The SPSG Glass Collection comprises around 1,600 historic goblets, beakers, jugs and bottles from the 17th to 20th centuries. The range of Brandenburg glass produced during the 17th and 18th centuries at the historical glassworks in Potsdam, Drewitz and Zechlin is particularly unusual and of very high quality. This part of the collection includes elaborately engraved glass, portrait goblets, and other outstanding items of European glass art from the era of Frederick III/I and Frederick William I. Having experimented with colored glass on Peacock Island since 1685, some of Johann Kunckel’s gold ruby glass in the collection exemplifies his inventions and rediscoveries. Masterpieces by the glass cutters Heinrich Friedrich Halter and Gottfried Spiller are also quite noteworthy.
William I’s historic glass collection from the dining hall in the Babelsberg Palace has remained largely intact, and the exquisite historicist glasses from the living quarters of his daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Victoria, have also survived. The monumental flutes and extravagant vessels were seen to attest to Prussia's industrious rise within this field of decorative arts The collection also focuses on Bohemian glassware from the first half of the 19th century, very popular with the court, and includes masterpieces produced by the Egermanns, a family of glass artists. Royal and imperial drinking glasses from 19th and early 20th century are also a central element of the collection.
Exceptional pieces from the collection are exhibited at Charlottenburg Palace (Crown Treasure and Silver Vault), the Silver Chamber at Oranienburg Palace and in the Wine Cellar at Sanssouci Palace.
Curator
Dr. Verena Wasmuth
