This is a wonderfull and colourful set of art deco cocktail glass from the Bimini Werkstatte Glassworks in Vienna (Austria) in the 1930s. There are eight cocktail pick birds (one bird is missing) in a mercury stork. The pieces are all hand-blown glass. Like all Bimini objects this one is unsigned.
The Bimini Glass
The Bimini Glass Co. was formed in 1923 by Fritz Lampl in Vienna, Austria. Fritz Lampl and his brother-in-laws Arthur and Josef Berger, architects, started Bimini Glass. In 1938, Fritz Lampl emigrated to England where he re-established Bimini Ltd. in London and changed the name to Orplid Glass. Originally the pieces had a paper label “Bimini” but these labels are rarely seen anymore. Some labels say “Made in Germany”. Often times this glass is referred to as Lauscha and is difficult to determine the difference.
In 1925 the African-American dancer Josephine Baker escaped the restrictions of the racially-divided United States to become a sensation in Paris. Her erotic dances and risqué costumes, which included a skirt made of bananas, found instant success amongst Parisian audiences enraptured with all things exotic, as too did her menagerie of pet animals which included Chiquita the cheetah. Baker became a design icon in her own right and appeared on many objects of the period. In this glass figure she is wearing her signature banana skirt.