GALLÉ ESTABLISHMENTS (1904-1936) - Lot 325

GALLÉ ESTABLISHMENTS (1904-1936) Blown-decor "Rhododendrons" lamp, c. 1925, with spherical, slightly shouldered base and hemispherical, slightly conical lampshade, mounted with three holding claws. Red-brown glass on yellow ground. Décor of blossoming rhododendron branches and blown-molded, acid-etched buttons. Signed on each piece H. 47 cm AM Provenance: given in the early 1930s for a wedding and kept in the family ever since. Bibliography: Alastair Duncan & Georges de Bartha, Glass by Gallé, New York, 1984, model referenced and reproduced p. 157. François Le Tacon, L'Oeuvre de verre d'Émile Gallé, Éditions Messene Jean de Cousance éditeur, Paris, 1998, model referenced and reproduced p. 179. Bernd Hakenjos, Émile Gallé Keramik, Glas und Môbel des Art Nouveau, vol2 catalog, éditions Hirmer, 2012, model referenced and reproduced as n°304, p.155. Philippe Olland, Dictionnaire des maitres verriers marques et signatures, éditions Faton, Dijon, 2016, decoration referenced and reproduced p. 158 on a vase. In the early 1900s, Émile Gallé turned his attention to lighting fixtures, using the light that passes through his multi-layered glass to give even more life to the flora in his creations, which awakens at the soft touch of a lit bulb. On the strength of this success, Gallé's luminaires continued to be a growing production area, and after his death in 1904, his widow and son-in-law never stopped renewing and modernizing their production to keep up with current tastes. From 1920-1925, they drew inspiration from the new glass techniques developed by René Lalique and his famous moulé-pressé, to create vases and lamps in molded glass with varying degrees of relief decoration. The beauty of multi-layered glass is then revealed by the flowers, buds and foliage of blue or red rhododendrons, which take on changing colors as the bulbs are lit. These more modern creations were the latest to come out of Établissements Gallé, which continued to produce them until its closure in the mid-1930s. Today, they are highly sought-after by collectors.