The Collector/Joe Armstrong: The strong Oriental influence displayed in major European exhibitions at the end of the 19th century was generally credited with inspiring the art nouveau movement, which led, in turn, to art deco.
Anne Mitofsky Citron, director of Mitofsky Antiques, Terenure, Dublin, elaborating on a lecture on art nouveau and art deco glass delivered last Sunday at the Irish Antique Dealers Association fair, explains that in 1884, Emile Gallé spearheaded the drive for change in glass. His studio at Nancy, France, combined his interest in botany and literature to produce designs of "breathtaking beauty".
Also based at Nancy, the Daum factory won the grand prize in the glassware category at the universal exhibition in Paris in 1900. Their charming miniatures combine cameo work with enamel painting.
In New York, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), the son of the heir to the founder of famous jewellery store Tiffany's, introduced "favrile" glass - handmade iridescent glass which, transfused with light, glows with colour.
Moving to art deco, famous 1920s artists Gabrielle Argy Rousseau and Almeric Walters excelled in paté de verre glass, which involved the mixing of finely powdered glass particles, metallic oxide and a binding agent. Rene Lalique (1860-1945), who designed perfume bottles for Francois Côty, worked to any scale, from tiny glass bottles to magnificent glass fountains.
In the 1930s, Swedish firm Orrofos, which included the artist Vicke Lindstrand, famous for the pearl fisherman series, developed grall, a kind of cameo. "An outer cameo layer was carved and the piece was further heated, blown and cased in clear glass so that the carved subject was distorted and softened, appearing trapped within liquid glass," she says.
In Italy, Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) worked for the Vinini studios, which made avant-garde designs. The studios were famous for surguso glass, with its sponge-like appearance. "With the influence of modernism, a new revolution in glass was taking place in the 1920s and 1930s, spearheaded by famous designers like Le Corbusier, who was one of the directors of the Bauhaus, the famous German school," she says.
At the 1925 exposition in Paris, Robert Mallet-Stevens designed his pavilion Le Tourisme, a rigidly austere geometric construction with flat glass ceiling and leaded glass frieze. In the US, glass became a symbol of modernity. Mirrored and glass cocktail cabinets, frosted glass panelling and glass-panelled chairs became fashionable modernist artefacts.
Art deco glass is very popular but buyers should beware of forgeries, of which "mountains" are available." She also warns: "Damaged glass doesn't carry any value."