Verlys France Art Deco Opalescent Glass Lidded Box With Butterflies Decor

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Verlys France designed this exquisite Art Deco lidded box, which was crafted in France circa early 1930. The rare box … Read more Verlys France designed this exquisite Art Deco lidded box, which was crafted in France circa early 1930. The rare box boasts a stunning opalescent blueish textured pattern with a gorgeous molded decor on the lid. The decor features large night butterflies or moths, a design very popular at the end of the Art Nouveau period. Produced by Les Verreries d'Art Verlys & des Hanots—S.A. Holophane, Paris, this rounded box bears the molded signature of Verlys France blended in the decor on the lid. The container base also has the company's signature.
Measurements: 6.69 in diameter (17 cm) x 2 in high (5 cm).

Note: In 1920, the Societe Holophane Francais was set up as a subsidiary of the Holophane Company, USA, in a glassworks near Rouen in northern France, to make vehicle headlights.
By 1925, they had expanded into making art glass vases and bowls and established a department for these products, which they named Verlys. Initially, they made blown vessels with several layers of glass, smooth on the outside and intricately decorated internally. From 1933 onwards, they focused on high-quality press-molded glass.
They produced clear, frosted, iridescent, and colored items with designs typical of Lalique-style glass of the 1930s, using plants, flowers, birds, fish, and abstract geometrical patterns. Each year, they produced a catalog with new designs. Typically, their products bear a molded signature that reads "Verlys France" or "Verlys Made in France."
In 1935, "Verlys of America" opened glassworks in Newark, Ohio. The Ohio Works created certain items using molds from France. Both French and American factories crafted these items, but the French factories withheld some exclusive designs from the American factories. Production in France and the USA declined during the war as the company focused increasingly on industrial products.
The Verlys range was progressively abandoned in both countries from 1940 until it ceased altogether, in the States in 1951-52 and France in the early 1960s.
In 1955, the Heisey Glassworks leased some Verlys molds to produce a limited range of Verlys designs until 1957 and then returned the molds. These pieces were not signed. In 1966, Fenton Art Glass Company purchased the remaining Verlys molds. They created items in colors that were noticeably different from Verlys and did not utilize the Verlys name.
(Credit: GlassEncyclopedia website). See less