DOI issue:
Nr. 120 (March 1903)
DOI article:Frantz, Henri: Emile Gallé and the decorative artists of Nancy
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19878#0125
Rmile Galle
glass-works, and so great was the reputation of the
native products that one master glass-maker,
Balthazar de Hennezel by name, was in the habit
of sending to England at regular intervals skilled
workmen to teach the secrets of their craft to
British artisans. In i6or the various glass firms
became united in one powerful corporation, and the
industry continued to be practised with fluctuations
of prosperity and depression during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
Preceded, then, by all these generations of
artists, Galle began work in 1865.
His greatest success appears to have dated from
about the time when he first became acquainted
with the triumphs of the Japanese, which confirmed
him in his conviction of the necessity ot adhering
to strictly naturalistic decoration. He studied the
science of colouring with fresh ardour ; and whereas
he had hitherto relied mainly upon the vegetable
BY E. GALLE
VASE BY E. GALLE
kingdom for his decorative inspirations, he now
determined to make the sister realm of minerals
yield up her secrets of subtle colouring. By
mixing in ordinary white glass before it cooled in
the crucible preparations with a metallic base and
pulverised glass, M. Galle managed to vary in-
finitely the delicate shades of colouring and the
degrees of transparency of his vases, giving to them
some of the qualities of precious stones. In them
will be found now the opalescent greens of the
chrysoberyl or of the chrysolite, the silvery gleam
of the cymophane, the scarlet glow of the cinnamon-
stone, the blue of the turquoise, and all the varie-
gated shades of the amethyst — in a word, the
113
glass-works, and so great was the reputation of the
native products that one master glass-maker,
Balthazar de Hennezel by name, was in the habit
of sending to England at regular intervals skilled
workmen to teach the secrets of their craft to
British artisans. In i6or the various glass firms
became united in one powerful corporation, and the
industry continued to be practised with fluctuations
of prosperity and depression during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
Preceded, then, by all these generations of
artists, Galle began work in 1865.
His greatest success appears to have dated from
about the time when he first became acquainted
with the triumphs of the Japanese, which confirmed
him in his conviction of the necessity ot adhering
to strictly naturalistic decoration. He studied the
science of colouring with fresh ardour ; and whereas
he had hitherto relied mainly upon the vegetable
BY E. GALLE
VASE BY E. GALLE
kingdom for his decorative inspirations, he now
determined to make the sister realm of minerals
yield up her secrets of subtle colouring. By
mixing in ordinary white glass before it cooled in
the crucible preparations with a metallic base and
pulverised glass, M. Galle managed to vary in-
finitely the delicate shades of colouring and the
degrees of transparency of his vases, giving to them
some of the qualities of precious stones. In them
will be found now the opalescent greens of the
chrysoberyl or of the chrysolite, the silvery gleam
of the cymophane, the scarlet glow of the cinnamon-
stone, the blue of the turquoise, and all the varie-
gated shades of the amethyst — in a word, the
113