"Muller Frères, Lunéville, “anemones” Cameo Art Glass Lamp Circa 1920"
Muller Frères, Lunéville, “Anémones” Cameo Art Glass LampMushroom lamp in multi-layered glass with acid-etched and wheel-carved decoration of red and mauve magnolias in bloom on an opalescent background.
The wrought-iron mounts simulating the motif of the flower's leaves
Signed "Muller Frères Lunéville" on the foot and the cap
Circa 1920
H 55 cm Diam 28 cm
The Muller brothers, founders of the Muller Frères glassworks, were French art glassmakers of the Art Nouveau period. The Muller family, originally from Kalhausen (Moselle), settled in Lunéville in 1870. Three of the brothers, Henri (1868-1936), Désiré (1877-1952) and Eugène (1883-1917) Muller were recruited by Émile Gallé as clerks or glass engravers-decorators. But in 1897, Henri Muller left Émile Gallé, taking many secrets with him. He created his own glass decoration workshop in Lunéville where he was joined by his eight other brothers, his sister and his father. His production was in direct competition with that of Gallé. Émile Gallé held a tenacious grudge against the Mullers and wrote a few years before his death (1904): "The wretch who leads the gang must have taken a mass of notes from my books and also my recipes, although they were under lock and key."
At the time, the glasses were blown in Croismare, in the Hinzelin glassworks, then decorated in Lunéville. A second glassworks was established in Lunéville itself in 1910. The two Muller brothers ' factories specialized in art glassware. Many pieces came out of them, of beautiful technical quality and very close to those produced in the Gallé factory in Nancy: vases, lamps and typical Art Nouveau trinkets. The Muller company became prosperous, and the factory employed up to three hundred people. Production subsequently evolved towards the Art Deco style, creating in the 1920s many ceiling lights in marbled glass with frames in brass, bronze or wrought iron.
The pieces that come out of their workshops are signed as follows: Muller Croismare , for the pieces produced in the Hinzelin glassworks (before 1914); Muller Frères Lunéville (from 1919); Muller Fres or Muller Fres Lunéville . Following the Great Depression, the factory closed in 1936.
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