According to Philip Chasen " Emile Galle glass and Daum Nancy glass are the best and most famous French cameo glass of the Art Nouveau period from 1890 to 1920. The glass was called "cameo glass" because it was built up with different colored layers and cut back with acid to reveal beautiful floral or scenic designs. First the glass was covered with an acid resist (wax). Then a glass artist carved the design into the resist, followed by immersion in hydrofluoric acid. The acid ate away the glass wherever the resist was removed. The longer the immersion in the acid, the more glass was eaten away. The wax was then melted away and a new layer applied. The process was then repeated. Each successive acid cutting added a layer of detail and possibly color if the vase had enough colored layers. The success of the vase depended largely on the skill of the artist."
These perfume bottles were made of lovely contrasting bright colors of glass and had various subjects ranging from insects like dragonflies to forest scenes or idyllic towns. Beautiful cameo glass perfume bottles and atomizers can be found in antique shops, at auction as well as online. You can also find imitations of cameo glass (not the new repros from Romania or China) but actual period pieces that look like cameo glass, but are actually painted with enamel (please scroll down to the bottom of this article to read about Enameled Glass (Non-Cameo Glass).
Other cameo glass bottles have been seen with the following signatures: G. Raspiller, Galle, Argy Rousseau, Daum Nancy, DeVez, Muller Freres-Luneville, Richard, La Verre Francais, A. Ducobu, Deveau, Quenvil, Paradis, and others. I have written brief histories and info about some of these companies below. More detailed information can be found in books or online.
Galle:
Emile Galle was born in France in 1846 and his training included art, botany, and chemistry, three subjects which he combined in his brilliant designs for glass and other mediums (pottery, furniture, jewelry). His father, Charles Galle, owned a glass and ceramics factory in Nancy, France. After much travelling and training, fighting in the war between France and Prussia, and working for the glass company "Burgun, Schverer et Cie" in Meisenthal, Galle settled back in Nancy and set up his own glass studio in 1873 where he initially made classical forms of glass with classical, intricate, enameled designs. Moving on from these designs to botanical themes, again in enameled glass, it was not until the 1878 International Exhibition in Paris, when Galle saw the work of his contemporaries such as John Northwood and Joseph Locke from England (cameo glass) and Eugene Rousseau (pate de verre) that he developed new and adventurous designs for his glass.Loetz decided to produce cameo glass under the name Richard in the 1920’s to satisfy the demand for French cameo glass in the Parisian market. With this in mind, many of the pieces were very similar to the French cameo glasswares made by Daum, Galle, De Vez, D'Argental, Legras and others.
The French company Etling sold Richard cameo glass in Paris in the 1920's. Richard was a retail outlet in Paris owned by Edmond Etling. Ref: 'Le Genie Verrier De L'Europe' by Cappa page 368. Edmond Etling commissioned Loetz to create French style cameo glass that they could sell in their Richard boutique. Therefore all pieces to be sold in the boutique have the Richard signature. Richard is a signature you will not often find as their perfume bottles don't seem to have been made in numbers like their vases. Loetz finally went out of business for the third time in 1939.
Daum Nancy Cameo glass pieces were produced in a series, typically acid cut, sometimes with added enamel. Nature and landscapes were commonly used themes.
Le Verre Francais
Glass made by Le Verre Francais was usually acid etched, just like Gallé and Daum's work. Schneider glass, on the other hand, was rarely acid etched. Most of the glass was brightly colored with internal mottling, streaking, and flecking . You may come across the name Charder, which is a contraction of the name Charles Schneider and may be found on vases and possibly perfume bottles.
D'Argental
Pantin, De Vez, & Legras
De Vez was a signature used on cameo glass after 1910. De Vez was the pseudonym adopted by Camille Tutré de Varreaux, who became artistic director of the Cristalleries Pantin. See the article below for more info on De Vez.
Legras et Cie, another company under Pantin, made beautiful Art Nouveau cameo and enameled glassware. It is possible to find lovely atomizers from this firm. Pieces will be marked Legras, Sargel (Legras backwards), Leg, and L & Cie.
Thick walled vessels in opaque glass acid etched with surface patterns (sometimes called cracked ice) all with Mont Joye mark & sometimes Aug. Heiligenstein., An illustrated dictionary of glass by Newman indicates Degue signature is found on Pantin glass(?)
In 1930 some pieces were signed Aug. Heiligenstein or A. Heiligenstein for Auguste Heiligenstein, a fantastic glass enamelist during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods. He was a gifted artist with a penchant for drawing, he used his talent to work as an apprentice decorator at the Saint-Denis Legras Glass Factory in 1902. After his brief stint at the Baccarat decoration workshop ended in 1908, he began working as the artistic director at the house of Rouard, after the demobilization by Goupy.
With confidence and the desire to become independent, Heiligenstein started his own company in 1923 and no longer had to work for someone else. Looking to expand his artistry, he met a woman who introduced him to ceramics, Odette Chatrousse, who would later become his wife. Heiligenstein mainly concentrated on ceramic arts after WWII.
Burgun Schverer & Co.
Burgun, Schverer & Cie (B&S) was a glasshouse for hollow ware and had decorating workshops for ornamental and utilitarian glass. The firm started business in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France, along the German border, in 1711 and was still manufacturing in the early 1970s.
Located in Meisenthal, Desire Christian was their chief designer from starting in 1885. Christian later left the firm with his brother Francois and son Armand in 1896 to establish his own glass workshop.
Burgun, Schverer et Cie were also known as one of the teachers of the master glass artist Emile Galle. This started the twenty-year collaboration between Gallé and Burgun , Schverer & Co. His earliest apprenticeship was at his father’s shop. He pursued studies in art and botany, which was his lifelong passion. Afterwards, he served a practical apprenticeship at the firm of Burgun, Schverer and Company, studying glassmaking at their factory in Meisenthal from 1866 to 1867. There, he became familiar with the latest innovations in glassmaking and was able to carry out research in glass chemistry, before returning in 1873 to Nancy to continue his experiments with glass and begin his own workshop.
His father, Charles Gallé, was a merchant of glassware and ceramics who had settled in Nancy in 1844, and his father-in-law owned a factory in Nancy which manufactured mirrors. His father took over the direction of his mother's family business, and began to manufacture glassware with a floral design. He also took over a struggling faience factory and began manufacturing new products. Initially the glass was produced for Gallé by the Pantin and Saint-Denis glassworks in Paris, and from 1864 by Burgun, Schverer & Cie, close to his decorating workshop at Meisenthal.
Starting in 1885, Emile Galle had intense collaboration with the firm, contracting them to manufacture glassware and even to decorate it, all based upon his specifications. The designs were carried out in the workshops of Desire Christian, the technical processes worked out in Galle’s scientific laboratories were kept a close secret. On articles qualified as ordinary, Burgun Schverer et Cie gave Émile Gallé a discount of twenty percent (20 %) and free border transport.
In fact, much of the finest art glass bearing the Galle signature was in fact created by Desire Christian of Burgun, Schverer & Co. under subcontract to Galle. Emile Galle’s early pieces were Burgun, Schverer’s raw glass blanks until 1894, when Galle established a vast new glassworks at Nancy, the Cristallerie d’Emile Galle.
Throughout the nineteenth century Burgun Schverer produced colored and decorated utilitarian glass such as goblets and carafes, as well as artistic art glass including beautiful vases and perfume bottles. In 1855, the firm participated in the Exposition Universelle in Paris.
In 1862, Annals of the Imperial Conservatory of Arts and Crafts reported that "A first-class factory, that of M Burgun Schverer et Cie in Meysenthal, exhibited a variety of objects from ordinary and cheap manufacture. This glass factory is expanding its outlets every day by carrying out the same articles as those required of crystal manufacturers."
At the Exposition Universelle of 1867 in Paris, they exhibited goblets, flower vases, white and decorated; chandeliers. At the Universal Exhibition of the French Republic in 1900, two of the Burgun Schverer et Cie artists received bronze medals: Eugène Kraemer (or Kremers) and Joseph Stenger.
The Burgun Schverer company specialized in high quality French cameo vases which were internally decorated. Burgun, Schverer & Cie was particularly successful with its range of wheel cut cameo glass in which the painted design was cased between various layers and then etched, hand-carved and gilded, creating an illusion of depth.
At the Universal Exhibition in 1901, it was reported that "Messrs. Burgun Schverer et Cie, Silver Medal at Meisenthal Lorraine have a remarkable and careful display of artistic glassware in which noteworthy two-layer and inlay glass cut etched, painted and decorated in various ways. This house has specially developed vases in a greenish tone with flower designs and Style Nouveau ornaments."
In 1900, the firm was transformed into a limited partnership, its director was Antoine Burgun, who ran the factory.
It is possible to find their molded glass perfume atomizers today, though they are scarce. Some types of the atomizers to be found are both the traditional versions and the piston pump travel atomizers.
Like Galle and many other members of the School of Nancy, the firm incorporated the Cross of Lorraine and the thistle into its signature as a sign of protests at German occupation of its native land. On vases you will most likely encounter the "B S & Co., Verrerie d'Art/de Lorraine" and "depose" with the initials "BS & Cie" or "BS & Co." inside of the Croix de Lorraine marking or a mark "Burgun, Schverer & Co., Meisenthal."
On perfume bottles you will find the B&S mark in an oval cartouche molded into the glass bases. Other bottles may have the hand painted markings.
Memoirs of the National Academy of Metz - Volumes 1-4, National Academy of Metz, 1821:
"M. BURGUN-SCHVERER et Compagnie, at Meisenthal, near Bitche, exhibited various samples of well-worked gobleterie, watch glasses and common crystals, such as glasses, flasks, bottles, etc. These products are beautiful, and the Company must regret that Mr. Bergun Schverer did not accompany his dispatch with a note which makes known the extension and the improvements which he gave to his establishment. The Company votes him, for the moment, an honorable mention."
Literature, Science and Arts of Metz - Years 1819 and 1820 Society General Session of April 15, 1821:
"MM BURGUN SCHVERER and company from Meisenthal and BURGUN WALTER and company from Goëtzembrück, one of whom obtained a 2nd class silver medal and the other an honorable mention in 1823, exhibited an assortment of ordinary glassware for watches and cast glassware, several samples of which have very sharp edges. The view guards for the lamps are now made in Meisenthal, they were previously sourced from Paris. Those on display leave nothing to be desired. This factory, which has been in existence for more than a century, employs nearly 500 workers, not counting those employed in the preparation of salt and soda. Its products have increased by a third since the last exhibition. They are sold today in the capital and are even exported far away. It annually delivers to the trade 8 million glasses of watches and clocks and more than 1,300,000 pieces of gobleterie of various qualities. The Society awards Messrs. Burgun Walter and Burgun Schverer a silver medal, 1st class."
MEMOIRS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF METZ, 1834:
"GLASS: Reminder of MM BURGUN Schverer and company of Meisenthal medal of and MM Burgun WALTER and company of Goëtzenbruck. They sent us, among other varied products, glass gobletware, pieces that rival the most sought-after crystals for transparency, regularity of shape, precision of size. All these objects which are half the price of their crystal equivalents and which are aimed at the middle class attest to the progress of the establishment. Also noticed were the so-called watch glasses. Bedside tables which are manufactured in Goetzembrück and which have earned the workshops from which they come out a reputation so well deserved. The Academy makes a point of recalling the first class medal that these honorable manufacturers obtained in 1826."
Ministry of Commerce - Investigation relating to various prohibitions established on the entry of foreign products, 1835:
"RAW MATERIALS consumed - Statement of situation (Expenditure) of Verreries de Meysenthal: The first of these two factories is administered under the name of Burgun, Walter, Berger et Cie; the second under that of Burgun, Schverer and Cie, both belonging to the same owners, located in the canton of Bitche, district of Sarreguemines, department of Moselle. Raw Materials: saline, soda salt, white sand, cullet, manganese, fine lime, wood (work and transp. included), various earths for pots, etc."
"Verrerie de Meisenthal - There is only one mountain to cross to get from Saint Louis to Meisenthal, which is located at the bottom of a valley. The glass factory is in the middle of the village and consists of an oven which dates from 1702, this oven was formerly in Soucht when in 1713, the Burgun family transferred it to the valley of Meisenthal. This factory draws its sands for fine glass from Forbach. Placed on the railroad in the center of the road from Paris to Frankfort, this establishment would find at its door the sands and fuel which it would need for Grünstadt in Rhenish Bavaria and for ordinary glass in Alsace. Its products consist of fine and ordinary white glasses which compete favorably with those of Valéristhal near Sarrebourg; it sells for 130 to 140,000 francs a year. This glass factory employs 150 workers who receive an average of 1 fr 25 c per day; children over 12 earn 12 fr per month. The company name is Burgun Schverer et Cie. The social fund is 120,000 francs.
Gotzenbruck glassworks - We climb the slopes of Koenigsberg to arrive at Goetzenbruck glassworks which dates from 1718. It consists of a furnace and two cuttings, one in Weisbach with thirty towers the other in Althorn, both are driven by the water we have. The intention to establish a third cutting plant at Vieux Marteau between Goetzenbruck and Mouterhausen. This factory draws its raw materials from France and abroad, its products consist of glass for watches and clocks which are exported as far as the East Indies. The crystals for watches known as Curved Chevet and patent glass, sought after in America and for the navy, are made there. Recently, this factory has been manufacturing new industry spectacle lenses which are in the process of progress. It sells annually for 600,000 fr of glasses annually for 600,000 fr of glasses. Fifteen hundred workers, most of whom work from home with their children, find employment there. Their pay on average is 1 fr 10 c for the former and 75 c for the latter. The company name is Burgun Walter Berger et Cie, the company fund is 1,000,000. The Meisenthal glassworks belongs to the same company. The ashes from the Meisenthal factory are transported to Goetzenbruck and combined with those from the latter factory to extract some of the potash necessary for the manufacture of glass."
Reports of the International Mixed Jury - Universal Exhibition of 1855:
"Joint venture under the names Burgun Schverer et Cie n 5297 in Meysenthal Moselle France Walter Berger et Cie n 5298 in Goëtzenbruch, Moselle, France. These two glass factories are of an old foundation Meysenthal dates from 1718 and Goetzenbrüch from 1721. In Meysenthal one manufactures fine and ordinary gobleterie of a very beautiful glass and at moderate prices. 225 workers are employed there and the production is around 340,000 francs. The Goëtzenbrüch manufactory produces watch glasses and spectacle glasses whose reputation is established on all markets around the world. The turnover is from 650 to 700,000 francs. The business employed is from 650 to 700,000 francs. We employ 500 workers in the workshops and 1,000 outside it produces annually more than 33 million watch glasses. The establishment contains 3 machines representing together 30 horsepower. The importance of these two establishments which belong to the same owners and which are governed by the same statutes the good quality and the cheapness of the products which come out of them make Messrs. Burgun, Berger Schverer et Cie very worthy of the 2nd class medal which the Jury awards them."
"A special group among the German glass manufacturers are those in the Reichsland, especially in Lorraine, apart from the company of Vallerysthal, which also has a branch in Portieux, but is less concerned with the manufacture of artistic glass, especially the two factories of Meisenthal, and on the one hand Gebrüder Christian & Sohn, and on the other hand Burgun, Schverer & Cie . produce art glass clearly inspired by Gallé, apart from the still common Venetianized or Moorish glass; the latter Meisenthal company even goes a step further by going back to Galle's models and imitating cut Chinese jade (nephrite) vases. At the Paris exhibition, some of these yellow-brown-leek-green vessels actually had a Chinese wooden base."
De Vez
Using 2, 3 layer cameo with iridescence & exotic scenes of flora & fauna. Simple shapes, mottled or overlaid or etched with designs of flowers, landscapes, birds, figures often gilded. Other pieces are enameled. Other cameo produced was marked Thiancourt.
E & Cie Val (Ancienne Maison Effler)
Georges Raspiller:
Georges Raspiller was a talented glassblower and engraver who came from a family of German glassmakers from Saar. He worked at "Les Cristalleries de Nancy" and as also for André Delatte in Jarville. George Raspiller produced glass in the period 1921-1931. Reference: Le Génie Verrier de l'Europe de Giuseppe Cappa. You can find his name on gorgeous cameo glass atomizers as well as vases and other glassware from the Art Nouveau and Art Deco period. The pieces are signed G. Raspiller.
Paradis:
Marcel Franck:
Below you will find several examples of enameled glass atomizers shown in a 1920s Marcel Franck catalog. The glass was supplied by various glassmakers, such as Quenvil, Rousseau and Peynaud while the hardware was added by Marcel Franck and retailed through them. Take special note of the shapes of the bottles, the décor and where the signatures were placed.
De Sux:
A. Ducobu:
Les Arts français: arts, métiers, industrie - Volumes 1-12 - Page 94, 1917:
"Enamels and cold paints Verreries Quenvil: This is a house that has seven months, the young leader of Decorative Arts student researcher's curious shapes, colors a little bright, but remember that name. Paintings on glass."
Peynaud:
Gauthier:
A very rare signature to be found is Gauthier. Camille Gauthier was born in 1870 in Norroy-lès-Pont-à-Mousson where his father worked as a farmer. At the age of 18, he entered the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Nancy, taking up then school director, Jules Larcher's courses in "Classic art and Nature." From 1891 to 1893, Camille Gauthier studied at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He set up his own business in 1901 and was the executive committee of the Ecole de Nancy.
DAC:
Muller Freres
Muller Freres, French for Muller Brothers, as you learned earlier, had made cameo and other glass from about 1895 to 1933. Their factory was first located in Luneville, then in nearby Croismare, France. Muller Freres was noted for their exquisitely detailed cameo glass, and their enameled glass perfume atomizers were just as beautiful. Most pieces were usually marked with the company name. The company finally closed its doors in 1936.More Kitzinger Freres bottles:
A. Monso:
"EPALLE - In a particularly stylish stand, we found all the latest creations from the famous brand Les Vaporisateurs Leon Epalle, all of which were arranged with perfect taste. The artistic enamels of this house, signed A. Monso, are among the most beautiful in Paris; they were very noticed, as were the latest novelties from Leon Epalle in artistic toilette sets which would soon enjoy the greatest popularity among all elegant women. Sample Room: 5 rue d'Alexandrie, Paris."
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