Tiffany Studios

Siegfried Bing, Paris
Grafton Galleries, London, 1899
Alain Lesieutre, Paris
Macklowe Gallery, New York
Richard Pollard, New York
Christie's New York, May 25, 1979, lot 224

Once Siegfried Bing opened his Art Nouveau gallery on December 26, 1895, his efforts were met negatively by most French critics.  They objected to what they considered a confusing mixture of artists from different countries, and they were especially hostile to the overwhelming presence of Belgian, English and other non-French decorative arts.  Around 1897, in response to such continued resistance, Bing embarked upon a campaign to win the French over by hiring a new staff of designers working in the modern mode (Edward Colonna, Georges de Feure, and Eugène Gaillard) and commissioning objects with an elegant, more Gallic style.

          This vase is from the first series of objects which issued forth from Bing’s campaign.  He chose objects from unsold stock – Chinese snuff bottles, pottery by Alexandre Bigot, and Tiffany favrile glass – and he requested Colonna to design mountings which would transform these diverse materials into something new and delightful.  As this vase demonstrates, Colonna tamed Henry van de Velde’s heavy, dynamic lines into a lyrical, elegant system bound to please French taste.  Moreover, the mounting was enriched with semi-precious stones and plique-à-jour enamels which harmonize with the lustrous red color of the glass. The exquisite enameling was executed by Eugène Feuillâtre, who had been working for René Lalique and was soon to become a renowned artist in his own right. 

          The elegant, luxuriant quality of such objets d’art and jewelry beguiled not only the English and Germans but also the French.  Many of them, including this specific vase, were shown at the exhibition which Bing staged at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1899.  Praised for their “beauty of line and form,” they proved to be both a critical and a commercial success.  Bing’s gamble, aided by Colonna’s artistry, won out and the new direction for his gallery was confirmed. 

                                                Martin Eidelberg