Gallé vase. France, ca. 1900

GALLÉ vase. France, ca. 1900.
Acid-etched cameo glass.
With signature.
Measurements: 34 x 12 x 12 x 12 cm.
Gallé vase made in acid-etched cameo glass, with a naturalistic and asymmetrical vegetal design, based on large motifs, typical of Gallé's language. In fact, cameo glass has been known since ancient times, although it was revived at the end of the 19th century in France and England. Gallé presented his acid-etched cameo technique at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, with the aim of bringing modernist glass to the public. It was a quicker and cheaper form of decoration than the wheel-engraved cameo, resulting in more affordable, mass-produced but handmade pieces, as no stencils were used and the motif was hand-drawn on each piece. The technique of cameo glass consists of blowing a bubble of two or more layers of glass of different colours, which are then cut or removed by acid etching the bottom, thus leaving the motif in relief, in the colour of the top layer of glass.
The master glassmaker Émile Gallé (1846-1904) took over his father's factory in 1874 and soon achieved great international success, winning prizes at international exhibitions and selling works to important collections and museums. Today, pieces by Émile Gallé can be seen in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Brohan Museum in Berlin and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, among many others.