By Émile Gallé
Located in New Orleans, LA
Statuesque and artfully etched, this exquisite cameo glass table lamp is the work of the famed Art Nouveau master Émile Gallé, one of the most highly regarded names in French glassmaking. The artist's appreciation of nature is on full display in the detailed Marguerite daisy pattern carefully etched in varying layers of colored glass. The blooms dance across the lamp's amber-colored form in mesmerizing shades of purple and red. When lit, the lamp emits an enticing warm glow. Nearly two feet in height, the lamp is much larger than is typical of Gallé's pieces, yet it maintains its grace and proportion.
Émile Gallé opened a small woodworker's shop in 1885, where he began experimenting with marquetry in furniture and naturalistic glass designs. In 1889, he displayed his new glass creations at the Paris International Exhibition, where the designs and colors not previously seen caused an immediate sensation. The new style of Art Nouveau had begun to appear, and the movement's aesthetics and devotion to nature appealed greatly to the young Gallé. In 1894 Gallé built a manufacturing plant in Nancy and began creating his own designs from inception through production. Gallé personally developed many of the designs, and he was known to actively make alterations and approve the designs of his talented team of designers and craftsmen he employed at the "Cristallerie D'Emile Gallé."
Signed "Gallé" on shade and base
Circa 1920
Literature:
A. Duncan, G. de Bartha, Glass by Gallé, London, 1984, p. 170, pl. 245 for another lamp of this model
A. Duncan, G. de Bartha, Gallé Lamps...
Category
20th Century French Art Nouveau Émile Gallé Lighting