Charles X Cup in White Opaline with Birds, 1820s

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A white opaline cup on small pedestal and gilt bronze mount finely chiseled with flowers. Both handles shaped in pigeons … Read more A white opaline cup on small pedestal and gilt bronze mount finely chiseled with flowers. Both handles shaped in pigeons resting on curved branches and bent to drink. The pure shape and silhouette, like the delicate colour give this cup a great elegance.

Called "opal crystals" from the Empire, and later "opalines", this name designates several types of coloured glassware produced in France in the 19th century. The oldest opal crystals are lead glasses mixed with dyes. The old opacification recipes adapted to lead glass produce an opalescent material, known as "soap bubble" or "soapy opaline". Opal colours are the other shades that result from the addition of metal oxides to this basic opal composition. These lenses, which are pink in colour, called "hydrangea" and then "pigeon's throat", obtained with gold salts, or "turquoise" blue thanks to cobalt or copper oxides, are often mounted in gilt bronze. The beautiful frames, finely chiselled with palmettes, interlacing or gothic-inspired motifs, house boxes, flasks, bowls and delicate small bowls. Their volumes are well balanced and their lines pure. More rare are the painted and gilded decorations fixed on low temperature opal crystal, made by Jean-Baptiste Desvignes or his workshop. The colours, always matte, are few: dark blue and red, and gilding dominates. On some pieces, Desvignes made small illustrative scenes from the fables of La Fontaine, in delicate shades of blue, ochre and green. See less