Famous Glass Designers
Rene Lalique was born René Jules Lalique in Ay, France on April 6, 1860, He became an iconic glass designer, especially noted for his stunning creations which, included perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks and car bonnet ornaments. The company he founded in 1885, still operates and its creations are still sought after by the modern collector. His beautiful jewellery designs and stunning glasswork contributed significantly to the art nouveau movement.
Emile Galle (1846-1904), French glass maker, ceramist and designer, was and still is the dominant figure in French cameo glass and was perhaps the most outstanding person working in glass during the art nouveau period.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) Tiffany like Rene Lalique is another of the art nouveau periods great designers. He designed using both glass and jewellery and is perhaps best known for his lamps and smaller glass objects
Marius Sabino (glass - art deco - 1878-1961)
French glass-maker of the art deco period, especially 1923-39. Sabino's work imitated many of the glassblowing techniques and decorative motifs of his contemporary René lalique
William Morris was born in Walthamstow in 1834 and studied theology at Oxford. As a student he was drawn to the ideologies of socialism; when he embarked on a career as an artist, it was his intention to apply socialist philosophy to his work -- from conception to design to production. This goal led him to abandon painting in favor of architecture and then to the decorative arts.
Karl Palda The firm of Karl (or Carl or Karel) Palda was founded in 1888 in Haida, Nový Bor, Bohemia. Little is known of their development, but from their 50th anniversary catalogue of 1938 - which showed a huge range of glassware, including items similar to this - it is obvious that they co-operated closely with glass schools and other manufacturers and were well-respected refiners and exPrice on Requestters of high quality glassware.
Andre Thuret was one of the first modern French studio glass artists, contemporary with Maurice Marinot. Thuret's sensual vase designs with colored and metallic inclusions seem alive with refracted light. At a vase's beginnings Andre Thuret blew the "parison", a mass of glass fluid, into moulds whose hollow decorations were registered in reliefs on the form. These reliefs were colored by "rolling" on marble charged with metallic oxides. Towards 1925, he created these internal decorations to in vases to form a new "gathering" coated with transparency which was both an artistic and scientific.
Gabriel Argy-Rousseau His virtuosity in a glass making technique called pâte de verre or "glass paste," brought him instant acclaim upon his first showing it in 1914. He neither invented the technology for pâte de verre nor manufactured it in large quantities for the first time. However, he exemplifies the successful small producer who remained true to the principles of small scale production and hand workmanship over industrial practices. Unlike Lalique and other late decorative artists, Argy-Rousseau never resorted to mass-produced glass.
Maurice Marinot (born 1882 in France died 1960, Troyes) was a French artist. Marinot's father was a bonnet maker. Maurice did poorly in school, but convinced his parents to send him to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris for painting. He left art school after his work wasn't accepted by the standards of the day. In 1905 he returned to Troyes, where he stayed for the rest of his life. In 1911 he visited his first glass shop, owned by his friends, the Viard Brothers. He fell in love with the contrasts between colors, hot and cold, the play of light and fire. He began designing bowls, vases and bottles which his friends made, then he painted enamels on the surface. In 1912 he had his first exhibition and by 1913 critics were praising his work, saying “It has been a long time since an innovation of such great importance has come to enrich the art of glass” (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1913). The Viard brothers give Marinot his own bench and a set of tools, so he learned quickly how to blow glass. In 1923 he stopped using enamels, and explored the use of bubbles, metal leaf, and colored glass. His production process was “Long and fraught with danger” and one piece could take as long as a year to reach his standards.