GABRIEL ARGY-ROUSSEAU (France, 1885 - 1953). Centrepiece,... Lot 5

GABRIEL ARGY-ROUSSEAU (France, 1885 - 1953). Centrepiece, ca. 1900. Paste glass. Signed on one side. Measurements: 11 x 25 x 19 cm. Modernist centrepiece, in the shape of a tulip, marbled in purple and mauve tones. The pâte de verre technique consisted of grinding the glass and turning it into paste in order to model it, and then tracing the design by carving. It was a technique especially used in French Art Nouveau. Argy-Rousseau began drawing at an early age, and also at a very young age he became interested in physics and chemistry, which led him to study first at the École Brequet and then at the École de Sèvres (1902). He graduated in 1906 with a degree in ceramic engineering, and began working in a technical research laboratory. At the École de Sèvres he had met Henri Cros, a pioneer in the use of pâte-de-verre, and his interests soon turned to this technique. From then on he devoted himself to the production of artistic glass, and in 1914 he took part for the first time in the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris. He soon achieved considerable success, which led him to found his own artistic glass firm in 1921: Société Anonyme des Pâtes de Verre d'Argy-Rousseau. From then on, he produced mainly commissioned pieces and patented several new techniques. His works were sold throughout Europe and also in the United States, North Africa and Latin America. However, the economic crisis of 1929-30 led him to close the factory and to establish himself as an independent artist in Paris in 1932. Around this time he stopped using glass paste to concentrate on the production of enamelled glass, which was more in keeping with the new taste.