Daum Crystal: a Perfection of Lights and Colours

daum crystal banner

Daum Crystal: a Perfection of Lights and Colours

 

Daum Crystal is French brand with almost a century and a half of the history, a true chronicle of the evolution of craftsmanship and artistic aesthetics of several eras. The innovative style of the brand defined fashion in the crystal world for a whole century and made a tangible contribution to the history of all art of the XX century.

The ability to subtly and accurately feel the era allowed the legendary French company Daum not only to keep up with fashion, but to dictate it.

The history of Daum crystal began in 1878, when the founder of the brand, Jean Daum, decided to move to the French city of Nancy and opened there a crystal factory.

The province of Lorraine, where the city is located, has been a historically established center of glass making.

Daum Crystal continues the tradition of creating works of art today, annually presenting collections of incredible form and content.

They are produced on one given theme in small limited editions and have long been an object of hunting for collectors who want to have a unique thing.

daum france manufacturer

Daum Crystal & Nancy School

The main figure among the masters interested in arts, craftsmanship and design was Antonin Daum, a chief of the crystal empire .

It was under him and his brother Auguste that an art workshop was opened at the Daum crystal production, which became a true creative laboratory of the company.

daum emille galle
daum antonin

At the end of the XIX the century, the city became one of the main centers of development of the Art Nouveau style, together with Paris, Vienna and Brussels.

And properly there an association of local artists founded a “Nancy School”, specialised in crystal artworks. The president was an artist and glassmaker Emile Galle and the vice-president was Antonín Daum.

Thanks to the joint work of creative and ambitious people, France was the first one to enjoy the Art Nouveau style, which was later used not only in architecture and interiors, but also in clothing and accessories.

Daum Crystal Pâte de Verre Revival

In 1968, Daum Crystal managed to revive the ancient Egyptian technique pâte de verre or “glass dough”, which has become the trademark of the brand.

The method is based on baking the smallest coloured crystal fragments inside a refractory mould. They closely follow its shape in order to obtain its amazing texture.

This technique gave birth to a unique effect thanks to which the translucent products were filled with a soft inner glow and began to play with a variety of colour accents.

Up to now, Daum crystal is the only brand that can reproduce more than 70 shades of colour in crystal.

daume pate de verre

Daum Crystal Creations

Under the leadership of brothers, the Daum crystal masters began to develop new techniques and technologies.

They subdued molten crystal to their desires, learned to model the most bizarre shapes from it.

And with the help of acid engraving, enamel painting and the technique of creating three-layer crystal, they created a million possibilities for the finest colour gradations.

The products are distinguished by the beauty of colours, graceful forms, unusual texture and the use of floral ornaments.

Daum Crystal Success

In 1900, the Daum Crystal Art Nouveau collection won the best award at the Exhibition in Paris.

Another triumph for Daum crystal happened during the Paris International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925.

The brand established a new stylistic line in the history of art glass creations that is an extremely refined and luxurious Art Deco.

In the 1930s, Antonin’s son Michel Daum improved the properties of crystal by adding more lead oxide than usual.

Thanks to this slight change, the quality properties of the products have noticeably improved.

daum cavalcade crystal tray amber with horses

The edges during carving have become not only sharper, but also stronger.

Moreover, the new technology helped to achieve a better refraction and dispersion of light.

And so, this special material, a crystal of the new generation became in future the main one for Daum Crystal Maison.

Daum Crystal Collaborations with the Leading Artists

The Daum crystal brand collaborated with iconic artists of the last century like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Bonetti, Jean Maurice Cocteau etc. So, it became almost a rule to collaborate with contemporary and iconic artists of the time that can bring their personal and innovative design to creative Daum crystal creations.

Today, the Daum Crystal Maison collaborates with Philippe Starck, Hilton McConnico and Richard Orlinski that managed to create vibrant and provocative collections.

Daum Crystal Unique Hand Engraving

Since the very beginning from the foundation of the brand, each crystal item obtains a unique hand-engraving on its bottom.

This original and distinctive characteristic mark indicates that the product belongs to the famous Maison.

Each artisan tries to make his work unique and is very proud to put the signature on the item.

daum engraving

Daum Crystal Majestic Colour Palette

The secret of the success of the Daum crystal Maison is the ability to find talented people for whom the creative process, inspiration and imagination are really important.

Each Daum crystal creation fascinates ordinary people with the uniqueness of its forms and colours.

Each Daum crystal item is characterised by the brightness of patterns, whimsical curves, able to fascinate the eye.

An extraordinary imagination of Daum crystal craftsmen distinguish their ability to work, skillfully controlling the processes of creating every single item.

The Daum technique allows you to achieve complex and varied colour transitions.

The crystal turns out to be dense, but not transparent. It looks rather like a matte stone, glowing from the inside, beautiful and breathtaking.

Daum Crystal Nature Inspiration

Nature is still a source of inspiration for the masters of the Daum Crystal. The motives of flora and fauna are reflected in almost every piece signed with its logo.

Like in the Rose Passion collection, the delicacy of the flowers seems to be breathing, ready to reveal its secret to the world.

The drop-shaped form is decorated with openwork ornaments, and the green ornate stems meekly protect the fragile gift of nature. Soft wavy lines, stylized floral patterns and shapes characterise the true-to-life nature reflection.

The products of  Daum Crystal have inspiring magic. It is impossible to take your eyes off the vases, lamps, caskets, bowls of famous collections.
Made with love, striking with fantasy delicate openwork, not following fashion trends, it represents a real passion that embraces the world.

Any question about Daum Crystal?

If you have any special requests or require further information about Daum Crystal, Scopelliti 1887 staff will be pleased to assist and advise you.

Call us or send WhatsApp on +39 391 345 6441 or send an email at shop@scopelliti1887.com  and let us know what we can help you with.