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Auction 100A: Daum en Miniature – Eva Homberg Private Collection - 06.12.2011

Daum en Miniature – Eva Homberg Private Collection

On the occasion of the 100th auction we are pleased to be able to offer what we believe is a unique collection of Daum Frères vases and lamps worldwide, assembled by the collector Eva Homberg over the last thirty years with a fine eye for highest quality and rarity of motifs and forms and long before Christophe Bardin’s detailed study of the production of glass manufactories. The collection was presented to the public for the first time in 2006 at the Zons District Museum in Dormagen, Germany.


The collection of 187 objects contains numerous particularly high quality miniature vases.

Miniature vases were a speciality of the Daum brothers from the end of the 19th century until the 1920s. These little vases were exhibited as early as the exhibition of applied art held in the French region of Lorraine in 1894 (Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Lorrains), as can be seen in a historical photograph of the section showing manufactured goods. Producing these miniatures required a specially trained team of staff. Thus the Daum brothers set up their own school of draughtsmanship in the early 1890s, where up to 20 apprentices received training. Execution of the miniatures required great skill; masters of the art known by name include Henri Bergé, Emile Wirtz, Jacques Gruber and the Schneider brothers. Most vases only bear the signet of the manufacturer, Daum Nancy and Lothringer Kreuz. In the case of some glassware, monograms of the actual decorators could be found on the underneath of the miniatures.

Tiny vessels with the finest of decoration were also produced as part of dinnerware sets. These often featured little liqueur glasses and dishes that especially challenged the skills of the glassblowers. Like the vases, the dinnerware was decorated with traditional Lorraine motifs. The high quality of the little vases and vessels meant that these quickly became prized collectors’ items. Accordingly, several decorated vases and flacons under 10 cm in height graced the Daum brothers’ shelves at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Early decorative motifs in the Homberg collection include landscapes in
the Schwarzlot black decoration technique. Here themes from La Fontaine’s fables also feature, such as the little 1898 salt dish entitled ‘Le Rat et l’huitre' (catalogue number 1).

Folksy decoration is not missing from this wide-ranging collection, as is evidenced by the vase with catalogue number 6 depicting a goose girl based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Subtly conveyed here is a sideswipe against the Prussians and the German Empire to which Alsace belonged between 1871 and 1918: the farmgirl in Alsacian traditional costume is attempting to teach the geese tricks instead of the ‘goose step’ that originated in Prussian military drill in the mid-18th century. The rich repertoire of the collection naturally also includes popular motifs of wild flowers and cultured plants, which are executed in different techniques (cut, etched and enamelled) as the catalogue numbers 26-32 and 44-53 illustrate particularly impressively.

In the course of the years, the Daum manufactory developed a diverse range of different landscapes, first the monochrome ‘Paysage de Delft’ as in catalogue numbers 12–25, then tree landscapes, which portray the seasons in a large palette of colours. Rare motifs include the so-called ‘Pluviose’ rainscapes, named after the fifth month of the French Republican calendar. The atmospheric landscape portraits vary through the use of colour to depict different times of day. Eventually the range of French landscapes was extended by motifs from other countries. Catalogue Nos. 75-81 show scenes from the Nile. Catalogue Nos. 114–116 depict a view of the lagoon at Venice (‘Venise’).

Three lamps number among the rarest objects in the Homberg collection: Catalogue No. 91 table lamp ‘Paysage mauve', Catalogue No. 135 ceiling lamp ‘Arbres en hiver’ (€6,000–7,000), and Catalogue No. 138 table lamp ‘Arbres en hiver’ (€8,000–10,000).

 

Pierre Brossard