Art Deco Glass Designers

A diversity of Art Deco glass production was seen in the 20th century, displaying different degrees of quality, some becoming popular, others not quite so. French glass designer René Lalique is however a name to conjure with. He initially started his career as a jewellery designer adopting the emerging Art Nouveau style but in 1902 turned a hand to glass production as a response the developing style of Art Deco. French glass designers led the way in the application of Art Deco to manufacturing and set the building blocks for other European factories to develop, producing a wide variety of items including lamps, vases, tableware, perfume bottles, jewellery and figurines. Popular finishes such as opalescence (a milky iridescence) and the use of lacquer suited the geometric nature of Art Deco and popularly characterising glass form of the period was a resurgence in pressed glass.

Rene Lalique applied the Deco style to production so building on his success with Art Nouveau glass displaying a high degree of production quality, with pieces today commanding healthy prices. Baccarat, another notable French Art Deco glass manufacturer specialised in the production of perfume bottles for parfumiers including Guerlain, Elizabeth Arden, Lenthéric and Jean Patou. Others followed in the lines of Lalique including Marcel-Ernst Sabino with other designers of note being Gabriel and André Thuret and Argy Rousseau.

In England the likes of Thomas Webb & Sons, Stuart & Sons and Stevens and Williams represented the Art Deco glass fraternity. Approaching the Deco philosophy from another angle were the simple designs of Keith Murray (who also designed ceramics for Wedgwood) who questioned the more fancier designs coming from the Continent.