Vase

This vase was produced by the innovative French glasswork factory established by Emile Gallé in Nancy in the 1870s. The yellow glass body has been overlaid with shades of blue glass to create the dynamic high-relief decoration of arum lilies. The raised design was formed primarily in the mould, a technique known as mould-blown or ‘blow-out’ glassmaking. The vase was part of a new range of mould-blown ‘relief’ wares that the Gallé factory produced in the mid-1920s, under the direction of Paul Pedrizet. [1]

During his lifetime, Emile Gallé achieved international fame for his glassware, which fused experimental glassmaking techniques, with designs inspired by the symbolic properties of nature. After Gallé’s death in 1904 his factory in Nancy continued producing glassware for an elite commercial market. Paul Pedrizet had married Gallé’s daughter in 1906 and became increasingly involved in running the family business. Keen to ensure the profitability of the factory, Pedrizet introduced the use of engraved cast iron moulds in the 1920s. These moulds were used to produce a new range of vases and lamps with light-catching, high-relief designs. [2]

This mould-blown range, including this arum lily vase, is thought to have been designed by Auguste Herbst. By the 1920s, Herbst was artistic director at the factory and the last remaining member of the talented team of artists who had worked directly with Emile Gallé in the 1890s. [3]

The Andersons acquired a total of ten works in glass by Gallé and three pieces of his furniture for their Art Nouveau collection in the 1960s. All reflect Gallé’s fascination with the natural world, which inspired the form, decoration and symbolism of his designs.

Lisa Newby, June 2020

[1] For a full account of this range, see Samuel Provost, ‘Etablissements Gallé and the Industrial Mold-Blown or “Relief” Series of the 1920s’, Journal of Glass Studies, 60 (2018), 269-294.

[2] Ibid., p.275.

[3] Ibid., p.282.