A 'Tristesse' Vase, 1900

Overlaid in his black ‘verre hyalite’ introduced in 1889 and carved with a thistle, this vase inscribes itself within a group of vases known as ‘vases de tristesse’ (‘vases of sadness’) by virtue of their sombre colour and their mournful themes. Gallé was not shy of confronting melancholic or challenging themes. The thistle is a powerful symbol. It is a plant associated with Lorraine and the motif took on extra layers of reference in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war and the annexation by the Prussian victors of the départements of Alsace and Lorraine. In this context, the thistle became a statement of pride and of defiance. Perhaps its most assertive use was in the magnificent ‘Table de musée’ as Gallé described it, first shown in 1889 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, then in 1900, titled ‘Chardon lorrain’. Carved with a thistle plant, the table bears inscriptions including the powerful phrase, ‘Je tiens au Coeur de France’ (‘I cling to the heart of France’). The same message is conveyed in intimate scale in this exquisitely wrought vase, dated 1900, confirming the model as one chosen by Gallé to present in the Exposition Universelle of that year.