83 - GABRIEL ARGY-ROUSSEAU (1885–1953)

GABRIEL ARGY-ROUSSEAU (1885–1953) Rare bowl, “Lotus” model, 1924 Made of polychrome pâte de verre in shades of amber and brown, the body is adorned with three antique-style handles from which branches of flowers fan out. Signed on the bottom. Dimensions: 10.5 x 13.5 cm Reference: Catalog raisonné “Les Pâtes de Verre” by Janine Bloch-Dermant, Yves Delaborde, and Gabriel Argy-Rousseau, Les Editions de l’Amateur, Paris 1990, No. 24.08. - Born Joseph-Gabriel Rousseau in Beauce, he trained at the Sèvres School of Ceramics, where he discovered pâte de verre under the guidance of Henri Cros. In 1913, he adopted the artist name “Argy-Rousseau” in honor of his wife, Marianne Argyriadès. After World War I, he founded the Société des Pâtes de Verre d’Argy-Rousseau in Paris in 1921, which produced vases, bowls, lamps, and pendants made of pâte de verre, initially in the Art Nouveau style and later in a decidedly Art Deco style. Considered the undisputed master of the true pâte de verre technique—as opposed to the “pâte de cristal” used by his contemporaries—he enjoyed his golden age in the 1920s, before the 1929 crisis brought an end to this costly production. He then turned to crystal paste, and later to enameled glassware, until his death in 1953.