A fine and rare Émile Gallé enamelled and acid-etched 'Persian-style' glass liqueur service Nancy, circa 1885

signed, with the 'Le Persan Chevalier' pattern, the smoky and part light-amber tinted glass decorated with Persian horsemen within arched panels, the reserve filled with scroll within enamelled foliate borders heightened in gilding, comprising a pair of moulded flattened decanters and stoppers, twelve liqueur glasses of quatrefoil form and a rectangular tray gilt with raised outlines for the decanters and glasses, each depicting animals and portraits of Persian warriors within scroll

Liqueur sets of this size are unusual in the Gallé oeuvre. The surviving examples of such sets in the literature are half the quantity and are generally decorated with mediaeval knights and maidens (see Tim Newark, Émile Gallé, 1989, p.20). For a further pair of decanters and stoppers, circa 1884, in the Mediaeval style, see the exhibition catalogue, 'Émile Gallé, 100 ans apres sa mort', The Hida Takayama Museum of Art, Japan, 2004, p.21, figs.5 and 6 and Philippe Garner, Émile Gallé, 1976, p.51.  

Christian Debize, Émile Gallé, L'École de Nancy, 1998, p.52 illustrates a glass enamelled with the rare 'Le Chevalier Persan' motif seen on the present lot, dated to 1884.