Jolanda Prinsen designed this stunning crystal cigar ashtray, bowl, or desk tidy for Walther Glas. The piece was crafted in Germany circa 2000. Around 2000, Walther Glas commissioned the Dutch artist Jolanda Prinsen to create a unique bowl. Prinsen draws inspiration from nature. Seaweed and cockles are examples of sea-derived facets that are integrated into the bowl. The vide-poche has a smooth interior and a somewhat rougher, more organic outside with a frosted finish. 
 
Artist Biography: Jolanda Prinsen received a degree in sculpture and ceramics from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In the period from 1971 to 1972, she attended Ateliers 63 in Haarlem. In 1975, she studied Art History at the University of Amsterdam. (BA 2007)(MA 2010)She participated in numerous group exhibitions in galleries and museums across the Netherlands. She also had numerous solo exhibitions in renowned galleries, including the Stedelijk Museum and Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam, as well as the Frans Hals Museum and De Hallen in Haarlem. Internationally, she had a solo show at the West Broadway Gallery in New York (1981), performed 'Edge' in Newcastle, U.K. (1990), and participated in the International Stone Sculptors' Symposium in Brandenburg, Germany (1993). She has been teaching at the Academy Minerva, Groningen (1980 – 1985), the Atlantic College of the World in Wales (1993), and the Rijkshogeschool in Maastricht (1985-2006). She worked at the Biennale in Venice in 2007. She is currently living in Italy.
Credit Jolanda Prinsen website
 
Note: August Walther founded his glassworks in 1888 at Ottendorf-Okrilla near Dresden, and called it August Walther & Sohne AG. They produced a wide range of tableware and ornamental glass, and they are best known for their Art Deco figurines and designs from the 1930s. They created a version of "Cloud Glass" similar to the one made by Davidson's of England. Walther merged with the Saxonian Glass Company in 1932, becoming "Sachsische Glasfabrik August Walther und Sohn AG." They continued with the same production lines. After World War II, the company was nationalized and became "VEB Sachsenglas", which continued to produce many of the same designs from the same molds and to export them, principally to England. By the mid-1960s, it had become challenging for East German companies to export into Western Europe. VEB Sachsenglas decided in 1965 to stop production of pressed glass using August Walther molds. The company continued to operate until about 1990 when East & West Germany were unified. Most of the glassworks in Eastern Germany were closed following unification. They re-opened in West Germany and promoted their glassware as WALTHER KRISTALLGLAS. The packaging may be marked "Original Walther Glass." The factory closed in 2013.