Description
A stunning four color wheel carved and acid etched fat vase with pink, yellow, green and white on a cream background. The coloring is strong and the workmanship excellent. A truly explosive expression of flowering and seeding botanicals. Standing at 17.25 Inches; it a beautiful expressive piece. Mix this in with Art Deco design and make a statement!
Signed: Galle with Star (1904-1907)
Height: 17.25 Inches
Diameter: 4.5 Inches
Condition: Excellent with a manufacturer crimp on base.
Gallé was the son of a faience and furniture manufacturer and studied philosophy, botany, and drawing in his youth. He later learned glassmaking at Meisenthal and came to work at his father’s factory in Nancy following the Franco-Prussian War. His early work was executed using clear glass decorated with enamel, but he soon turned to an original style featuring heavy, opaque glass carved or etched with plant motifs, often in two or more colours as cameo glass. His friend and patron Robert de Montesquiou sent him to Bayreuth with a recommendation to Cosima Wagner, which led to a great enthusiasm for Parsifal.[1] In 1875, he married Henriette Grimm (1848-1914). In 1877, he then assumed his father’s role as director of the Maison Gallé-Reinemer. In that same year, he was elected Secretary-General for the Société centrale d’horticulture de Nancy.[2] His career took off after his work received praise at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
Within a decade of another successful showing at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, Gallé had reached international fame and his style, with its emphasis on naturalism and floral motifs, was at the forefront of the emerging Art Nouveau movement.
He continued to incorporate experimental techniques into his work, such as metallic foils and air bubbles, and also revitalized the glass industry by establishing a workshop to mass-produce his, and other artists’, designs. The factory would employ 300 workers and artisans at its height, including the notable glassmaker Eugène Rosseau, and remained in operation until 1936.
