“Cylène”, one of the last naturalistic glass series by Émile Gallé (1904)
“Cylène”, one of the last naturalistic glass series by Émile Gallé (1904)
An exemplary fusion of shape, function, and decor.
The appearance at an auction last week of a remarkable and very rare lamp shaped as the corolla of a snowdrop1 is the occasion to recall that electric lamps are at the same time the last class of glass items Émile Gallé took an acute interest in, and the one for which the dropout between his creations and Établissements Gallé’s was the most severe and immediate. While he began introducing lamps designs as early as the Exposition universelle of 1889, he waited until 1902 before fully exploiting this category’s potential and multiplying the models. His strongest presentation of such creations was in 1903 for the important exhibition of the École de Nancy organised for the Union centrale des Arts décoratifs in Paris2. He then died prematurely the next year, in September 1904. While the posthumous exhibition by the Société lorraine des amis des arts held in October, in Nancy, showed again an impressive array of his lighting fixtures3, his company seems to have eschewed his more costly and fragile naturalistic designs to focus exclusively on sturdier and easier to make models4. It should be noted that Émile Gallé was well aware of the technical challenge posed by the elaborate shape of his lamps’ shades, to the point that he had issued specific instructions to his designers on this issue5. With a much reduced range of forms, electricity quickly became, for the following three decades, one of the more successful line of glass items for the Établissements Gallé, as the numerous existing different designs can attest.
Most of the lamp designs Émile Gallé created or supervised during his last years are poorly documented. He had simply not enough time, in this period where he was often overwhelmed by his illness and the financial travail of his company, to write about it. As is often the case, his artwork was left to speak for itself. There is a partial exception, though, with a little known series shaped and decorated after the Silene vulgaris (Silène enflé in French) or Bladder campion’s sepals. I have to thank one trusted École de Nancy specialist, Justine Posalski, working then as an expert for the Leclere auction house, for kindly bringing this series to my attention a few years ago as well as for providing me pictures of some specimens.
The Silene vulgaris theme in fact was developed both for some lamps and for some short cylindrical vases : the surface decorative pattern and the colour combination are the same, leaving no doubt on the fact that they must have been made within a narrow time frame. The main difference between the two categories lies in the glass shape itself. The light fixtures follow closely the Silene’s appearance in different stages of its florescence, even though there may have been several species represented, and not only the Silene vulgaris — see below the remarks of Émile Gallé. The vases, by contrast, have a much more simple shape, only partly reminiscent of the flower’s calyx. This may be because this vase shape was also employed with other motives, such as the wildly successful Acer negundo pattern (see below) – unless of course, the application of this alternate decor came after the failure of the original one it was intended for. Whatever the case, an Acer negundo specimen sports a clear pre-1904 signature which places its production in the same period as the Silene vulgaris. This is an important comparison because – notwithstanding the comparable lamps – the unusual vermicular decor and the more geometric pattern on the vase’s mouth could have perhaps suggested a much later date in the late 1920s.
Lamps or vases, these glass pieces almost all have clear pre-1904 Gallé signatures, always etched on the body, and chosen among the vertical types, with thin elongated letters which allow them to visually merge with the veined pattern. The single exception, in the specimens identified so far, is the pair of tulips from a 2014 Aguttes’ sale. They feature a simple horizontal Gallé belonging to the Mk I or Mk III type, therefore fully compatible with a pre-1905 date.
Émile Gallé’s note on the Silène shape in the medieval architecture and for his lamps.
One of the Gallé manuscripts in the Orsay Museum archives contains a direct reference, if not to this series, then to similar ones, that helps to understand his motivation in choosing this particular flower family as the basis for some lamps. It is part of a draft for an article whose tentative title is Le décor selon la nature. Les formes ogivales dans les plantes. Exemples tirés des nervations du calice du Silene dioica. It does not look to have been published nor even finished since the text or any derivative fails to appear in the posthumous anthology edited by his widow, Écrits pour l’art, or in the contemporary collections edited by Fr. Le Tacon and others6.
The note is without date, as it is commonly the case for such drafts in the Gallé archives. The same bundle of sheets contains an article with the date 1891 (or is it 1897 ?) in the title, and a list of furniture artworks with a mention of the 1902 Salon. It seems that 1902 works indeed as a terminus post quem for the writing of the first article, since it does specifically allude to lamps (see below). There are also strong echoes of this small text in other Gallé writings such as his influential study on contemporary furniture, “Le mobilier contemporain orné d’après nature”, a true manifesto on Art Nouveau furniture, which he published multiple times in 1900 and 19027.
The main theme of the article draft from the Gallé archives in Orsay is an exploration of the resemblance between the sepal’s structure of the Silene botanical family (there are different kinds mentioned) and some elements of the Gothic Flamboyant style in Medieval architecture. Émile Gallé muses in particular about the different ways the applied arts could replicate some of these elements to achieve different effects. He writes :
En étudiant la construction du réseau des calices de ce silène, j’ai pensé qu’il y avait là un système de dessin tout fait, dont nos arts (de la pierre, du fer, du verre, de l’émail, du réticulé métallurgique) pourraient dans certains cas s’inspirer, ainsi que je l’ai appliqué moi-même au décor des vases de cristal et notamment des globes de verre destinés à atténuer la vivacité de la lumière électrique.8
Émile Gallé thus explains how he recognised the reticulated network of the Silene’s sepals as a natural drawing pattern that could double as an ornamental device and a lighting filter : this is indeed how it’s employed on the various light tulips that must surely represent the “glass globes” mentioned by Gallé. The green vermicular pattern dims the electric light as it is intended. This represents a particularly interesting functional use of the glass cameo technique : the various degrees of acid etching (the “tons” and “demi-tons” in the painter-decorator parlance) work as much to delineate the motive as to create the light ambiance by transparency. Logically, this pattern is found on small sized lamps only, since the goal was not to provide too harsh a light.
The Cylène series in the September 1904 stock inventory.
The name for this design can be found in an internal document of the Gallé factory, the stock inventory made just after Émile Gallé’s death for the artist’s succession. This document lists the different series in stock both in the Paris depot and in the Nancy factory, giving for each a brief generic description based on the type of item, the material, technique, and colour used, and the decorative pattern. Each category is ascribed a price (presumably the wholesale price) and a number of made pieces. For Nancy, the list makes the distinction between the finished and the unfinished, still in fabrication, items. One of the former series is thus described as “Vases forme cylène triplé vert nervures”.
What’s in a name?
Notwithstanding the name’s strange spelling – and no other reading of the word looks possible –, there really is no doubt that this designates the Silene vulgaris shaped glass series. The description of a green triple layer glass — the green layer being therefore the outside one — with a decorative pattern of veins or nervures fits perfectly the look of some bladder campion glasses from Émile Gallé still seen today. But this “Cylène” name requires some scrutiny for this seems at first glance to be either a made up word or a misspelled one. In French, “Cylène” is a homophone of “Silène”, the French translation of the Silene vulgaris and the more correct designation of the flower, aside from colloquial monikers such as Claquet or Pétard.
The closest word is “Cyllène“, with two -l, an ancient Greek toponym and mythological name (Κυλλήνη, a mountain in Arcadia, birthplace of Hermes and the Pleiades) which has nothing to do with the flower. “Cylène”, with a single -l, also appears as a proper name9, in particular as a man’s role in a ballet-pantomime, created in August 1901, Bacchus mystifié, with a libretto by Silva Sicard and a musical score by Max d’Ollone10. In this latter instance, “Cylène” is clearly an alternate and fanciful spelling for “Silène”, Dionysos/Bacchus’ mythological associate. This is most probably what happens here too with the designation of the September 1904 glass series. The lack of other documents referencing it precludes any definite answer on this question as does its absence in Émile Gallé’s notes. Rather than a marketing name, “Cylène” could be a simple spelling mistake, a confusion spurred by the use of this name in the contemporary culture. But despite this doubt on its legitimacy, the designation’s distinctiveness is a strong enough reason to keep it as the name of this series from now on.
Vase or lamp?
In September 1904, the series is priced at Fr. 32 apiece for an existing stock of 35 specimens. If we ignore a single “vase gravure calcéolaire” (which for this reason does not qualify as series), this Cylène series is the smallest, quantity wise, of the 15 different ones listed on the document for Nancy. And this is by a rather large margin : the count goes up to 75 for the two smallest ones after that. Moreover, the Cylène does not appear among the series still in fabrication at that time nor in the Paris inventory, contrary to other series made in larger quantities and still in fabrication while being already in distribution. There is therefore a good case to be made that the 35 specimens in the Nancy factory represent a whole series’ stock for this 1904 end of year production run. This figure is consistent with what is known otherwise of the series’ usual production volume, given that the indicated wholesale price (Fr. 32), well above the Fr. 22 average, shows that it was considered as a rather medium to high-end design – for a triple layer, acid etched rather than wheel-carved glass. One might add that, if our identification is right, the relatively small size of the preserved specimens (16 to 24 cm) reinforces this assessment of the given price. Pricier series from the same season are quadruple layers ones, and they also have some bigger sized vases, like the hydrangea and honeysuckle ones.
Most series on this document do not possess an indication of the design’s glass shape because several ones would have been made, as was almost always the case with an industrial series. The price is only the average between them. Even with its predetermined shape (the flower’s sepal), the Cylène also had several models, as evidenced by the specimens still preserved : they were differentiated mainly by the body’s profile and the opening of the corolla, but they kept, with one exception, the same surface pattern and colour combination. The question arises then whether the 35 specimens represent all or only several of these shapes. Despite their close similarity, the differences are too important and this overall number too low to hypothesise that it represents the whole production run of the silène shaped designs.
Moreover, there is of course the “vases” designation to consider. It’s true that in these 1904 lists, the lamps are surprisingly almost absent. Only in the Paris inventory list is there a mention of a “corps de lampe” series, Fleurs de pomme de terre, still to be identified. It could be a simple matter of happenstance, reflecting the modest part of the “electricity” (the generic name for the light fixtures in the Gallé factory) in the production at this early stage of its development : the decision to diversify the glass production by investing in the research of some lamps series is not older than 1902. In August 1902, Émile Gallé writes to his wife, Henriette, that “en parlant d’électricité, notre collection se développe”11, describing his and Daigueperce’s efforts to find some new clients ; then, in December 1902, Henriette Gallé tells her husband of the “soulagement […] d’avoir trouvé aussi dans l’électricité un article courant qui permet de continuer la verrerie”12, a telling note on the company financial’s difficulties at the time.
The “Vases forme cylène“ listing can therefore be taken at face value to name actual vases shapes, whose creation in this case closely followed that of the various lamps under scrutiny here.
A Cylène specimen in the factory’s showroom in 1905.
A confirmation for the general date of this series comes from a photograph of the showroom’s East side in the Nancy factory, where several naturalistic shaped lamps are hanging from a presentation rack. One of them in the background looks a lot like the Silène “tulips” from the 2014 Aguttes auction sale13, showing that they were not exclusively made to be mounted as a desk lamp, like the specimen shown in the Duncan and de Bartha catalogue14, but that they could also be used as a ceiling fixture.
According to Fr. Le Tacon15, the picture was taken by the factory’s photographer, Hippolyte Dubois, circa 1905. This seems plausible insofar as most of the glass pieces on show do indeed look to date from the early to mid- 1900s.16 The terminus post quem is indicated by Le Tacon as coming in particular from a Solanée lamp in the background on the right – created in 1902. In fact, a closer examination of the photograph suggests that it is more likely to be an Amaryllis lamp from the design that was perhaps17 presented in the 1904 exhibition in Nancy and later featured prominently in the Gallé exhibition for the 1909 Exposition internationale de l’Est de la France (see the picture below, on the right)18 : it does not have a single corolla shaped shade, as the Solanée, but three, each with its own light bulb.
On the foreground, on the right, the easily recognisable Guéridon aux Ombelles (1898) bears a ca. 1902 lamp with the same Ombelles theme, here again contra Fr. Le Tacon who identifies it (unless I am misreading his description of the picture) as a “feuilles d’érable” patterned lamp from 190319. One specimen from this Ombelles series, acquired from the Corbin collection, is now in the Musée de l’École de Nancy (see the picture above, on the left)20. I would add that further to the right on the showroom’s picture, the tallest of the four lamps on the top shelf, with a two lights system (body and shade), belongs to the Eucalyptus series that may well have begun in 1905 : this was a popular glass series in the late 1900s, marked with signatures straddling the Mk II-Mk III transition (in other words, some specimens do feature the star and others do not). The earliest mention of a Eucalyptus piece in Charpentier’s notes from the Daigueperce’s books backs up this chronology, for it is a presumably big tubular vase dated from July 1905. So, the actual terminus post quem for this display is more likely to be 1904 and 1905 is a most probable date.
It ensues that the Cylène series, that is the silène shaped lamps, were indeed marketed the same year (1904-1905) that their vase counterparts appeared in the factory inventory. It was therefore one of the last – if not the last – series with this kind of naturalistic shape and decor to be supervised by Émile Gallé before his death. In the later Établissements Gallé period, the flowers from the silène genus, like the red campion, still belonged to the compendium of decorative flowers in use, but in a purely ornamental fashion : without any emphasis put on their shape and structure, the flowers were simply drawn on a vast variety of glass shapes like any others, showcasing the complete loss of the deep connection between shape, function, and decor that had characterised the master’s artworks.
© Samuel Provost, 27 April 2021.
Footnotes
Lyon & Turnbull, 2021-04-22, lot 245, £10,000 with fees.
See Duncan and de Bartha 2013, p. 163. See the original pictorial album for the exhibition : A. Guérinet (ed.), Exposition lorraine: L’École de Nancy au Musée de l’Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. Pavillon de Marsan à Paris, 2e série, [1903], Paris.
Duncan and de Bartha 2013, p. 162.
One notable exception looks to have been the famous Coprins lamp which may have remained several years in production, albeit with a very limited number of copies.
Émile Gallé, Création de formes pour l’éclairage, manuscript, undated, 3 pages, Musée d’Orsay, ARO 1986-990-19. This will be the matter for a future note on this site.
Émile Gallé†, Écrits pour l’art, Paris, Laurens, 1908 ; Gallé, Le Tacon 2010 ; Gallé, Le Tacon, Valdeck 2007.
Émile Gallé, “Le mobilier contemporain orné d’après nature”, in Gallé, Le Tacon 2010, p. 333-346, with the listing of the different publications p. 333.
Translation : “While studying the construction of the network of the calyces of this silene, I thought that there was there a system of ready-made drawing, from which our arts (of stone, iron, glass, enamel, metallurgical reticulated) could in certain cases be inspired, as I applied it myself to the decoration of the crystal vases and in particular of the glass globes intended to attenuate the vivacity of the electric light.”
See for instance one female dancer’s stage name in the advertisement for the opérette Pou-chi-nett in the Excelsiornewspaper, 12 August 1920, p. 4.
“Courrier des théâtres“, Le Figaro, 29 April 1901, p. 5. Camille Saint-Saëns was originally commissioned the score but did not have the time to complete it.
“Regarding the electricity, our collection is expanding“ : letter from Émile Gallé to Henriette Gallé, 16 August 1902, in Thiébaut and Amphoux 2014, p. 257.
“[it’s a] relief […] to have found in the electricity a common item that allows the glassware to continue” : letter from Henriette Gallé to Émile Gallé, 27 December 1902, Thiébaut and Amphoux 2014, p. 296.
Aguttes 2014-10-08, lot 84.
Duncan and de Bartha 2013, pl. 3.19 p. 34.
Le Tacon and De Luca 2001, p. 52-53.
One of the glass pieces on show has the cup shape that was the subject of a previous article on this site, “The Fleury cup”, but it’s impossible to tell what’s the floral pattern on this specimen. See NANCI #8.
I have not been able to track down a relevant picture.
Le Tacon in Descouturelle F., Ponton B., Roth F. et Sicard-Lenattier H. 2008, Nancy 1909: centenaire de l’Exposition internationale de l’Est de la France, Nancy, France, Place Stanislas, p. 166-167.
Le Tacon and De Luca 2001, p. 53.
Lampe aux ombelles, v. 1902, inv. 265, in Musée de l’École de Nancy 2014, no 371, p. 202-203.
Bibliography
Duncan A. and De Bartha G. 2013, Gallé Lamps, Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd.
Gallé É., Gallé H., Amphoux J. and Thiébaut Ph. (ed.) 2014, Correspondance 1875-1904, Genève, La Bibliothèque des arts.
Gallé É., Le Tacon F. (ed.) 2010, L’amour de l’art les écrits artistiques du maître de l’art nouveau, Nancy, Place Stanislas.
Gallé É., Tacon F. and Valck P. (ed.) 2007, L’amour de la fleur: Les écrits horticoles et botaniques du maître de l’Art nouveau, Nancy, Place Stanislas Editions.
Le Tacon F. and De Luca F. 2001, L’usine d’art Gallé à Nancy, Nancy, Association des amis du Musée de l’école de Nancy.
Musée de l’École de Nancy, Thomas V., Sylvestre F., Olivié J.-L., 2014, Émile Gallé et le verre: la collection du Musée de l’École de Nancy, Paris, Somogy éditions d’art.
Thomas V., Thomson H. B. et Thiébaut P. 2004, Verreries d’Émile Gallé : de l’œuvre unique à la série, Paris, Nancy, Gingins, Somogy éditions d’art.
How to cite this article : Samuel Provost, “Cylène, one of the last naturalistic glass series by Émile Gallé (1904)”, Newsletter on Art Nouveau Craftwork & Industry, no 10, 27 April 2021 [link].