Pâte-de-verre Pendant Relief Cockchafer, Walter & Berger, Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau,

Pretty pâte-de-verre pendant with a high relief cockchafer on yellow to orange translucent and delicately satin background, signed either side of the insect with the tiny and discrete monograms (barely perceptible depending on the inclination of light) AW and HB, N for Almaric WALTER (1870-1959) and Henri BERGER (1870-1937), Nancy
With a matching silk necklace, similar to ones used originally.

Many glassmakers made similar pendants early 20th cty, mainly Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (also pâte-de-verre) or Lalique (glass); the themes are often those of Art Nouveau, i.e. mainly flowers and plants, insects or animals, i.e. constant references to Nature. (please check last photos for many models by the same artists) according to Ecole de Nancy philosophy, producing real artistics pieces, unique and intended only for a social elite.

Amalric WALTER, a talented young artist (he joined the Sèvres factory in 1885, when he was only 14 years old, then worked there as a porcelain decorator), set up his own business as soon as he finished his studies as ceramist at the Manufacture de Sèvres. There, he was trained in exceptional craftsmanship by Gabriel LEVY.
He opened his first ceramist's workshop in 1893 in Sèvres.

He started his research in 1901 on pâte-de-verre, inherited from Egyptian antiquity.

He then worked at Daum factory from 1904. There he met Henri BERGER, who would become his main collaborator and would develop the drawings for his glass productions. A master of pâte-de-verre technique, Almaric Walter was one of the great artists of Art Nouveau and Ecole de  Nancy. With his exceptional talent, he made a major contribution to the success of the Daum crystal factory.

In 1909, he opened his 2nd personal workshop in Nancy. He then collaborated with many artists: painters, cerammists and renowned glassmakers, such as Henry CROS* - an artist who was also working on the same technique of glass paste at the time, the sculptor Alfred FINOT, Albert Dammouse and Jules CAYETTE.

*Please check my next Proantic announcements about a superb lost-wax bronze statue, after an important sculpture by this artist.

Together with Henri BERGER and other modellers, Almaric WALTER made more than 500 different models. In his factory, he reproduced works by great sculptors such as Auguste RODIN, Auguste HOUILLON,...

His workshop closed in 1935, having failed to adapt its production to the new economic conditions and the changing tastes of this period.
The craftsman will die blind and destitute. The technique used involved high manufacturing costs for unique pieces, and definitely cannot adapt to a need for serialization of productions in order to reduce operating costs.

Dimensions
4,5cm high * 
3,3cm large * 
7mm depth
Perfect condition

Very nice jewel, intended eraly 20th cty century for rich people, in a raw material and production technique requiring a lot of time to produce. Very few contemporary glassmakers remain today working with this specific, complex and time-consuming technique.

Please ckeck the last photo with several pâte-de-verre pendants by the same artist, with many "exotic" or special animals such as the chameleon, the butterfly, the dragonfly,... These were all privileged subjects of the Art Nouveau aesthetic of this time.