[Pitcher from Daum Brothers – One of their masterpieces entirely wheel cast with applique and displays the harmony of softly blended colours seen through a curtain of mist].

Daum is a crystal studio based in Nancy, France. Daum was founded in 1878 by Jean Daum (1825–1885). His sons, Auguste Daum (1853–1909) and Antonin Daum (1864–1931), oversaw its growth during the art nouveau movement. They quickly became one of the major forces in this movement, seriously rivalling Émile Gallé as the leaders in the field of decorative glass.

• During the Universal Exhibition in 1900, Daum was awarded a ‘Grand Prix’ medal.

In 1906 Daum revived pâte de verre (glass paste), an ancient Egyptian method of glass casting, in which crushed glass is packed into a refractory mould and then fused in a kiln. By the 1930s Daum’s window panels had pâte de verre added for richness, instead of using leaded or painted glass.

• Daum glass became more elaborate, and acid etching was often combined with carving, enamelling and engraving on a single piece of glass, to produce creative glass master-pieces.
• The most complicated creations also featured applied glass elements, such as handles and ornamental motifs in naturalistic forms.

Today Daum is the only commercial crystal manufacturer using the pâte de verre process for art glass and crystal sculptures.

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