Gabriel ARGY-ROUSSEAU (1885-1953) Lot n° 13

Pair of night lights " Masks " in polychrome glass paste with floral decoration Mounting in hammered wrought iron Signed "G ARGY ROUSSEAU Model created around 1925 H : 13,5 cm Bibliography : Janine-Bloch Dermant, "Les pâtes de verre, catalogue raisonné, G.Argy-rousseau", les éditions de l'amateur, Paris, 1990, similar model reproduced page 192 Glass paste is a marvellous translucent material that was known in antiquity. Pliny tells us that a Roman emperor had to cut off the head of the potter who invented it, so that his secret would disappear forever. But long and patient work has been done nowadays to find the formula, and the argh-rousseau process has reached the highest degree of perfection; it allows indeed to obtain the most varied forms, the most vivid colors, the most vigorous reliefs in a diaphanous paste where the light plays through an infinity of nuances, from the most delicate to the most violent. Ten years of relentless research were necessary to produce the perfect material that constitutes "Les Pâtes de verre d'Arby-Rousseau". To give you an idea of the process, let's summarize the various phases: On a wax model, modelled according to the decoration and the reliefs which one wants to obtain, one draws a mould in refractory earth. In this mould, the decorator, using brushes and appropriate tools, places the glass paste in cold. This consists of a vitrifiable mixture and has the appearance of a plastic material. The colorations are most varied, and it is to be noticed that it is especially the precious metals which tint with brightness this beautiful matter: gold gives the ruby reds and the amethyst violets, silver the most delicate yellows, platinum and the iridium the most fifins greys, and the most intense blacks the cobalt the deepest blues. All these pastes, the decorator places them according to the needs, in the hollows of the mould, which, naturally, will form the reliefs of the finished object. When the mould with the pastes is dry, it is put in the oven and fired at a very high temperature. The work of fire then occurs: the paste vitrifies, hardens, the colours develop while the mould becomes extremely crumbly. After cooling, the refractory earth falls into dust, and, like a precious stone which comes out of its gangue, the object in glass paste appears with all its decoration, all its reliefs, all its marvellous colours. As the mould can only be used once, it is impossible to reproduce two objects that are absolutely similar; each work is therefore unique in its kind, an unequalled attraction appreciated by all amateurs. The process of glass paste is certainly the most artistic and the most personal of all the processes of work of glass and crystal, because it allows the artist to easily render all his thought. The glassware worked with heat, blown or pressed, will never allow to have in the mass of the material itself, and remaining in the place where one put them, these varied tints which one observes in the glass paste. Contrary to blown glass, lined with coloured layers and decorated by acid etching, one can observe in the precious material of Argy-Rousseau's glass pastes widely modelled motifs, powerful reliefs as well as delicate chiselling. (Argy-Rousseau Archives)