Gallé vase, 1925-1936

GALLÉ vase. France, 1925-1936.
Cameo glass.
Signed.
Measurements: 33 x 15 x 15 x 15 cm.
Vase Gallé of Art Nouveau period made in cameo glass acid, with bouquets in different stages of flowering on an iridescent background of orange-yellow and mauve touches on white. 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 form of decoration faster than the cameo engraved wheel, so the result was more affordable pieces, mass-produced but handmade, since no templates were used but the motif was drawn by hand on each piece. The cameo glass technique consists of blowing a bubble of two or more layers of glass of different colors, which are then carved or removed by acid re-melting the bottom, thus leaving the motif in relief, in the color of the top layer of glass.

Émile Gallé began his career working for his father, who owned a glass and ceramics factory, making designs with floral and heraldic motifs. Very interested in botany, he studied it in depth during his youth, alternating with drawing classes. Between 1862 and 1864, at his father's request, he traveled through Italy, England and Germany, becoming interested in the applied arts but also in subjects that he would later reflect in his works, such as music, philosophy and nature. On his return, he settled in Meisenthal, where the glass furnaces of his family were, in order to fully learn the craft of glassmaker. He also traveled to London and Paris to see the collections of their museums. In 1874 he took over his father's factory, and soon achieved great international success, winning awards at international exhibitions and selling works to major collections and museums. Today, pieces made by Émile Gallé can be seen in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Orsay Museum in Paris, the Brohan Museum in Berlin and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, among many others.