Dimensions: vase: height 19 cm, 23 x 18 cm;
plates: height 3.5 cm, diameter 24 cm
vase signed on the underside of the legs in cobalt in an underglaze italic handwritten inscription: 'E Galle | Nancy', signature partially smudged; plates signed in cobalt in underglaze from stencil: 'St. Clément | Galle á Nancy'.
Biography
Emile Gallé was a botanist, chemist, writer and merchant, and above all a designer of glassware, ceramics and furniture. From 1870, he collaborated with his father, ceramicist Charles Gallé Reinemer, owner (since 1845) of the ornamental table glass factory in Lancy and the faience factory in Raon, later Saint-Clement. In 1874 he was given the management of the faience factory transferred from Saint-Clement to Lancy. In 1878 he participated in the Paris World Exhibition, where he first exhibited enameled and carved glassware decorated with motifs taken from Oriental and East Asian art. At the Union Centrale exhibition in 1884, he presented coated glasses, including those with metal foil sandwiched between layers, imitating semi-precious stones in color and decorated with motifs from the world of flora and fauna. From around 1890, mass production of etched and carved decorative objects made of layered glass and tableware was undertaken. The peak period of Emile Gallé's artistic work was the Paris World Expositions of 1889 and 1900, which brought him Grand Prizes and gold medals. Among his closest collaborators were: painters, designers and craftsmen Louis Hestaux, Paul Holderbach and Auguste Herbat, master metallurgist Julien Roiseux, engraving studio managers Ismael Soriot and Emile Lang, and botanist and painter Tokousu Takacyma.
