Descripción
1920's French Legras Cameo Art Glass Vase. 9" tall with no cracks, chips, or restoraitons.
The Legras glassworks – ultimately a multi-centred concern employing hundreds of
people across several manufacturing centres – produced enough highly-distinctive
pieces to be considered an art-glass movement in its own right.
It’s more accurate, of course, to consider the name one of the foremost in the
panoply of innovative, experimental and overtly artistic producers who
revolutionised decorative glassware from the mid 1860's, throughout the fin de
siècle, across the duration of the Great War and beyond
The founding father of the company, François-Théodore Legras, came from humble
stock, having be life as a woodsman in the Vosges department south of
Strasbourg. In 1859, Legras determined that there was potentially more to life
than trees and leaves, and secured himself a clerical apprenticeship at the
glassworks in Clairey, a long-established manufactory producing drinking glasses
and tableware which – crucially for Legras – included the manufacture of
crudely-frosted pieces.
After learning his trade for five years, Legras moved to Paris and took a job at
the Plaine St Denis factory, securing a senior managerial role by the age of 27.
He was director of the works when, underwritten by expat-philanthropist Sir
Richard Wallace, it was significantly extended and modernised; the duo also took
over another factory at Pantin, on the northern fringes of the city.
Unrestrained by the financial strictures of facilities lacking patrons such as
Wallace, Legras was able to encourage an experimental approach to glass
production, harking back to his childhood in the Darney Forests and using opaque
glass – based on Clairey’s frosted material – as a canvas on which designs could
be created. The businesses were also underwritten by the production of
utilitarian glassware for industry – distilleries and pharmacies – and this
security gave François-Théodore the freedom to develop his art-glass production
techniques. Intricately cut cameo glass pieces, acid-etched and enamelled
imagery – requiring up to five separate firing processes to achieve the desired
effect – became the Legras hallmark, with many pieces featuring forested
landscapes and the favoured themes of the artistic director - irises, orchids
and chrysanthemums.
Additional members of the Legras family were apprenticed in to the company,
notably a nephew – Charles – whose expertise in the chemical treatment of glass
to produce marbled, opaline surfaces on which designs could be overlayed, was to
prove a valuable commodity. Charles was ultimately to take over the running of
the businesses in 1909, seven years before the death of his uncle. He was able
to maintain a level of innovation which sustained the company for another decade
– achieving notable successes in developing synthesised “gemstones” which could
be ground up and incorporated in to the glass melt to give an extraordinary
depth of colouration which provided the base for the production of striking
cameo vessels.
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