Heart Sarpaneva

Choose from an assortment of styles, material and more with respect to the heart sarpaneva you’re looking for at 1stDibs. Each heart sarpaneva for sale was constructed with extraordinary care, often using glass, art glass and blown glass. Your living room may not be complete without a heart sarpaneva — find older editions for sale from the 19th Century and newer versions made as recently as the 20th Century. Each heart sarpaneva bearing Art Nouveau, Art Deco or mid-century modern hallmarks is very popular. You’ll likely find more than one heart sarpaneva that is appealing in its simplicity, but Muller Frères, Iittala and Muller Fres Luneville produced versions that are worth a look.

Prices for a heart sarpaneva can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — at 1stDibs, they begin at $375 and can go as high as $90,000, while the average can fetch as much as $15,600.

Muller Frères was a family-owned glassworks that is best known for its striking designs produced in the Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles. The French company’s chandeliers, vases, lamps and other glass pieces created in the latter style — which were largely characterized by elegantly crafted natural-world motifs and subtle, organic forms — are highly sought after and make for distinctive additions to any space.

Henri Muller opened the company with four of his brothers in Lunéville, during a time that saw the modernizing Art Nouveau movement in the decorative arts develop countrywide as well as in Britain. It quickly became a dominant aesthetic style in Western Europe and the United States. Muller’s sister and an additional three brothers later joined the business.

The Muller family custom-ordered glass blanks from a glassworks near Nancy. The brothers learned about glass design from Émile Gallé, an innovative pioneer in glass artistry who would become a leading light of Art Nouveau. The style, which spanned furniture, architecture, jewelry and graphic design — can be easily identified by its lush, flowing forms suggested by flowers and plants, as well as the lissome tendrils of sea life. The earliest works by Muller Frères, which were often crafted in cameo glass, are strongly demonstrative of Gallé’s style and influence. 

After a period that saw a pause in production owing to World War I, the company saw considerable success.

Muller Frères employed several hundred people at its commercial peak, when the Art Deco style of the 1920s, which was brought to international attention at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, was popularized by the likes of René Lalique, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Jules Leleu. Authentic Muller Frères Art Deco sconces and pendants and hanging lamps featured sculptural wrought iron frames and saw an integration of high-polished nickel plating, bronze, frosted glass and silver leaf. 

Find antique Muller Frères lighting, decorative objects and serveware on 1stDibs.

In its sinuous lines and flamboyant curves inspired by the natural world, antique Art Nouveau furniture reflects a desire for freedom from the stuffy social and artistic strictures of the Victorian era. The Art Nouveau movement developed in the decorative arts in France and Britain in the early 1880s and quickly became a dominant aesthetic style in Western Europe and the United States.

ORIGINS OF ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGN

• Emerged during the late 19th century
• Popularity of this modernizing style declined in the early 20th century
• Originated in France and Britain but variants materialized elsewhere
• Informed by Rococo, Pre-Raphaelite art, Japanese art (and Japonisme), Arts and Crafts; influenced modernism, Bauhaus

CHARACTERISTICS OF ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGN

• Sinuous, organic and flowing lines
• Forms that mimic flowers and plant life
• Decorative inlays and ornate carvings of natural-world motifs such as insects and animals 
• Use of hardwoods such as oak, mahogany and rosewood

ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

• Charles Rennie Mackintosh
• Louis Majorelle
• Émile Gallé
• Antoni Gaudí
• Tiffany Studios

ANTIQUE ART NOUVEAU FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

Art Nouveau — which spanned furniture, architecture, jewelry and graphic design — can be easily identified by its lush, flowing forms suggested by flowers and plants, as well as the lissome tendrils of sea life. Although Art Deco and Art Nouveau were both in the forefront of turn-of-the-20th-century design, they are very different styles — Art Deco is marked by bold, geometric shapes while Art Nouveau incorporates dreamlike, floral motifs. The latter’s signature motif is the "whiplash" curve — a deep, narrow, dynamic parabola that appears as an element in everything from chair arms to cabinetry and mirror frames.

The visual vocabulary of Art Nouveau was particularly influenced by the soft colors and abstract images of nature seen in Japanese art prints, which arrived in large numbers in the West after open trade was forced upon Japan in the 1860s. Impressionist artists were moved by the artistic tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking, and Japonisme — a term used to describe the appetite for Japanese art and culture in Europe at the time — greatly informed Art Nouveau. 

The Art Nouveau style quickly reached a wide audience in Europe via advertising posters, book covers, illustrations and other work by such artists as Aubrey Beardsley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha. While all Art Nouveau designs share common formal elements, different countries and regions produced their own variants.

In Scotland, the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh developed a singular, restrained look based on scale rather than ornament; a style best known from his narrow chairs with exceedingly tall backs, designed for Glasgow tea rooms. Meanwhile in France, Hector Guimard — whose iconic 1896 entry arches for the Paris Metro are still in use — and Louis Majorelle produced chairs, desks, bed frames and cabinets with sweeping lines and rich veneers. 

The Art Nouveau movement was known as Jugendstil ("Youth Style") in Germany, and in Austria the designers of the Vienna Secession group — notably Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich — produced a relatively austere iteration of the Art Nouveau style, which mixed curving and geometric elements.

Art Nouveau revitalized all of the applied arts. Ceramists such as Ernest Chaplet and Edmond Lachenal created new forms covered in novel and rediscovered glazes that produced thick, foam-like finishes. Bold vases, bowls and lighting designs in acid-etched and marquetry cameo glass by Émile Gallé and the Daum Freres appeared in France, while in New York the glass workshop-cum-laboratory of Louis Comfort Tiffany — the core of what eventually became a multimedia decorative-arts manufactory called Tiffany Studios — brought out buoyant pieces in opalescent favrile glass. 

Jewelry design was revolutionized, as settings, for the first time, were emphasized as much as, or more than, gemstones. A favorite Art Nouveau jewelry motif was insects (think of Tiffany, in his famed Dragonflies glass lampshade).

Like a mayfly, Art Nouveau was short-lived. The sensuous, languorous style fell out of favor early in the 20th century, deemed perhaps too light and insubstantial for European tastes in the aftermath of World War I. But as the designs on 1stDibs demonstrate, Art Nouveau retains its power to fascinate and seduce.

There are ways to tastefully integrate a touch of Art Nouveau into even the most modern interior — browse an extraordinary collection of original antique Art Nouveau furniture on 1stDibs, which includes decorative objects, seating, tables, garden elements and more.

Every time you move into a house or an apartment — or endeavor to refresh the home you’ve lived in for years — life for that space begins anew. The right home accent, be it the simple placement of a decorative bowl on a shelf or a ceramic vase for fresh flowers, can transform an area from drab to spectacular. But with so many materials and items to choose from, it’s easy to get lost in the process. The key to styling with decorative objects is to work toward making a happy home that best reflects your personal style. 

Ceramics are a versatile addition to any home. If you’ve amassed an assortment of functional pottery over the years, think of your mugs and salad bowls as decorative objects, ideal for displaying in a glass cabinet. Vintage ceramic serveware can pop along white open shelving in your dining area, while large stoneware pitchers paired with woven baskets or quilts in an open cupboard can introduce a rustic farmhouse-style element to your den.

Translucent decorative boxes or bowls made of an acrylic plastic called Lucite — a game changer in furniture that’s easy to clean and lasts long — are modern accents that are neutral enough to dress up a coffee table or desktop without cluttering it. If you’re showcasing pieces from the past, a vintage jewelry box for displaying your treasures can spark conversation. Where is the jewelry box from? Is there a story behind it?

Abstract sculptures or an antique vessel for your home library can draw attention to your book collection and add narrative charm to the most appropriate of corners. There’s more than one way to style your bookcases, and decorative objects add a provocative dynamic. “I love magnifying glasses,” says Alex Assouline, global vice president of luxury publisher Assouline, of adding one’s cherished objects to a home library. “They are both useful and decorative. Objects really elevate libraries and can also make them more personal.”

To help with personalizing your space and truly making it your own, find an extraordinary collection of decorative objects on 1stDibs.