Featured Quality French Art Deco Opalescent Glass

The opalescent glass produced at Choisy-le-roi, France was unarguably the finest of its period. Practically every known glass-working artist in France, used the facilities at some point in their career, including Rene Lalique and Sabino, who would both introduce their own recipe's for opalescent glass in later years.

Opalescent glass uses varying amounts of Arsenic as an added ingredient which of course is highly toxic. The colour-type is also incredibly expensive & labour intensive to produce, and only a small number of factories today still have a licence to produce it.

The glass remains completely opaque milky-white in colour if it is allowed to cool without careful heat control and an exceptional degree of skilfully applied working procedures throughout each & every stage of its manufacture. It is only once the glass has been allowed to cool gradually & completely, will the opalescent qualities reveal themselves.

"True" opalescent glass will display a range of colours (subject to different conditions of light ) from soft pastel-blues and subtle hints of purple & pink combined with creamy-shades of white, however when the glass is lit from behind, hues of rich-golden amber can be observed...

Shown below are a very fine pair of vases from my collection which illustrate some of the qualities of French opalescent glass. They were designed by Cesari, and produced at Coisy-le-roi, during the mid 1930s.

​

 

Pierre D'Avesn, was a master genius in more ways than one. Not only did he design and work for Rene Lalique (aged at just 14 years old) he was instrumental with the development of press moulded glass techniques during the Art Deco period. By the age of 21 he was producing designs for Daum (as their Artistic Manager) and then before reaching 29 years he took over the management of Verlys. Most of is opalescent glass was produced at Choisy-le-roi and shown below is just one of his incredible examples that he produced as a freelance working artist.

It is not known how many designs D'Avesn produced, however I have been fortunate enough to own at least 50 examples and his entire repertoire runs into the hundreds many of which he received no credit for. Well into is 90s he was still designing glass for Sevres...

​

 

Hi,
Be still my heart. I absolutely love this piece.
greg

 

Oh my goodness. This piece has taken my breath away

 

This is another example of D'Avesn's incredible work. A large 14" diameter opalescent glass salver. It was designed & produced by him before his 24th Birthday! The underside of the glass has been moulded intaglio and also in high relief.

​

​

 

perhaps a good read .
https://www.choisyleroi.fr/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Choisy-le-Roi-ville-de-verre.pdf

 

That's a very useful & informative link. I'd not seen it before. Thank You for sharing it, Fid.

 

seems they made a book. perhaps interesting, too. just in case, I'm in France. if you need anything, please contact.

 

I could really do with locating (an original or a copy of) a Etling catalogue in any format.

 

seems you're not the only one looking for a catalogue. here another site that may be interesting.
http://projetetling.wikidot.com/

I have a bit of a problem with the net connection, will have another search tomorrow.

 

I'm one of the co-founders/contributors of the Project Etling site. You will see my name on the "brief history" page, and also examples of my Etling glass.

 

@Fid It has taken 3+ years of hard work and extensive research to build the Etling Project to where it is today. Very little information about Etling exists, except for the incredible works of art he produced and were also showcased by other artists during the Art Deo period. The site itself was the 'brainchild' of a glass museum owner. My own input are the French translations, photos of Etling glass from my collection and carefully researched information gathered over many years. There are many gaps to fill, and although Etling catalogues are known to exist we've not been ale to locate one

 

have you checked the Bibliothèque Nationale ?
https://www.bnf.fr/fr

 

I'm not sure they would want to part with a copy and send it to England if they have any?

 

if it was the only copy ? why not taking the train and passing a few days when the "bordel chinois" is over ?

 

I have mobility problems and so travelling would be an issue

 

A few more examples by Peirre D'Avesn. The "Dahlias" pattern bowl is one of my favourites. It reminds of an explosion of fireworks. The fish example "Scarlare" pattern bowl was produced by Verlys, and is one of the very few bowls (by any maker) that's moulded inside and the underside of the glass. The details are best seen upon the colourless examples.


"Phoenix" pattern 16" diameter.


15" diameter. The centres of each flower provide a tripod of 3 feet which raises the bowl to allow optimum penetration of light from beneath.



"Scarlare" 13" diameter


"Lotus" pattern 13" diameter

 

s

sorry to hear.

 

here a pdf download that might be interesting.
https://data.bnf.fr/fr/13013678/georges_bontemps/

 

I absolutely love French Art Deco glass! I wanted to purchase a chandelier for my home (above the dining area) and researched the heck out of it. There was a beautiful D’Avesn that I looked it. It was a large piece that apparently was in the entrance hall of a famous actress’ home. I ended up getting a Charles Schneider. It’s been about four years, and it’s so beautiful that I enjoy looking at it every day. It was extraordinary expensive, but worth it.