The very idea that a chair could glitter like a diamond, catch light like a colored gemstone, and still function as seating must have astounded those who first encountered glass furniture in the mid- …
The very idea that a chair could glitter like a diamond, catch light like a colored gemstone, and still function as seating must have astounded those who first encountered glass furniture in the mid- to late- 19th century. The Corning Museum of Glass aims to recapture that sense of awe in Glass of the Maharajahs: European Cut Glass Furnishings for Indian Royalty, on view from Friday, 19 May to 30 November 2006. The major exhibition is the first ever to examine a little-known chapter of design history, when British and French glass manufacturers tailored one-of-a-kind and limited production glass furniture to the wealthy Indian elite. Many of these extraordinary pieces still reside in their original homes, principally in Rajasthan, but also in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh. Among the highlights of Glass of the Maharajahs will be a unique 11-foot-tall mirrored and intricately faceted glass wall cabinet, capped by four glass finials, on public view in the United States for the first time; towering candelabra; massive chandeliers; side tables; chairs; and even a crystal and horsehair fly whisk. Also on view, drawn from the Museum“s own collection as well from public and private collections world-wide, will be detailed design drawings, design books, catalogues, copies of period advertisements, and photographs of palace interiors taken years ago, and today. Visitors will also encounter a French dressing table with a glass top and an oval mirror and candle holders supported by bronze cupids, which was made for a member of the French royal family. This exquisite piece will be displayed along with other examples of glass furniture spanning the early 19th to the early 20th centuries, giving visitors an overview of the early developments in glass furnishings outside the Indian market. To accompany the exhibition, the Corning Museum will produce a 133-page, illustrated book. Entitled “Glass of the Maharajahs”, it will document the development of the Eastern market in the context of, among other influences, the fast-changing glass technology of the day, the world stage offered by the world“s fairs, and the changing tastes of the Maharajahs and other of India“s elite. Says Jane Shadel Spillman, curator at The Corning Museum of Glass, and organizer of the exhibition, “During this period, British and French glass manufacturers applied new technology – the fashioning and annealing of large pieces of glass – to products conceived exclusively for an Eastern market. It was a fascinating moment in design history, a reversal of the more usual formula whereby Asian manufacturers tailored indigenous wares to the tastes of European markets”. Two European companies dominated the Indian market: France“s Cristalleries de Baccarat and F. & C. Osler of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. For much of the 19th century Osler even had a Calcutta showroom. Baccarat opened a showroom in Bombay in 1896. It was the opening of the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the “Crystal Palace” in London that prompted the development of larger and larger glass furniture. Osler created what was probably the exposition“s most spectacular display: the 27-foot tall Crystal Fountain, which stood at the center of the Crystal Palace and is said to have required four tons of glass. The exhibition will feature an original watercolor design for the Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton (1850), from the Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass. One of the truly spectacular objects in the Glass of the Maharajahs, designed in 1889 by Baccarat, is a cut glass table of seeming perfection, its clear crystal legs shaped to resemble the turnings of carved wood and its top trimmed with classical detailing. Of the three of these tables that were made, only two survive. “Today, glass tables, cabinets, and lighting fixtures are not at all unusual. But in the second half of the 19th century, it would have been truly remarkable to see such objects as these,” says David Whitehouse, executive director, The Corning Museum of Glass. “We hope to recapture the feeling of awe these sumptuous, over-the-top pieces of furniture would have evoked.”