Art Nouveau & Art Déco - Gallery in Monaco
RARE VASE, CIRCA 1892-1895
Double acid-etched glass with a design of grasshoppers, flowers, insects, and an enameled butterfly, highlighted with gold
Signed
Height: 29 cm.
Exhibition
Similar model at the Kitazawa museum
“LES BLANCS SOLEILS D’AUTOMNE” OR “CHANT D’AUTOMNE” IMPORTANT VASE, CIRCA 1900
Glass marquetry in shades of green and pale pink against an opalescent white ground
Decorated with swamp magnolia blossoms, acid-etched and finely wheel-carved
Height: 34.5 cm.
Exhibition
Smaller-size model, exhibited at the 1892 Salon. The smaller version of this model is preserved in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay under identification no. 33270 and inventory no. PHO 1986 71 157
Bibliography
Louis de Fourcaud, Émile Gallé, in the series Les Artistes de tous les temps, published by Librairie d’Art Ancien et Moderne, Paris, 1903; the smaller version of the model is illustrated on page 27 and titled Les Blancs Soleils d’Automne
Revue des Arts Décoratifs, seventeenth year, 1 January 1897; the smaller version of the model is illustrated on page 342 and is also titled Chant d’Automne
Provenance
The vase was commissioned from Émile Gallé by Félix Crousse (1840–1925) and subsequently remained in the family by descent.
Born on 2 October 1840 in the Boudonville district of Nancy, François Félix Crousse was the son of Louis Crousse, a gardener, and his wife Françoise Morel. He attended the Imperial Lycée of Nancy from 1850 to 1855 before undertaking a horticultural apprenticeship that lasted approximately ten years, notably with Auguste Calot in Douai.
He quickly distinguished himself through his work on the ivy-leaved geranium, which he successfully improved, as well as on various other flowering plants, including chrysanthemums, cyclamens, and herbaceous peonies, for which he developed nearly eighty new cultivars. Crousse achieved international renown as one of the foremost specialists in tuberous begonias.
Closely associated with several artists of the École de Nancy—among them Jacques Gruber, Ernest Bussière, and above all Émile Gallé—he paid tribute to Gallé by giving his name to several of his floral creations, particularly peonies and begonias.
In 1877, together with Victor Lemoine, Émile Gallé, and Léon Simon, he founded the Central Horticultural Society of Nancy (Société Centrale d’Horticulture de Nancy), whose development he actively supported. He encouraged the creation of a society bulletin, which he edited for a time before entrusting its management to Gallé, and later served as vice-president of the organization.
Félix Crousse gained particular recognition at the great international exhibitions. He was awarded a Gold Medal at the 1878 Paris Exposition for his peonies and a Silver Medal at the 1889 Paris Exposition for his begonias.
This is typical provenance text in an auction catalogue: it establishes a direct historical connection between the original commissioner, the celebrated horticulturist Félix Crousse, and Émile Gallé, while emphasizing the vase’s uninterrupted descent within the family.
DECORATIVE POT, CIRCA 1889
White glazed earthenware in the form of a Foo dog head
Embossed marks under the base: Modèle et décor déposés, Gallic rooster, E G and Lorraine cross, Émile Gallé, Nancy.
Height: 25 cm.
Width: 22 cm.
VASE “CINERAIRES”, CIRCA 1910
Clear glass with white, yellow and blue inclusions
The flowers and leaves are acid-etched and wheel carved
Signed
40.5 cm. high
Bibliography
Clotilde Bacri, Daum, Michel Aveline éditeur, 1992, ill. p. 68
VASE, CIRCA 1900
Acid-etched glass decorated with leaves and flowers and heightened with translucent enamels
Engraved signature
22.7 cm. high
“AUX LIBELLULES ET PAPILLONS” CONSOLE, CIRCA 1900
Sculpted walnut and exotic wood marquetry, mother-of-pearl inlay and bronze
Signed
138 cm. high; 74 cm. wide; 46 cm. deep
Only one variant of the design is recorded
Bibliography
A. Duncan and G. de Bartha, Gallé Furniture, Antique Collector’s Club, 2012, a variant ill. p. 272, pl. 4
Provenance
Private collection, France
CONICAL VASE, 1898
Multilayered and wheel-carved conical vase with faceted corners in amber, purplish-blue and red marquetry glass, internally decorated with columbines on a background with silver foil inclusions, acid-etched, the original bronze base in the shape of leaves and spurs
Signed and dated 1898
26.1 cm. high
Exhibition
Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, 1898
Wood One Museum of Art, Hiroshima, Japan, 2005, n.33, ill. p. 36 in the exhibition catalogue
Emile Gallé – Nature and Symbol / Le Langage des Fleurs et des Choses Muettes, 16 January – 10 April 2016, Tokyo Metropolitan
Teien Art Museum; 24 April – 5 June 2016, Utsunomiya Museum of Art, n. 069, ill. p. 90
Bibliography
Revue des Arts Décoratifs, 1898, ill. p. 148
Renate Ulmer, Art Nouveau Symbolismus und Jugendstil in Frankreich, Arnoldsche, 1999, ill. p. 319, n. 318
Emile Gallé et le verre, la collection du musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, Ed. Somogy, Paris, 2004, similar example ill. p. 164, n. 280
Provenance
Daimaru Museum, Japan
Other examples of this design are owned by important museums worldwide:
Kitazawa Museum of Art, Japan
Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf (Collection Gerda Koepf), Germany
Suntory Museum, Japan
Musée de l’Ecole de Nancy, Nancy, France
Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, inv. n. 55.284, Hungary
“IRIS” VASE, CIRCA 1900
Multilayered glass vase decorated with blooming water iris in glass marquetry,
some elements wheel-cut, with six vertical hot-applied elements
Signed with a double line
Exhibition
The model was exhibited at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition,
displayed in the Les Granges showcase
Our vase was shown at the Fine Arts Exhibition in Mulhouse in 1911, no. 14, p. 90
It was also included in the Gallé exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris from 29 November 1985 to 2 February 1986
Bibliography
Émile Nicolas, M. Émile Gallé at the 1900 Exposition, in La Lorraine, 18th year, no. 11,
December 1900, p. 164, for a similar example with a dragonfly
Roger Marx, La décoration et les Industries d’Art à l’Exposition de 1900, 1901, p. 107
La Revue Lorraine Illustrée, no. 3, 1906, p. 106
Bulletin de la Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, 1911, p. 4
A similar example was sold at Christie’s Geneva on 16 November 1981 under lot no. 228 (sold for 230,000 Swiss francs plus fees to Andrée Vyncke)
Georges de Bartha, Gallé, le verre, Bibliothèque des arts, Paris, 1985, p. 105, for a similar model
Françoise Thérèse Charpentier, Philippe Thiébaut, Gallé, exhibition catalogue, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 29 November 1985 – 2 February 1986, Ministry of Culture, Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, 1985, p. 212
