At the end of the 19th century, the decorative arts in continental Europe were swept  by a new movement, art nouveau.  A reaction to industrial and city life, it took its inspiration from a romantic vision of nature and put its faith in Ideals of craftsmanship and hand manufacture.  Its most common expression  in furniture, textile design, metal work, graphic arts etc. The construction of pieces with sensuous flowing lines. 

This style was ideally suited to glass, which could be blown, moulded, cut, painted, sculpted or chemically altered to produce a whole range of affects.  The most innovative art nouveau glass came from France, and primarily from three factories in or around the town of Nancy, in Lorraine.  Galle, Muller Freres and Daum all produced thousands of beautiful vases, bowls, lamps and other pieces in the new style.

The prime mover in all this was Emile Galle.  He was an unusual man  ,  more artist than business man, and he fostered a spirit of co-operation and support, rather than competition, with the other manufacturers in Nancy, who shared information, techniques and design ideas.

Many of the shapes for their creations were drawn from Chinese and Japanese ceramics.  Colour, texture, and iridescence were all used to artistic effect, and sometimes lines of poetry were added to the glass.  Most pieces were decorated with flowers or insects, drawn from life.  Galle akeen botanist, kept a huge garden full of specimens as models.

New techniques exploited what once had been considered flaws, such as crackling.  Contaminants such as wood ash and coal dust were deliberately introduced to glass, giving it an opacity that could be controlled to suggest mist, rain or the magical light of dusk or dawn.

At first, much of what was produced was in signed limited editions.  By the 1890s, though, a large enough market existed for Daum and Galle to start  a version of mass production, though chemical reactions in the glass making process and hand finishing meant that no two ices were identical.

Galle died in 1904, and the next ten years, some of the creative zest went out of the Nancy school, as the factories concentrated more and more on producing cheaper wares to meet a growing overseas demand.

After world war 1, art nouveau tended to be looked on as decadent .  Though Daum continued to make it, art glass went right out of fashion, and stayed the same till the 1960s.

There was a time when French art glass was despised and therefore cheap, but those days are long gone.  Has now become highly collectable, many of the best pieces have been exported to the far east, where it is much prized.  \prices have risen so dramatically  that signed pieces are beyond most peoples range.

Mass produced pieces made in the 1890s and 1900s, are more reasonably priced.  Those made in the 1920s and after though, are best avoided.  The use of cheaper materials meant that the bright, strong colours of earlier years were replaced by dull greens and browns, while gas bubbles often appear in the glass.

Sometime you may be lucky and pick up a bargain at a boot sale, but it is unlikely.  It is always best to buy from a reputable dealer specialist., because the subject is complex and fakes and altered pieces are fairly common.  There is no way that is 100 percent reliable of authenticating a piece of glass, and you should always get a descriptive receipt, saying exactly what you have bought.

It is fairly easy to alter pieces of art glass.  Modern repairs done with plastic resin can be picked out if you examine a piece closely, but other problems are difficult to spot.  Cracks or chips can be shaved off, while lamp bases can be turned into vases and vases turned into bowls to get rid of damaged areas. Imperfect necks and feet can be removed easily.

Fake signatures are also fairly common.  Imitation Galle glass is being made in France today, and the signatures added elsewhere.  The best guard against this is again is to use a reputable dealer.  Try to handle as many pieces as you can so you can judge the weight and general feel of the glass.

The price depends on the quality of the craftmanship involved, the condition and its rarity value, signed one off pieces are valuable.  Damaged mass produced pieces are worthless, whether or not they have been repaired or restored, but slightly imperfect, but still decorative pieces are still well worth buying but it must be reflected in the price.

Galle made some unfinished items and stamped them, along with some imperfect pieces, with the word (etude) meaning study, these are collectable in their own right.