Jardiniere

A jardiniere, or a vessel for storing fruit, can be a banal item, for example a simple glass bowl with a purely utilitarian function. The item in front of us is not like that. It is a masterpiece of glass art and a manifestation of the art style at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries – Art Nouveau. On the body of a flat cylindrical vessel we find the Gallé signature. The author is Émile Gallé, a designer and creator of glassware, ceramics, jewellery and furniture who lived in the years 1846-1904. He was the co-founder and main representative of the Nancy school, where Art Nouveau was born.

Although he initially studied philosophy and botany, he decided to continue with the family tradition – his father had a ceramics and glass workshop. He settled down and founded a glass factory in Nancy. Improving his skills in glass processing, he developed his own original style based on complicated techniques of glass making: staining, grinding and etching. He melted metals and other materials into the glass, and embedded films in it. He introduced air bubbles into the glass mass. He used the laminated glass technique. Using these complex techniques, he created decorations mainly with plant motifs – mainly floral – but extending to the world of insects and sea creatures as well. The decorations of his glasses use the contrasts of glossy and matt surfaces, relief and colour differentiation obtained by revealing different layers of coloured glass, superimposed on top of each other. Its naturalistic style of decoration, with the dominance of floral motifs, is the quintessence of Art Nouveau.

Our jardiniere is its perfect example. It is made of thick-walled, colourless, frosted glass. It was covered with a lilac-coloured layer with an etched floral motif. A twig of fuchsia blooming entwines the low body of the vessel. Before is an example of the mature Gallé style and French Art Nouveau.