A Chalet “Rhapsody in Blue”
A Chalet “Rhapsody in Blue”
The magic of then and the enduring fascination of now with the art of Chalet Artistic Glass is because of the combination of fantastical shapes and mesmerizing colours. The end result – well, we all know that result – avid collectors and amazing collections.
So, are you a “shapes” aficionado or a “colours” junkie? As both a collector and a designer, I have to say I really cannot separate the two in terms of why I am personally drawn to the glass. However, for the purposes of this “pictorial essay” I am going to go with colour!
But what colour to showcase? And how best to do so? After a lot of scrolling through photo files, I decided to feature Chalet blues. Why? Primarily for 2 reasons – so many of us love, love, love the blues. For me, in particular, it is Chalet’s “sapphire blue” that draws me in. I had also decided to use music to enhance the visual impact of these pieces. And there is no colour that is mentioned more often in song lyrics or titles than blue. That brought up another dilemma – what song would best pay tribute? After a very brief debate, I decided that George Gershwin’s 1924 “Rhapsody in Blue” would be the perfect piece. I hope you agree!
Chalet’s chemist, Sergio Pagnin, was also one of the company’s owners and a Master glass blower. In my opinion, his “wearing more than one hat” probably couldn’t help but contribute to the beauty of his colours. His colour “recipes” were a very closely guarded secret. The Chalet artists told me they were locked in a briefcase which Maestro Pagnin never left unattended. Many were generational – family secrets handed down over time. Another of the owners, Luigi Tedesco was an extremely gifted glass blower. He and Sergio worked closely to develop and guide the company’s artistic vision.
Chalet was not only fortunate enough to have such Maestri at the helm but to also employ many other talented artists who worked magic through “shapes and colours.” Please see the article “The Faces of Chalet” for details about some of these gifted glassblowers. As well, the articles “In the Words of the Artists” and “More Conversations with the Artists” will really help give you a sense of who these artists were as people and co-workers. Insights that we can’t get from anyone else other than those who actually experienced life on the factory floor of Chalet. And again, the article “Through a Chalet looking Glass will take you back in time through historical photos so that you really capture a better sense of the “time and place” where all this magic happened. On a “farewell” tour of Cornwall with Paolo De Marchi, I was lucky enough to uncover (literally) a brick from the old factory grounds. Obviously, the glass is my most tangible reminder of that era but that brick also evokes another sense of the physical reality as do all the Chalet artefacts that we have been able to unearth – original photos, original catalog pages, inventory stickers and company labels and hang tags, some correspondence, Chalet advertising, some Chalet packaging. To see all these, please refer to the article “Chalet Artefacts.”
I hope you find the following video to be enlightening as well as visually stunning. I think that it bears mentioning and amusing that although one of the few company references seen regarding colour is a categorizing of all the shades of Chalet blue under their single catch-all term of “aqua” in sales brochures and advertising that we have seen. This video demonstrates the infinite variations in just one of Chalet’s colours. Remember, all the runs were hand mixed and hand measured and that cleaning of the crucibles and environmental factors as well as other determinants such as the age of the mix played a factor in the colour end result. Variability not uniformity is the standard.
This video also features many different Chalet forms from the common to the unique. However, it does not come close to being a complete representation. All the pieces shown here are verified Chalet. Markings are as varied as the forms.
Now on to the main event. Thank you to all who helped make it possible. Enjoy!
As usual, this article and video would not have been anywhere as complete or enjoyable without the contributions of photographs and knowledge from members of the 50 Shades group and the collecting community at large. Much appreciated! Since it is not possible to have credits on specific pieces without detracting from the visual impact, individual tags were passed over in favour of an alphabetical listing of acknowledging that this video contains pieces from the collections of and/or photo use from these collectors:
Steve Allen
Cathy Antonyshyn
Jacques Binette
Ken Brewer
Bob Burgess
Cornwall Community Museum
Troy Danby
Michael Flink
Gionny Gueli
Kevin Hall
Ella Hanks
Jo Highland
Kevin Kodak
Reg Lennox
Jackie Lynn
Cindy Bishop-Loughlin
Brad McGillivray
Deborah Patterson
Pina Pina
Dwain Robertson
Lynne Robertson
Ryan Robertson
Jeremiah Shaver
Jack Sibbers
Sonja Romanjuk Steen
Kim Tersteeg
Alex Wicks
The Zhao family
