New photography by Shannon Ruff captured with a digital camera-2006.

Opaline Floral Design Vase

ManufacturerPossibly Compagnie des Verreries et Cristalleries de Baccarat (French, founded 1764)

DateMid-19th century

MediumGlass

DimensionsOverall: 16 in. (40.6 cm)

ClassificationsGlass

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number93.46A

Terms

Flowers
White
Blue
Multi
Gilt

Collections

Glass Art

On View

On view

DescriptionThis is one of a pair of opaline floral design vases. It is blown glass with twisted glass cane, enameled and gilded. White opaline glass blown in baluster shape with hot-applied torsade rims (blue and white filigree encased in colorless glass), bouquets and floral sprigs painted in multicolor enamels; gilt band and foliate borders at foot and below rim.

Label TextThe Venetian Revival in Mid-19th-Century French Glass The pair of high-style opaline vases and the desk accessories seen here all bear traces of the Venetian revival style, freely adapted to 19th-century forms and needs. Each incorporates a horizontal band of twisted filigree decoration that 19th-century French glassmakers appropriately called a cordon Venise, which harks back to the sophisticated filigrana or filigree technique of 16th-century Venice. The use of millefiori canes in the desk accessories is also a feature derived from Renaissance Venetian glass. Opaline Vases Attributed to the Cristalleries de Baccarat, France, Mid-19th century Blown glass with twisted glass cane, enameled and gilded Museum Purchase 93.46 a-b Opaline glasses were made in imitation of porcelain. With their superbly painted floral decoration, these imposing, high-style vases are so successful that they might readily be mistaken for fine French porcelain were it not for their rare blue-and-white twisted filigree rims. These elegant filigree or cordon Venise rims derive from a glassworking rather than a ceramic tradition and serve as an artistic conceit to remind the viewer of the glassmaker's deception. The rims also provide an important clue to attribution. Baccarat consistently applied filigree decoration with the twist running in the same direction as those found on these vases. The only other French factories likely to have produced such vases, Clichy and Saint-Louis, both consistently applied their filigree decoration with the twists running in the opposite direction. For comparison see the rim of the shot cup and the twist within the paperweight. Both were made at Saint-Louis. Edited By: GLY