The Mushroom Vase, A Rare Marqueterie-Sur-Verre Intercalaire and Wheel-Carved Glass Vase

By Emile Gallé, circa 1900

With engraved signature 'Gallé'

The internally decorated lemon yellow, moss green and sea blue speckled ground overlaid in a deep pearl, opalescent lavender and finely wheel-carved to depict ink-cap mushrooms amidst falling leaves and wildflowers, the intercalaire decoration in a deep brown depicting the mushroom roots and wild vegetation

7 ¼ in (18.5 cm) high

cf. Emile Gallé, exh. cat., Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo; Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo; Shimonoseki City Art Museum, Shimonoseki; Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, Miyazaki; Suntory Museum, Osaka; Fukuyama Museum of Art, Fukuyama; 28 April 2000 – 10 June 2001, p. 82-83
Philippe Garner, Emile Gallé, 1976, p. 140
Helga Helschenz, Das Glas de Jugendstils, Dusseldorf, 1973, pl. 185

This vase represents an outstanding technical achievement by the pre-eminent glass maker and founder of the Art Nouveau movement, Emile Gallé. Finely detailed decoration is trapped within the body of the glass, changing its appearance through subtle dichroic effects according to the light which falls on it. This technique gave Gallé full opportunity to create works with rich evocative powers. His fascination with the subtleties of light and its transformative ability to evoke varying moods is expressed in a quotation from Count Robert de Montesquiou which he engraved on a vase, Fiori Oscuri: ‘J’aime l’heure où tout changeant de forme, le clair et l’obscure luttrent ensemble’ (I love that hour of shifting silhouettes when light struggles with darkness).

Marqueterie-sur-verre (marquetry on glass) was developed by Emile Gallé. This technique involves smoothing pieces of hot glass, usually in the form of insects, plants or flowers, into a molten glass object of contrasting colour by marvering (the technique of rolling hot, softened glass over a flat surface in order to smooth out the vessel).

The use of the intercalaire technique makes this vase particularly special and rare. Around 1890, Eugène Kremer from Meisenthal developed a new kind of glass decoration, probably in collaboration with Emile Gallé. The technique of painting between layers, or inclusions of coloured flecks and streaks between two layers of glass, had been patented in Berlin on 21st February 1896 and in Paris, almost a year later, on 23rd March 1897. The recurrent heating and cooling-down of the glass body was an extremely delicate process. It is said that due to the complexity, many makers gave up producing pieces of this kind after 1904.

The main subject of decoration on this vase is the type of mushroom called ‘ink-cap’. It is found in Europe and North America and grows in the mulch formed by leaves fallen from broadleaf trees. After the mushrooms grow for a few days, the caps open at night and, as their name suggests, turn to ink and melt away in the course of the night. Gallé captures in this vase the three stages of the brief lifespan of these mushrooms: their growth from the decay of other things, their flourishing and their return to the soil in an eternal natural cycle. In Asian countries, the mushroom symbolises long life, happiness and rebirth. Gallé’s choice of decoration combined with the symbolism of nature shows the influence of the art of Japan.