Dale Chihuly 1979 Ice Blue Baden Tabac Pilchuck Basket Signed Handblown Glass

Artist: Dale Chihuly
Title: Ice Blue Baden Tabac Pilchuck Basket
Medium: Hand Blown Glass
Dimensions: 8" x 7.5" x 7.5"
Year: 1979
Inscription: Signed and dated "Chihuly '79"
Documentation: Includes gallery certificate of authenticity

Created in 1979, Dale Chihuly's "Ice Blue Baden Tabac Pilchuck Basket" stands among the earliest and most historically significant examples of the artist's Basket series, a body of work that emerged directly from his time at the Pilchuck Glass School and fundamentally reoriented the trajectory of American studio glass. The series took its formal inspiration from Native American basketry Chihuly had observed in institutional collections in the Pacific Northwest, particularly examples that had softened and slumped with age. Rather than pursuing the structural precision of woven basketry, Chihuly sought to translate that visual quality of gravity-induced sag and asymmetry into blown glass, allowing the molten material to settle and distort according to its own physical properties during the working process.

Measuring 8 by 7.5 by 7.5 inches, this vessel exhibits the irregular, slightly leaning contour and undulating rim characteristic of the series' formative years. The body is composed of ice blue colored glass, lending the form its soft, pearlescent surface quality. Set against this pale field is a cluster of mottled brown-red glass, applied and melted into the surface to create an irregular, cloud-like passage of color that interrupts the otherwise uniform ground—a decorative approach recalling the mottled surfaces of natural materials such as tortoiseshell or aged hide, consistent with the earthen "Tabac" palette Chihuly favored in this early period. Several rows of fine, colorless glass threads encircle the vessel below the rim, a restrained textural device that catches and refracts ambient light across the form's shoulder. The mouth of the vessel is finished with an applied thread of orange glass, its uneven, hand-trailed application reinforcing the handmade immediacy central to the Basket series' aesthetic.

The work is signed and dated in engraving on the underside, "Chihuly '79", and further inscribed with the place designation "Baden", indicating the location, near Vienna, where the work was made, along with the model number "44", identifying its position within the sequence of works produced in that context. Such inscriptions are characteristic of Chihuly's early practice, when individual pieces were closely tracked within small, sequential production runs prior to the establishment of his larger studio operation. The work is accompanied by a gallery certificate of authenticity.

As an early, documented example of the Basket series, this vessel occupies an important position in the development of Chihuly's mature working method—one in which asymmetry, surface incident, and the inherent behavior of molten glass under gravity supersede the pursuit of vessel regularity. It reflects the transitional moment in the artist's career during which the disciplined forms of his earlier Cylinder series gave way to a more improvisational, materially responsive approach that would come to define much of his subsequent output.

About Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly (b. 1941) is an internationally renowned American artist celebrated for transforming blown glass into a major medium of contemporary fine art. Born in Tacoma, Washington, he studied at the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). In 1971, he co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School, now one of the world's leading centers for glass education.

Chihuly is best known for his vibrant, organic sculptures and monumental installations, including his celebrated *Seaforms*, *Macchia*, *Persians*, and *Chandeliers* series. His immersive works have been exhibited in museums, botanical gardens, and public spaces around the world. Despite losing sight in one eye, he continues to direct large-scale projects through a collaborative studio practice. Today, Chihuly remains one of the most influential and recognizable figures in contemporary glass art.