SCHNEIDER-LE VERRE FRANÇAIS. France, first half of the 20th century.
Art Deco vase "Glycines", ca.1927.
Acid-etched glass. Circular wooden base.
Similar works are published in the book "Charles Schneider: Le verre français-Charder Schneider", by Marie-Christine Joulin and Gerold Maier, p. 170.
Signed on the wooden base.
Procedure: Private Collection, Spain between 1970-1990.
Measurements: 51.5 cm (total height).
Large vase with an elongated, slender oval belly, with handles on the sides and raised on a stepped circular base, the latter in wood. It is made of two layers of glass, the lower one translucent, yellow in colour, and the upper one acid-etched in orange. The decoration is based on large floral bouquets, arranged in an orderly and highly naturalistic manner, in keeping with the Art Nouveau aesthetic.
Ernest (1877-1937) and Charles Schneider (1881-1953) founded a small glassworks in Epinay-sur-Seine, France, in 1911. Charles Schneider, a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and gifted with unusual artistic skills, together with his brother, succeeded in making his production the most important art glassworks in France between 1926 and 1930. His pieces were always hand-blown, which meant that each glass in the same series would never be identical to another. At the same time, the range of hot and cold decoration processes was always applied with virtuoso mastery. Charles Schneider meticulously studied the temperature and chemical compositions to obtain an extremely extensive palette of colours, some of them never seen before and of unprecedented strength in the art of glass. The so-called Tango, for example, an explosive orange, was to become the most innovative. Known as Verreries Schneider, the firm realised two production lines. The first, under the brand name Le Verre Français, includes pieces decorated with the acid-etched cameo technique, with generally two colours of glass superimposed and a stylised floral decoration, shiny on a matt background. The second line, under the emblematic Schneider brand, is made up of pieces in shorter series, sometimes unique, offering smooth and shiny glassware, with more elaborate and personal decorative techniques. In any case, the success of this firm was undoubtedly due to the creative frenzy, enthusiasm, talent and genius of one man, Charles Schneider.