Vase

This vase exemplifies the short-lived art glass line developed by Victor Durand Jr. for his Vineland Flint Glass Works in southern New Jersey. A Frenchman, Durand was a third-generation of glassworkers trained at the Cristalleries de Baccarat. Durand came with his family to New Jersey in 1884, when he joined his father (also Victor Durand) at the young age of 14, having already worked as a glassmaker for two years. In 1897, he and with his father leased a glassworks in Vineland, near Millville, and built a large and successful enterprise producing scientific and commercial glass. In 1924 he fulfilled his dream to establish an art glass line, and hired Martin Bach Jr., who had worked at his father’s Quezal Art Glass and Decorating Company. Bach brought with him several highly skilled glass workers from Quezal. The new venture which Durand gave its own name—Durand Art Glass—produced a variety of art glass lines, but one of the most successful was the pulled and threaded decorated vases, like this example. With deep origins in Egyptian glass, Durand was most directly inspired by vases from Tiffany Furnaces with similar decoration. This particular example demonstrates the high degree of skill of the glassworkers who produced it, and a sensitivity to color and style. Durand Art Glass, however, was short-lived, and production ceased shortly after Durand’s tragic death in 1931.