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Glass paste lamp base * signed Emille Gallé *, acid-free floral pattern decoration. XIXth period.
Normal wear, see photos.
* Glass paste: treatment of glass known from Antiquity (Pliny), rediscovered by H. Cros around 1880, who was looking for a fusible material that could be worked in a pasty or liquid state. It is a colored crystal, previously reduced to powder and mixed with water, added to a binder to compose a paste; this after firing becomes hard and translucent to be then modeled like a sculpture and colored. The real glass paste is removed by cold amalgamation of glasses and ground enamels. The dough is then molded and subjected to baking in a lost wax mold; under the effect of heat, the constituent elements agglomerate. (Larousse dictionary of antiques and second-hand goods).
* Émile Gallé (1846-1904) is a French industrialist, master glassmaker, cabinetmaker and ceramist. He was the founder and first president of the School of Nancy in 1901. Child of art and commerce, he was one of the most prominent figures of applied arts in his time and one of the pioneers of Art. new.
