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Polychrome Enameled Opaline Vase with Scalloped Pink and Gold Rim – Napoleon III Period
€125Bid from €112.50
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ProfessionalProduct description
Some objects seem to have retained something of the homes they've passed through. This opaline vase takes us back to the second half of the 19th century, to the era of Napoleon III interiors, when decorative arts brought a profusion of colors, precious materials, and nature-inspired forms into drawing rooms. Its slender body is crafted from beautiful, soft, and luminous white opaline, upon which an astonishing polychrome decoration unfolds. Large leaves in violet and mauve tones unfurl from the base, highlighted with fine gilded accents. Between them appear long green stems bearing yellow and brown umbel flowers, complemented by touches of blue and green. Nature is not reproduced here with the precision of a botanical print. It is interpreted, transformed, almost dreamed, as 19th-century decorators loved to do.
But the full personality of this piece is revealed in its extraordinary neck. The glass opens up into a large, deeply scalloped corolla, shaped in successive waves and folds. The interior is adorned with a deep, almost luscious pink, while the tips of the undulations become translucent and take on a delicate amber-yellow hue. Light then passes through the glass differently with every shift of gaze. The opaline remains soft and milky, the pink becomes vibrant, and the amber edges catch the light like a thread of gold. This very theatrical construction fully belongs to the taste of the second half of the 19th century, when glassmakers no longer sought only to create a container, but a true object of display.
A detail beneath the base adds a small enigma to its history. Traces of an old attachment can be observed there, suggesting that the vase was once presented on a metal mount or plinth, now disappeared. This type of marriage between opaline and bronze was particularly appreciated in the 19th century. We naturally hold this interpretation with caution, as no mount has survived with the piece. The absence of a signature does not allow us to definitively attribute the vase to a particular manufacturer. Its craftsmanship, its enamelled decoration, its gilded highlights, and this spectacular glass collar point to a European production from the second half of the 19th century, around .
With its 25 cm height, the piece possesses a remarkable presence without being monumental. Far from the ornate drawing rooms where it was born, its exuberance completely changes character. It is no longer simply a 19th-century opaline. It almost becomes a glass sculpture, a large artificial flower frozen for over a century in pink, amber, violet, and gold.
Additional details:
- Brand: Manufacture européenne
- Style: Napoléon III
- Material: Opaline
- Material: Émail
- Colour: Or
- Colour: Polychrome
- Colour: Mauve
- Colour: Brun
- Colour: Ambré
- Period: Seconde moitié du XIXe siècle
Specifications
ConditionGoodColorsPink, Purple, Blue, Yellow, White, GreenMaterialGold, Glass
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About this seller
ProfessionalSaint symphorien des bois, FranceOn Whoppah since August 2026 • 0 sales