Auguste Jean Enameled Glass Tripod Vessel, France, 19th Century
A smoky amber glass vessel by Auguste Jean — the precursor to Gallé, working in forms that seem to breathe.
ARTIST: Auguste Jean (French, 1830–1896)
PERIOD: 19th Century, c. 1880s
CATEGORY: Decorative Object / Glass
MATERIALS: Blown glass, polychrome enamel, gilt, applied glass decoration
DIMENSIONS: 9 h in.
CONTEXT: Auguste Jean was born in Paris and founded his workshop around 1859, making a name for himself first as a ceramist before specializing in glassware — through the freedom and inventiveness of his exuberant forms, opening the way to research that continues in the work of glassmakers today. A precursor to Emile Gallé and the Daum brothers, Jean arrived at his innovations before all of them. This tripod vessel in smoked amber glass is characteristic of his mature output: a globular body on three hot-applied feet, with a cobalt and gilt crown finial, polychrome enamel decoration of a wading heron among marsh grasses and flowers, and applied trailing in cobalt and gold. Jean received a bronze medal for his technical glass pieces at the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1878. His work is held in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. From the collection of Parker Prindle, whose discerning eye for French decorative glass was one of the foundations of his long collecting life.