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inTroduCTion
as some millefiori, made out of ouraline (a crystal incorporating uranium
oxide) and in sizes as diverse as a finial just 10 cm tall and another un-
common piece that is 25 cm in height (without taking into account their
bronze bases).
But how did such an object come into existence, a crystal sphere encrusted
with colored motifs that became a virtual technical miracle and a big suc-
cess in terms of decoration? It was Louis-Joseph Maës, of the Clichy crystal
company, who introduced the new vogue in the middle of the 19 th century.
Public records, however, lead us to 1494, in the city of Murano, in Italy.
The Venetian writer Sabellio mentions a master glassmaker “who was the
first to have the idea of putting inside a sphere all types of flowers pres-
ent in the fields at springtime.” It is known that the motifs in millefiori, or
mille-fleurs, already were being used in antiquity and the technique was
known as glass mosaic.
The decorated balls began to be produced by master glass blowers in
Murano around the 16 th century using a method that they knew very well.
Therefore, they already were exceptionally well made even before the years
of their splendor, as of 1840. And the millefiori, or murrines, as Italians call
them, adorned a number of objects manufactured in Venice as of the 15 th
century, such as cups, bottles and knife hilts.
Paperweights in glass or crystal containing polychromic inclusions were
not produced beyond the 19 th century. The event that led to their appear-
ance in France is interesting. Eugène Péligot, professor at the Arts and
Crafts Conservatory and a delegate of the Paris Chamber of Commerce
during a visit to an exhibition of Austrian industrial products in 1845 in
Vienna, prepared a report about the section set aside for glass, which
displayed products from Bohemia and Venice. On the occasion, one of
the main exhibitors, M. Pietro Bigaglia from Venice, presented “a round
paperweight made of very transparent glass, in which there was a quantity
of small colored tubes and various different forms that produced an effect
of a field of flowers.”
It could not have been a more propitious moment for the introduction
in France of these new decorative objects. In an economically troubled
time, demand for large crystal pieces destined for moneyed clients was
reduced and difficult to sell. Only an attractive product with a lower price
could seduce a wider clientele. Moreover, access by the middle class to an
education and, consequently, writing (the steel pen, invented in England
in 1780, made its commercial appearance around 1830) together with the
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Some types
of finials
(illustrations from the
“Boules D’ Escalier” catalogue,
by C. Deselle Fils)