Glass paste lamp – tip gallé

Symbol of the Art Nouveau Period, these lamps are creations of the same style as those of Emile Gallé. Multilayer glass, hot work, is a superposition by successive culling layers of glass of different colors. At first, the artist makes the drawing of the decor. This drawing then becomes a decorative pattern that is applied to the piece to reproduce the ornamentation. Using a varnish, the worker covers the parts of the room to be protected from acid attack. The piece can then be handcrafted in different ways, with a brush or in a bath.

♦ TIP GALLÉ LAMP :

Generally, the decorations of the lamps require doubled or triplets, more rarely four or five layers of glass.The work is complex and requires skilled glassmakers.

The different glasses that are applied to each other must have the same coefficients of expansion and elasticity, in order to prevent any break either during cooling or during cold-working glass. This last point becomes very difficult to achieve when superimposing up to three and four layers of different glasses.

The coefficient of expansion of the different colored layers, the identical thickness required for each layer of glass are all factors to be absolutely taking into account to avoid the destruction of the lamp. It often takes a lot of trial and error to achieve a satisfactory result.

The acid work proceeds as follows. At first, the artist makes the drawing of the decor. This drawing then becomes a decorative pattern that is applied to the piece to reproduce the ornamentation. With the help of a varnish, the worker covers the parts of the part to be protected from the attack of the acid. The lamp can then be handcrafted in different ways, with a brush or in a bath.