Art Nouveau DAUM vase. Nancy, France, ca. 1905

Art Nouveau DAUM vase. Nancy, France, ca. 1905.
Hammered glass.
Signed.
Measurements: 24.5 x 10 x 10 cm.

Hot bent glass vase from the manufacture of Daum Nancy, decorated with a floral bud, a wild poppy, mauve petals on an iridescent background. The motif has been worked in layers, in the manner of a cameo. It belongs to one of the golden ages of the Daum manufacture. The hot molded glass to create organic and natural forms was characteristic of the Art Nouveau period.

The Daum manufacture was founded at the end of the 19th century by Augustin Daum (1853-1909), from a small family glassworks in Nancy. He would be joined by his brother Antonin (1864-1931), and Daum's workshops would soon after become a meeting and training place for many young artists, who promoted the Art Nouveau style in Nancy. At first they made ordinary glass, but in 1891 they decided to open a decorative workshop and undertake artistic production, probably as a result of the success of Émile Gallé (1846-1904) at the 1889 Exhibition. Eventually, Daum will have a factory with more than three hundred employees and an artistic production of great variety. During World War I, the factory closed, but resumed production after the war, adapting to the change of aesthetics and leaving behind the modernism of its first period.