French-antiques

Glassware

Find an item in glass

Glass making began in the Middle East during the Bronze Age.  In the first century B.C blown glass developped, a quicker and easier method of making glass which spread rapidly through the Roman Empire.  In the 12th C. Venice was the glass making center of Europe, moving to the island of Murano in the 15th C.  Venitian glass dominated the market until the 17th C when the English invention of lead crystal took over.  This method led to the opening of the Baccarat and St Louis facories in the late 18th C.  The early 19th C saw the invention of pressing glass into a mold to produce imitation cut glass, a method also used by Baccarat and St Louis.   In the late 19th C in Nancy, Emile Galle invented the multi-layer acid etched glass representative of the Art Nouveau period.  He was joined by Jean Daum thus creating the famous Nancy school with the cabinet-maker Majorelle.  The Art Deco period saw the fashion of pate-de-verre as can be seen in the Lalique perfume bottles and  in the work of Legras and Martinot.




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