Bone vases were produced in a wide range of sizes, colours, and base configurations. Standard versions run 15–18cm; larger examples at 22–25cm are significantly rarer and more collectible. The base may be a simple sphere, a lobed clover shape, or a flattened disc — each requiring a different level of skill to form. Lobed bases, in particular, require the hot glass to be hand-pinched and manipulated in the final moments before annealing, making each one unique.

Japanese Studio Glass

Alongside the Scandinavian makers, Japanese studio glass producers — including Iwata Glass and Tajima Glass — supplied the Australian market extensively in the late 1960s and 1970s with pieces that drew heavily on the Scandinavian aesthetic. Japanese makers brought their own technical precision to the bullicante technique and the bone vase form, producing pieces of exceptional quality that are frequently — and understandably — attributed to Scandinavian makers by collectors unfamiliar with the Japanese export glass tradition.

Distinguishing between Scandinavian and Japanese studio glass of this era is genuinely difficult, and honest dealers acknowledge this. Both traditions produced work of high quality; attribution often relies on subtle differences in glass chemistry, pontil finishing, and base profile that require significant expertise to read. At Jacqui Fink, we attribute pieces where the evidence supports it and note uncertainty where it exists.

The Polished Pontil

Every hand-blown glass object carries a pontil mark — the scar left when the iron rod is snapped away from the molten base after forming. On mass-produced pieces, this mark is left raw or roughly ground. On premium studio glass, it is polished to a smooth, concave mirror finish: an extra step that costs time and labour and serves no functional purpose except to signal that the maker cared about the object they were producing. A polished pontil is one of the clearest indicators of quality in mid-century art glass, and it is one of the first things an experienced collector checks.

Collecting Scandinavian Art Glass in Australia

The market for mid-century Scandinavian and studio art glass has grown steadily in Australia as collectors have come to appreciate these pieces as genuine design objects rather than mere decorative accessories. Green and clear cased glass, amber, and cobalt blue are currently among the most sought-after colour combinations. Larger pieces — 25cm and above — command a significant premium over standard sizes.

When assessing a piece, look at the glass clarity first — there should be no clouding, internal staining, or mineral water tracking inside the stem. Check the bullicante base for bubble uniformity and density. Examine the rim carefully for chips and flea bites, which are the most common form of damage on solifleur vases that have been in active use. And always check the pontil — a polished finish tells you something important about where this piece sits in the quality hierarchy.

At The Timeless Edit, every art glass piece we list has been assessed for glass quality, bullicante execution, pontil finish, and honest condition. These are objects made with genuine skill and design intent — and they deserve to be in homes where they will be appreciated.