Daum Nancy – Art Nouveau glass vase “Solanées”

A tall vase from the Daum-Nancy glass factory with an etched and enameled decor of a plant with leaves and flowers in French referred to as “Solanées”. This decor is quite rare and especially in this size, it is very popular among the glass collectors of Daum-Nancy.

About the technology
The vase is blown into the mould. The etched decor of the plant with leaves and flowers is on a ground with yellow and light brown glass powders and is matte due to the etching. The special thing about this vase is that the decor is not only etched but also enamelled, i.e. the leaves and flowers are finely painted by hand and fired at a low temperature. That is called enamelling. This is also an important difference in style with the other large glass factory in Nancy, namely that of Emile Galle.

About the factory
The Daum Nancy glass factory was founded by the brothers Auguste Daum (1825-1909) and Antonin Daum (1864-1931). We developed the Art Nouveau style for glass objects at the end of the 19th century. They received the “Grand Prix” medal for this at the World Exhibition of 1900, which was entirely focused on Art Nouveau in the world of applied arts.

The Art Nouveau style of the vases was characterized by borrowing motifs from nature that were depicted as faithfully as possible, usually plants or flowers. The technique consisted of etching several layers of glass, creating the decor on a ground of glass colored by glass powders. Working with glass powders to color the background in the Daum-Nancy factory was an important difference with the other glass factory in Nancy, the Galle establishment. In this factory the background was colored by working with acids.

Together with Galle and Majorelle, Daum formed the famous “Ecole de Nancy”

Literature
Katharina Buettiker, Daum Nancy, Daum Freres – Verreries de Nancy, glaskunst aus der Zeit 1880-1930, Zurich, 2008
Clothilde Bacri, Noel Daum, Daum, Milan 1992

Collection du Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, Daum, Nancy, 2000