LEVEILLE ROUSSEAU for ESCALIER DE CRISTAL Vase... Lot 138

LEVEILLE ROUSSEAU for ESCALIER DE CRISTAL Vase with flat body in hammered smoked glass paste decorated with intercalated soiling in red, blue and ivory - chien de Fô applications and openwork bronze base Label under the base - circa 1880/1890 Ht with base 33 cm Biblio : Eugène Rousseau & Ernest Leveillé Eugène Rousseau (1827-1891), a Parisian dealer and publisher, specialized in earthenware and porcelain at the beginning of his career. Around 1867, at about the same time as Gallé, he developed a passion for the art of Japan, and commissioned Japanese-style Montereau earthenware services in association with Gallé. Montereau earthenware services in association with an engraver, Félix Bracquemond. The same year, he took up glassmaking. Working as a pioneer, Eugène Rousseau went further than anyone else in renewing the art of glassmaking based on Far Eastern inspirations. He studied the coloring of glass and obtained unexpected decorations by superimposing layers of different shades. A technique taken from the Venetians and practiced by the Chinese in the 18th century. He added cracks and ingenious combinations, taking advantage of the whims of fire and the deformations of the material to create curious effects ranging from blood-red to pale violet, creating gem-like glasses with the richness and hardness of agate, the softness of opaline, the reflections of mother-of-pearl and the iridescence of onyx... In 1885, he joined forces with his pupil Ernest Leveillé (1841-1913). From 1890 onwards, his designs became bolder and more tormented than those of Rousseau. Decors, which borrowed from the curved line then in vogue, became more sinuous.