ATTRIBUTED TO L'ESCALIER DE CRISTAL, PARIS, CIRCA 1880

The Japonisme style of this vase can be associated with the marchand-éditeur and boutique L'Escalier de Cristal, named after the crystal staircase it housed, who supplied furniture, works of art and all manner of objets de luxe including clocks, vases and bibelot from showrooms in rue Auber, in the fashionable area of L'Opéra. Acquired in 1839 by M. Lahoche, the firm passed to his son-in-law, Emile Pannier, around 1864-66. In 1885, Georges and Henry Pannier succeeded their father and are recorded to have bought in 1890 design sketches from the collection of the late Édouard Lièvre: celebrated designer in ‘le style japonais et chinois’. For this reason, Édouard Lièvre and works of art in the Japonisme style are associated with L'Escalier de Cristal. A comparable vase albeit more in the Art Nouveau style, with acid-etched and wheel-carved martelé surface and signed ‘Pannier Frères, 1897, Escalier de Cristal Paris’ sold Christie’s, London, 26 October 2006, lot 31. Comparison can also be made to the work of crystal glass makers Ernest-Baptiste Léveillé (1841-1913) and François-Eugène rousseau (1827-1890) who produced a vase called ‘à la carpe’, made of translucent moulded blown glass. The glass on the present lot, delicately-etched with swirling waves, is related to a clock of Baccarat engraved crystal, with Japanese inspired langoustine-form bronze mounts attributed to L'Escalier de Cristal, which was exhibited at Le Japonisme, le goût de l'exotisme au XIX me siècle, at the Galerie Roxane Rodriguez, 16 September-16 October 2004 (exhibition catalogue, pp. 13-14). Another, closely related example of the present model sold Christie's, New York, 26 November 2013, lot 157 ($137,000).