Gallé, Emile, 1846-1904

Gallé born on 4 March 1846 in the city of Nancy, France. His father, Charles Gallé, was a merchant of glassware and ceramics who had settled in Nancy in 1844, and his father-in-law owned a factory in Nancy which manufactured mirrors. His father took over the direction of his mother's family business, and began to manufacture glassware with a floral design. He also took over a struggling faience factory and began manufacturing new products.

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Gallé continually experimented with new techniques of glass art. One of his major innovations was glass marquetry, or applying layers of glass on an object. He attached then sheets of colored glass onto a hot glass object He could join the laminations or overlay them, adding an infinite number of layers and colors. This technique had been practiced by the Venetians during the Renaissance, but Gallé pushed it much further. While it allowed him almost limitless variations, it also presented great difficulties, since the glass had to be reheated for each new layer, and could easily crack.