THE MAGIC OF GLASS
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this virtual museum is to provide as complete a picture as possible - although certainly not exhaustive - of the glass manufacturing in France during the Liberty and Deco periods (1885 - 1940 ca.). The majority of the glasswares (especially vases) presented here have been realized through acid-etching (or “cameo”) while other techniques such as enameling or pressure are a bit disregarded (even if partially present) for a simple matter of taste.
A section dedicated to Germany, Bohemia and other European Countries during the same period is also present, although less pretentious.
Finally, a mini-collection of italian glasses is presented here: not the usual Murano glasswares, but the “Vedar” Company, with its refined and exclusive production, realized and exhausted over just a few years, during the third decade of the XX century.
Not as much attention has been paid to the most common glasswares by Gallé, Daum, Lalique, etc., and to their elitist and expensive manufacturing (even though these are widely represented too), as to the RARITY, both of the authors, both - within their production - of those glasses and vases that can be less and hardly found on the market due to the peculiarity of their features.
Just to make an example: you won’t find, in this virtual museum, any Gallé lamp or any Lalique vase from the ‘30s, because these objects, although much sought-after and with good reason appreciated, are nonetheless quite easy to find, as long as you are ready to pay some tens of thousands of euros for a single piece.
You will find instead, always to make an example, a Gallé centerpiece on a bronze foot, which is much rarer and yet significantly cheaper than any lamp from the same author, or a “pâte de verre” realized by Walter but signed by Daum during the short period of time in which the first was working for the latter. A piece which is really hard to find on the market.
The private collection, result of a quarter of a century of research and physically located in the North of Italy, is a constantly expanding: many rare and of great interest pieces are still missing and the immense variety of the production won’t certainly allow for the completion of this or any other similar collection, but a continuous effort is nonetheless devoted at acquiring new objects that can provide an always more comprehensive picture of the glass manufacturing of the time.
The glasses and vases represented here don’t have, for the time being, any description because we find it unnecessary for the connoisseur. For each unit, however, we highlighted the measures and any additional information can be provided upon simple request.
We would like to thank you already all those who will be able and willing to provide any information on the authors that we consider very rare or completely unknown. Their contribution is precious and - on request - we will mention the source of the information.
The aim of this virtual museum isn’t commercial but informative. Therefore, keeping in mind that everything on this earth has a price (with only a few exception: the mum, the family, the honor...), we don’t intend in principle to proceed at any disposal, and the more an object is considered rare, the less we are willing to sell it.
But, of course, glasses are not mums, nor they have anything to do with family and honor...