Offrande Art Deco Table Lamp Kneeling ladies Fayral & Daum Le Faguays Le Verrier

For collectors, Daum is a name in the first rank of the French makers of art glass, along with those of Émile Gallé and René Lalique. Led in its early decades by the brothers Auguste (1853–1909) and Antonin Daum (1864–1931), the company, based in the city of Nancy, established its reputation in the Art Nouveau period, and later successfully adopted the Art Deco style.

In 1878, lawyer Jean Daum took over the ownership of a glassworks as payment for a debt and installed his sons as proprietors. Initially, Daum made glass for everyday purposes such as windows, watches and tableware, but the success that Gallé enjoyed at the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris — the international showcase for which the Eiffel Tower was built — inspired the Daum brothers to begin making art-glass pieces. They produced popular works of cameo glass, a decorative technique in which an outer layer of glass is acid-etched or carved off to reveal the layer below, but Daum became best known for vessels and sculptures in pâte de verre — a painstaking method in which finely ground colored glass is mixed with a binder, placed in a mold and then fired in a kiln. 

Though early Daum glass was never signed by individual artists, the firm employed some of the masters of the naturalistic, asymmetrical Art Nouveau style, including Jacques Grüber, Henri Bergé and Amalric Walter (whose first name is frequently misspelled). Daum also collaborated with furniture and metalware designer Louis Majorelle, who created wrought-iron and brass mounts for vases and table lamps. In the 1960s, Daum commissioned fine artists, most notably Salvador Dalí and sculptor César Baldaccini, to design glass pieces. As you see from the works offered on 1stDibs, Daum has been home to an astonishingly rich roster of creative spirits and is today a state-owned enterprise making pâte de verre figurines. 

Pierre Le Faguays was a master at capturing the minute details of the female form in motion. His exceptional Art Deco style transcended sculptures with stunning table lamps, desk accessories and home accents. Le Faguays’s quality is remarkable, and his distinctive pieces are rare, making his works of art highly collectible. 

Born in 1892, in Rezé, France, Le Faguays received formal training both in Paris and Switzerland. In Geneva, he met Marcel Bouraine and Max Le Verrier. The three remained lifelong friends, and together founded the Le Verrier foundry, which produced many of Le Faguays’s pieces. Le Faguays was a member of several artist groups, including La Stele, Evolution and the Salon, and designed many pieces for Goldscheider under the La Stele label.

Not all of Le Faguays’s pieces have a stamp with his name. Le Faguays used two other pseudonyms, Raymond Guerbe and Fayral, the family names of his wife and mother. While the name stamps differ, the style remains the same. Le Faguays used a range of media, such as spelter, stone, wood, alabaster, ceramics, terracotta, pâte de verre, zinc and wrought iron. His most popular items were portrayals of dancers sculpted in ivory and bronze.

Le Faguays was recognized with numerous awards and exhibitions. His works were on display at Le Salon d’Automne in 1920 and the Salon of French Artists in 1922. In 1925, Arthur Goldscheider’s pavilion showed his work at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. In 1927, he received the French Medal of Honor and an honorable mention at Le Salon des Artistes Français. In 1937, the Exposition Internationale in Paris exhibited his work. He was a member of the Legion of Honor and the Order of Leopold.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Pierre Le Faguays decorative objects, lighting, collectibles and more.