Pair of antique French opaline enamelled glass vases

Sold

This item is no longer available.

Please contact Mayfair Gallery, via the link below, if you would like us to help you source a similar product.

Questions about this piece?

Description

These magnificent vases display the very finest of French artistry and craftsmanship, with supreme quality of the enamelled decoration.

Each vase, blown from one piece of glass, is of typical shape with elongated body leading to a thinner neck with outward flaring circular rim and short circular base. The vases are beautifully painted in an array of colours with parrots to one side, above an elaborate floral spray and with twin inward facing wasps below, all set within an elaborate set of intertwined branch-form borders with floral shoots. The other sides are similarly decorated depicting other birds of prey and butterflies instead of wasps. The necks and bases are further detailed with gilt bands, which have become slightly faded over time.

Opaline glass is a decorative style of glass making that thrived within France during the 19th Century, and especially from 1852-70 during the reign of Napoleon III. The style, which takes inspiration from the Venetian milk glass of the 16th Century, uses glass with a high lead content known as 'demi-crystal' to produce an opaque or slightly translucent glass in a white colour (as in this example) or in other bright colours.

Details

Country of Origin
French
Date of Manufacture
19th Century
Period
19th Century
Style
Belle Époque, Birds / Ornithology, Floral
Material
Opaline Glass
Colour
Multi-coloured, White

Dimensions

Height
40 cm / 15.7 inches
Diameter
14 cm / 5.5 inches

Reference:
16283

Free International Shipping

This item qualifies for free international shipping, inclusive of professional packing and insurance.
Terms and conditions apply.