c.1900, a cameo glass vase of compressed globe and shaft form with an everted rim. Cased and cut with foliate motifs to a mottled green background. 'Galle' cameo signature - H18cm W9cm D6.5cm max
Émile Gallé was born in 1846 in Nancy, France. He was French artist and designer who worked in glass and is considered to be one of the major innovators in the French Art Nouveau movement.
Cased glass and cameo glass were two techniques often used by Gallé. Cased glass was made of two different layers of glass of different colours, fused together by heat. The first case of layer is made in a cold. When it is finished and cooled, a second layer is blown inside the first Then the piece is placed into the furnace, so the two layers fuse together. This could be repeated for multiple layers of glass. Cameo glass was a means of decorating cased glass. The cased glass of two or more colours was carved with a diamond saw or etched with acid, so that the colours of the layer underneath were visible and created a design. Enamel glass was decorated on the outside by a brush of enamels coloured by metallic oxides
