"Art Déco A Delatte Nancy Moulded Pressed Glass Vase, Ivory & Purple Bottom"
ART DECO PERIOD, GLASSWARE Surprising glass vase PRESS MOULD of ovoid shape, signed André DELATTE, Ecole de Nancy, circa 1925
Pressed moulded glass technique/processing, popularised by the artist, allowing the mass production of glassware with a new aesthetic; the industrial technique (which here clearly distances it from the precepts of the School of Nancy and its artistic and often elitist productions) made it possible to blow a glass vase at very high pressure into a metal structure containing and constraining the form, allowing it to be given a new and original shape, here like crumpled paper with very geometric and abstract angles and lines.
Glassmakers (in particular the MULLER brothers, DAUM,...) often left the metal structure in bronze or wrought iron, elegantly combining the 2 materials. The artist chooses here to remove the mold in question in order to highlight the glassware itself and to highlight the innovative technique used in the glass industry.
This vase systematically has the same colours, ivory for the upper 2 thirds and a purplish marbled bottom.
Later productions, on the same model, but much coarser, were produced, in matte blue-grey and purple-pink, but not by the DELATTE manufacture it seems.
Signature engraved/grinded on the back, on 2 lines: "A DELATTE... NANCY", also adopting an angular and geometric graphic.
Circa 1925
Perfect condtion.
Dimensions
22cm height
& 16cm diameter
"André Delatte is an industrialist, master glassmaker, founder in 1921 of the Verreries de l'Est SA whose workshops manufactured artistic glassworks of the main brand ADelatte Nancy, in the Art Nouveau or Art Deco styles."
"This artist is best known for his production of long-necked glass vases (so-called "Berluzes" vases) made in the 1920s, whose signature is often erased by time. An industrialist from the Nancy area, André Delatte produced pieces in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.
André Delatte, links with the Muller Brothers
It was while visiting the factory of the Muller Brothers, glassmakers in Lunéville (Meurthe et Moselle) that he became friends with them. He discovered a real passion and vocation for working with artistic glass and especially technical processes, of which he acquired a perfect mastery to work with this material.
André Delatte's first steps in the world of glassmaking
In 1919, he opened a glass decoration workshop in the Faubourg des Trois Maisons district of Nancy, after having studied all the techniques of glass making.
The Muller Brothers were one of his main customers with the decoration of their blown glass pieces.
It was in 1921 that he created the company "Les Verreries de L'Est SA" in Jarville in the suburbs of Nancy. It was a success and the Nancy native expanded the small factory in 1926 by transferring his workshops. It was at this time that he became a formidable businessman. The size of the company allowed the creation of a workers' housing estate close to the workshops. The production consists of objects related to the art of the table: vases, cups, candy boxes and lighting. In the Art Nouveau style, André Delatte adapted to change with the arrival of the Art Deco style. He relied above all on Paul Maheux from Nancy, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts, a talented designer and modeller for the décor.
The factory had 60 skilled workers. The often inexpensive pieces appealed to a clientele that preferred to spend on toilets, dinners and evenings during this period of the Roaring Twenties (1920). Several employees were often poached from the workshops of the Daum brothers, whose founders were members of the Ecole de Nancy (1904) and essential in evoking this period with Emile Gallé. After 1914, Art Nouveau was already on its decline. Art Deco, initially called Art Décoratif, began to appear around 1910 and ended in 1930.
Since the early 1900's, the Daum brothers have been producing long-necked vases called "Berluzes". André Delatte will also offer this model to his customers. The Daum brothers went to court to sue him for counterfeiting. In the end, this charge was not retained, after the accused provided proof that these types of vases had existed since antiquity and were present in many museums.
The Daum, Gallé, Muller and Cristallerie de Nancy establishments were present in a market where customers became scarce following the economic crisis that set in at the end of the 1920s.
The stock market crash of 1929 in the United States plunged Europe into an economic crisis and factories closed one after the other.
André Delatte was no exception to the situation and ceased his activities in 1933. He tried to take over with the creation of a new company in the glass factory, but without success"
Bibliography:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/André_Delatte
https://andredelatte.over-blog.com
https://leverreetlecristal.wordpress.com/category/andre-delatte-1887-1953-et-ses-galinettes-france/
https://www.mv-bracelet.com/verrier-andre-delatte/
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