Le verre francais is world –wide known for its glass. In this article Mrs Tiny Esveld wants to show the different types of le verre francais glass.  All these examples of vases were or are for sale in the gallery Tiny Esveld, In Rijkevorsel in Belgium. You can visit mrs Esveld’s website www.tinyesveld.com to see a part of the present collection for sale at the moment or take a look at the new book Mrs Esveld just wrote about the art made by Gallé and his family. This hardcover book takes you in 300 pages back to the era and the city in which Gallé lived and worked and has more than 600 images, of which many were never published before. If you want an appraisal of a vase you own or of a vase you intend to buy, Tiny Esveld does appraisals. Read more about appraisals.

Out now
	About	A practical guide to French art glass by Gallé, Daum and Schneider This book helps explain what you ought to know before you purchase a French art glass vase. It describes what you should be looking for and all the hidden traps. You will be able to discover whether a vase has been altered, reduced in size or whether it is a fake or genuine.
	Author	Tiny Esveld
	Preface	Francois Le Tacon, eminent Gallé expert
	Pages	176
	Illustrations	over 500
	Summary	French, Spanish and Dutch
	Book	€ 32,50
	e-Book	€ 14,95
This book is now available. Read more about this book

Charles Schneider, a colour magician

Charles Schneider was born (1881) into a poor family, died (1953) as a poor man, but was rich in friendship and spirit and colour. The difference between Schneider and Daum and Galle is that Schneider was a workman. He was an artist and he knew how to blow a vase and understood the difficulty of the material. There is this famous picture of Charles in his own factory standing between his friends, his fellow workman.

His father died young and Charles’s mother had to work as a servant. She raised her three children, Ernestine, Ernest and Charles as honest and virtuous people. When Charles was young, it became clear that he was artistic. He and his brother Ernest started working for Daum. Ernest had the brains of the family and very soon he led a part of the export department for Daum in Paris and earned a high salary. Charles was appreciated for his artistic qualities. He attended art school and was one of the leading artists at Daum.

In 1913 the two brothers had saved enough to buy their own glassfactory, together with a friend, Henri Wolf. This factory was located in Epinay-sur-Seine near Paris. 1913 was not a good year to start a business. In 1914 the first world war broke out and the brothers did not really start to make art glass until 1918. They needed money to relight their furnaces and they accepted the help of an English investor. After that they no longer had control of their glassworks. The investor wanted profit and in 1923 this led to a rupture. The Schneider brothers scraped together every bit of money they could find to buy their factory back and luckily they succeeded.

From then on success came. In 1924 the Schneider glassworks built the biggest concrete hall ever with the most modern furnaces. In 1926 they were the biggest glassfactory in France with almost 500 employees. In 1925 Charles was asked to be a member of the jury at the Exposition des Art Decoratifs in Paris. This meant that his work could not enter the exposition and would not compete with the work of the other artists. It was an honour to be a member of the jury, so he accepted, but maybe it would have been better if he had declined the honour and participated as an artist. He would have swept the competition away.

His coupe bijoux and the big black footed bowls in contrasting colours were an enormous success all over the world. Foto 16 . Most of their production went to North and South America. The glass of Charles Schneider has such joyfull colours, bright and happy colours like orange and yellow. It looks like the sun shines every day. The little bijoux vases are jewels of technique and shape and colour. Foto 10 The “Le verre Francais” line had great success with stylized flowers in stunning colours. As the majority of le verre francais glass was only etched one time, the production costs were low. The general public loved these bright vases. The success of the Schneider factory continued until 1929. In 1929 when the banks on Wall street crashed and rich people lost a lot or all of their money the market for luxury goods collapsed. Schneider tried to survive by cutting down costs, but this doesn’t help when there are no buyers left. In 1832, After a three year struggle the furnace was extinguised and in 1938 the factory filed for bankruptcy.

Charles Schneider died in 1953. In the eighties his glass was rediscovered and it now has its place as the equal of Galle and Daum.