Product Description
Firmin-Marcelin Michelet French Art Nouveau “Four Seasons” sculpted vase c. 1900

FIRMIN-MARCELIN MICHELET Sculptor (1875-1951) France
GENTIL ET BOURDET [pottery]
“Four Seasons” vase c. 1900
Glazed stoneware in a cream color with tan and light brown highlights molded with four female profiles and corresponding floral branches below representing the “Four Seasons” of the year
Marks: F. Michelet (underglaze), Gentil et Bourdet Architectes Ceramistes
Another example of this vase is in the collection of the Brighton Museum Brighton, England
Exhibited: French Art Nouveau from English Collections, City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 1977, Cat. No. B7.
Illustrated: Art Nouveau, Art Deco and the Thirties; The Ceramic, Glass and Metalwork Collections at Brighton Museum (Brighton: The Royal Pavillion, 1986)cat. no. 41, p. 22.
For more information on Firmin-Marcellin Michelet see: Étains 1900:
200 Sculptures de la Belle Époque, Philippe Dahhan (Paris: Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 2000), p. 274.
H: 13 1/2″ x Dia: 7 1/4″
Price: $7,500
Firmin-Marcelin Michelet French Art Nouveau “Four Seasons” sculpted vase c. 1900
DÉSIRÉ CHRISTIAN (1846-1907) France
MEISENTHAL (LOTHRINGEN) France/Germany
Gourd vessel in the Japanese taste c. 1885-90
Wheel-carved and martelé French cameo glass with metallic inclusions and applied glass (blossoms, tendrils and butterflies)
Signed on the bottom: Desire Christian, Meisenthal Loth
For information on Désiré Christian see: The Glass of Désiré Christian, Ghost for Gallé, Jules S. Traub (Chicago: The Art Glass Exchange, 1978).
H: 8 1/2″ x Dia: 4″
FRANÇOIS-EMILE DECORCHEMENT (1880-1971) France
“Bleu” pâte-de-crystal vase c. 1926
Cobalt blue pâte-de-crystal (lost wax cast crystal) with mauve inclusions, two low-relief friezes of varying abstract vine motifs
Impressed: DECORCHEMENT in a lunette seal, numbered A 865
For more information on Decorchement see: Art Deco, Victor Arwas (New York: Harry N. Abrams,1980) pp. 268-69, 298.
H: 4 1/2″ x Dia: 4 3/4″
Decorchement, Francois Emile. (1880-1970) He set up a glass house in Conches in 1902 producing exquisite pate-de-verre, statuettes, bowls and vases. He extended this range to encompass a rougher hewn surface with motifs of flowers and sometimes insects. His designs became increasingly abstract during the 1930s toward the outbreak of the Second World War; these were often executed in pate-de-cristal. Later the production continued although in a more restrained manner with softer semi-opaque and translucent colors.
FLAVIO POLI (1900-1984) Italy
SEGUSO VETRI D’ARTE Italy
Vase c. 1950’s
Blue and clear Murano glass
H: 10″ x D: 3″ x W: 4 1/2″
Price: $1,850
Designer, businessman, ceramic artist. Born in Chioggia, he attended the Istituto d’Arte di Venezia and began work as a designer in ceramics. in 1929 he switched to glass and for Libero Vitali’s I.V.A.M. he designed animals, splendid Novecento-style nude figures in massiccio glass, as well as bowls and urns with figures resting on the inside, on lids or as handles. He subsequently collaborated with the Compagnia di Venezia e Murano, with the furnace of Mario and Lino Nason and with the engraver Gino Francesconi. in 1934 he accepted the artistic direction of Barovier, Seguso & Ferro, later to become Seguso Vetri d’Arte, and became partner three years later. Together with the master of the principal team Archimede Seguso, Poli was the author of grandiose lighting installations, of corroded vessels, of sculptures in bulicante glass, of animals in massiccio glass shaped while hot, productions which represented a milestone in the development of Murano glass. At the height of his artistic maturity, in the years between 1950 and 1960 he designed a series of sommerso glass pieces in a Nordic style, essential forms and sharp cold colors, which were awarded prestigious prizes (Compasso d’Oro). After leaving Seguso in 1963, between 1964 and 1966 he organized the artistic glass division at the Societˆ Veneziana di Conterie e Cristallerie.
KARL BERGHOF Germany
J. P. KAYSER SOHN Krefeld, Germany
Vase 1904
Pewter squared vase with round flange top, open work details
Marks: Kayserzinn 4541 7 (in a raised oval)
Illustrated: Zinn des Jugendstils, Eckard Wagner (Cologne: Rheinland-Verlag, 1978), p. 63, cat. no. 148; J. P. Kayser Sohn Krefeld: Fabrik kunstgewerblicher Metallgegenstände, Musterbuch 1907 (Munich: Verlag Dry, 1982) p. 46.
***This is an extremely rare, other worldly Kayserzinn form.
H: 7” x Top W: 4 ¾” x Base: 4 x 4 square