Rago Auctions

Amalric Walter was born in the pottery mecca of Sèvres and developed an interest in ceramics from a young age. After studying at the École nationale de la manufacture de Sèvres, he shifted his artistic attentions and began experimenting with pâte de verre, French for “glass paste,” a method in which powdered glass is colored with pigments and mixed with a binder and fluxing medium, then placed in a mold and fired. After annealing the work is removed from the mold and finished by polishing, engraving, or other decorating methods. Walter began exhibiting his pâte de verre creations in the 1903 Salon and, five years later, moved to Nancy where he was contracted to work at Daum.

Daum glassworks gave Walter considerable independence, providing him with a workshop and accessibility to any of the company’s designers. When Daum was forced to cease production in 1914 due to WWI, Walter opened his own workshop in Nancy where he employed up to a dozen glassworkers. He retained the copyright to his Daum models and hired Henri Bergé (with whom he had worked at Daum), as well as Jean-Bernard Descomps, Victor Prouvé, Jules Chéret, and other designers to create new models for him. Walter's workshop produced a broad range of decorative and functional pieces from pendants and tiles to windows, vases, bowls, trays, and candlesticks, all masterfully executed in gorgeous colors. By the late 1930s interest in pâte de verre was waning and Walter closed his studio; what remains is a body of work representing some of the most exceptional pâte de verre made in the early 20th century.