Muller Frères Vase, ca. 1920
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GUEST:
In 1945, my uncle was a pilot in France in the Lorraine region, and they were staying in a castle, and on their weekends or days off, when they weren't flying, would explore other castles. And apparently he liberated this from a castle and sent it, and other glassware, to my grandmother in the Bay Area. Unfortunately, he crashed on take-off a couple of weeks after sending this to her.
APPRAISER:
And you had done a little research on this at this point?
GUEST:
All I could really find out is that the Muller FrËres, I guess the brothers, and this Luneville in France, were well-known for Art Deco glass, but I think they did mostly more Tiffany-style lamps. I'm not familiar very much with the vases.
APPRAISER:
Muller FrËres was a company, late 19th century to early 20th century, in France. Luneville was the first place they were. Probably the best-known for this type of glass was …mile GallÈ. This is not quite as valuable or as well known as that, but this is as nice a Muller FrËres item as you're going to see. It's acid-etched cameo glass, and you have this wonderfully decorated blue and yellow and green and red moth and pinecone motif throughout. And the actual lines of the vase are delightful to the eye, of course. I think a very easy auction estimate is $4,000 to $6,000. And with a good wind behind you on a day, maybe $5,000 to $8,000. It's a very, very, very nice piece of glass.
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