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Although the roots of Daum Frères can be traced to 1878, when an attorney named Jean Daum was handed the reins of a foundering glassworks in Nancy, France, in lieu of repayment on a debt, the art glass that we associate with Daum today was not...
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Although the roots of Daum Frères can be traced to 1878, when an attorney named Jean Daum was handed the reins of a foundering glassworks in Nancy, France, in lieu of repayment on a debt, the art glass that we associate with Daum today was not produced until the 1890s. Up to that point, Daum Verrerie de Nancy, as it was known, made pocket watch crystals and household glassware. But Daum’s sons, Antonin and Auguste, had other ideas, which led to their firm’s introduction of etched Art Nouveau cameo glass at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Elevated to the level of fine art by Emile Gallé, who opened his own glass factory in Nancy in 1894, cameo glass was a traditional technique in which an outside layer of glass on, say, a vase was etched or carved away to reveal the layer below. The result was a silhouette or cameo of a flower, dragonfly, or tree—during the Art Nouveau period, artists usually took their inspiration from nature. While Gallé was considered the king of cameo glass at the turn of the 20th century, Daum Frères was also highly regarded, winning awards at international art fairs and pushing the technique to its limits. For example, Daum used acid to etch its pieces, as well as to selectively alter some of their underlying colors. Acid could also be used to frost surfaces or make them shiny. Meanwhile, wheel-turning techniques were used to give the surfaces of some Daum pieces a hammered look, which, of course, would be an impossibility in glass. After Gallé died in 1904, Daum’s reputation rose even further, as it introduced frosted Vitrified pieces as well as polished Jade objects. During World War I, the company suspended its production of art glass, turning its attention instead to medical glass needed for the war effort. One of Auguste’s sons, Jean, who was active in the operations of the company, was killed in the Battle of Verdun. Between the wars, Daum shifted its aesthetic from Art Nouveau to Art Deco, and its business practices...
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