Emile Gallé: A Contemporary Vision at Sotheby's

22 November '16

This rare collection brings together unique works created by Emile Gallé. These pieces perfectly demonstrate the skillful way in which the artist interpreted the natural world using different shapes and shades of glass and crystal.

There are 51 lots in the auction, a third of which come from the same European collection. The highlight of the sale is 'La Nature', an impressive ‘marqueterie sur verre’, an internally decorated cameo glass bowl, produced around 1900. This work can be considered as very modern as it is decorated with an almost abstract or symbolic landscape.

Gallé’s great virtuosity is also well represented by LaGiroflée de muraille, L’amour est plus fort que la mort, a ‘marqueterie sur verre’, wheel-carved cameo glass vase parlant with applied studs, produced in 1900 and presented at the Paris Universal Exhibition the same year.

VASE CHÊNE LORRAINE, VERS 1895-1900 A WHEEL-CARVED CAMEO GLASS WITH APPLICATIONS, CIRCA 1895-1900. SIGNED Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 EUR

VASE AUX ÉLÉPHANTS', A MOULD BLOWN AND ACID-ETCHED GLASS VASE, CIRCA 1925. SIGNED Estimate 30,000 — 40,000 EUR

VASE PARLANT HEMEROCALLIS, 1900 'HEMEROCALLIS', A MARQUETERIE SUR VERRE, WHEEL-CARVED CAMEO GLASS VASE PARLANT, 1900. SIGNED, DATED, NAMED AND INSCRIBED. EXHIBITED AT THE 1900 UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION Estimate 70,000 — 100,000 EUR