Galle Art Nouveau Three-Colour Cameo Glass Vase with Flowering Wisteria c.1900

Beautifully subtle three-colour cameo glass vase with flowering wisteria by Émile Gallé c1900. Footed ovoid body with tall collar neck. Cameo design of trailing wisteria in flower - created using coloured overlay of plum and lilac over an acid-etched, frosted ground. Ground gradating from pale-apricot at its base through white, to pale-apricot at its rim. Wheel cut detail to leaves and petals. Fire polished on lower half to highlight blooms. Raised Gallé signature to body. The vase is 15 cm in height and 8.5 cm maximum diameter. Gallé was the son of a faience and furniture manufacturer and studied philosophy, botany, and drawing in his youth. He learned glassmaking at Meisenthal and came to work at his father's factory in Nancy following the Franco-Prussian War. His early work was executed using clear glass decorated with enamel, but he soon turned to an original style featuring heavy, opaque glass carved or etched with plant motifs (cameo glass). In 1877 he took over from his father as director of the Maison Gallé-Reinemer. His work received praise at the Paris Exhibition of 1878 and again at the Paris Exhibition of 1889 – giving him and his style international fame.  With its emphasis on naturalism and floral motifs, Gallé’s designs were at the forefront of the emerging Art Nouveau movement.