Art Nouveau Daum lamp base; France, ca. 1900-1910.

Art Nouveau DAUM lamp base; France, ca. 1900-1910.
Acid-etched cameo glass.
Fabric shade.
Electrified.
Dimensions: 65 x 32 x 32 cm.
Lamp-stand by Daum, in cameo glass. The ornamental motif, worked in different layers, is a landscape that opens up to reddish and light brown tones behind trees in the foreground, resolved in darker tones. The cameo glass technique consists of blowing a bubble of two or more layers of glass of different colours, which are then cut or acid-etched to remove the background, leaving the motif in relief, in the colour of the top layer of glass.
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 was joined by his brother Antonin (1864-1931), and the Daum workshops soon became a meeting place and training ground for many young artists, who gave impetus to the Art Nouveau style in Nancy. At first they made ordinary glass, but in 1891 they decided to open a decorative workshop and to embark on artistic production, probably as a result of the success of Émile Gallé (1846-1904) at the 1889 Exhibition. Eventually, Daum had a factory with more than three hundred employees and a wide range of artistic production. During the First World War, the factory closed, but resumed production after the war, adapting to the change in aesthetics and leaving behind the modernism of its first period. During the Art Nouveau period, most of Daum's pieces were made of acid-etched cameo glass, but with the new Art Deco style, new techniques and decorative styles were investigated.