49 - Emile GALLE (1846–1904). Glassmaker and cabinetmaker. Autograph letter, Nancy, February 6, 1893, to Mr. Georges Perrot, Ph.D., of the École Normale Supérieure. 2 pp., in-8.

Emile GALLE (1846–1904). Glassmaker and cabinetmaker. Autograph letter, Nancy, February 6, 1893, to Mr. Georges Perrot, Ph.D., of the École Normale Supérieure. 2 pp., in-8. A VERY BEAUTIFUL LETTER CONCERNING THE “PASTEUR VASE.” The vase was commissioned from Galle to be presented to Pasteur by the students of the École Normale Supérieure. It is preserved at the Pasteur Museum. “...Never has the lofty purpose of a work made me so anxious and scrupulous about every detail, in every aspect... I have striven to work quickly... I have composed my subject and crafted my glass according to the two themes you accepted. I adapted the colors to express the latent ideas of LUMINOUS TRAILS in the great night of infinity, in those abysses of being where life is born (Renan), penetration into the mysterious depths of elemental nature (Charles Dupuy), the enigma where being dissolves (V. Hugo)—to express, as I said, the texts: We shall see the formidable hydras, etc., etc., the depths of human suffering, etc., etc.—in short, all these matters—there, using smoky gray over dark brown, then amber, tortoiseshell, concealing within its thickness figurations of bacteria, which will be illuminated in two or three very bright, bluish microscopic fields, with oblique rays, illuminating atmospheric dust and falling on the reflector of a microscope"...