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Important and rare vase called "Cristallerie de Gallé" with an heraldic lion.
Smoked glass,
ornated with an heraldic lion, fleurs-de-lys and stylized foliage,
decorated with opaque enamels in relief,
enhanced with gold.
Flanked by applied enamelled handles.
Signed under the vase " E. Gallé à Nancy "
Engraved signature under the vase " Escalier de Cristal "
Bears a sticker underneath " Escalier de Cristal – 6, rue Scribe – Rue Auber, 1 "
Perfect condition
France
circa 1890
height 22 cm
width 36 cm
depth 26 cm
Those "Cristalleries de Gallé" are part of the former productions by Emile Gallé, now sought after by collectors.
Biography :
Émile Gallé (1846-1904) was one of the most outstanding figures of the applied arts of his time and one of the pioneers of Art Nouveau, founder and first president of the School of Nancy in 1901.
After his apprenticeship in the glass trades in Meisenthal, and ceramics at the Saint-Clement Faience Factory, Emile Gallé was associated with his father's business in the manufacture of earthenware and glassware since 1867. He represented his father at the 1867 World Fair in Paris where he obtained an honorable mention for glassware and at the World and International Exhibition from 1872 to Lyon where he won a gold medal in class 33 (porcelain and crystals).
His approach wqs not just theoretical, he did not fear indeed to learn glass-blowing. He added to this a good knowledge of cabinetmaking and especially the family passion for the natural sciences and especially for plants that led to drawing. Gallé was in Nancy the student of Dominique-Alexandre Godron, naturalist and doctor. He carried out studies on plants, animals, insects. He was elected secretary of the Central Horticultural Society of Nancy in 1877.
The same year, Emile Gallé took over the family business and expanded its activities to cabinetmaking in 1885. Already noticed at the Exposition “Earth and Glass” in 1884, Gallé was dedicated to the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1889 by three awards for his ceramics, glassware and furniture (including a Grand Prix for his glassware), where he celebrated the lost provinces of the Alsace and Lorraine regions and developped, through his symbolic decoration, the theme of patriotism. On this occasion, Gallé was made an officer of the Legion of Honor.
From that date, Emile Gallé intensively developped his technical and aesthetic research on glass work, a field in which he developped and created new manufacturing processes. His glassworks were designed in Meisenthal until 1894, when he opened a crystal factory whose firing took place in May 1894 in his company in Nancy. Emile Gallé's research led in 1898 to the filing of two patents, for "a kind of decoration and patina on crystal" and "a kind of marquetry of glasses and crystals" by depositing small inclusions of glass in the molten paste. His pieces were then reworked by engraving, at the wheel for the most precious, hydrofluoric acid for the most common, his engravers-decorators thus giving a cameo decor on a lined or multilayered glass.
After the death of Emile Gallé in 1904, his company continued to produce until 1936. Each piece bears the signature of Gallé with hundreds of variants.
L’Escalier de Cristal, Parisian firm created about 1800 by Mme veuve Desarnaud, famous under the French « Restoration » for its decorative objects combining crystal and bronze. Located in Paris, at the Palais-Royal, Galerie de Valois, L’Escalier de Cristal was bought out around 1830 by Boin, and then by Lahoche in 1840. The company owed its rise to a position amongst the most important Paris decorative wares shops to Lahoche, who expanded considerably the business and entered later in partnership with his son-in-law to set up in 1852 Lahoche et Pannier. In 1872 Emile Pannier led alone the firm, and then his sons from 1885 to 1923, whom gave the name of Pannier Frères to the company, located at the corner of Scribe and Auber streets, next to the new built Paris Opera house. L’Escalier de Cristal suggesting also since the 1880’s furniture and art bronze pieces, was several times awarded medals at the various International Exhibitions held in Paris, London and New York, and for instance a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition. Numerous artists, such Emile Gallé and Louis Majorelle worked for the L’Escalier de Cristal’s woldwide renown.
