Vase with chrysanthemums ¹⁸⁹⁶

This vase by the French art-­nouveau designer Emile Gallé was found in the 1970s in the basement of the town hall of Ghent. Ernest Fierens, the secretary of the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Ghent (which organized the Ghent Floralies floral exhibition), apparently received it in 1896 as the first prize of the competition that accompanied the exhibition. According to another story, however, Gallé gifted the vase to the organizer out of gratitude for the fact that he was allowed to be a jury member of this thirteenth edition. Several versions exist of this model with different flower sorts. Especially from the World’s Fair of Paris in 1878, French artists such as Emile Gallé had been fascinated by Japanese plant and flower motifs, among which the chrysanthemum. Gallé knew a lot about plants and was a member of several French and international botanical organizations.

SOURCES

Revue de l’Horticulture Belge et Étrangère, XXII, 1896, p. 278.