An exceptionally rare fully signed Clichy scrambled millefiori vase and cover, circa 1850
Of generous baluster form, containing a colourful assortment of mostly incomplete canes including fragments of serval 'Clichy Roses', a full 'CLICHY' signature cane in turquoise against white just below the shoulder, the domed cover with a spire finial, 32.8cm high (2)
Footnotes:
This exceptionally rare vase is one of a handful of important scrambled millefiori vases bearing the full 'CLICHY' signature cane. Very few millefiori vessels were made by Clichy, where the technique was more typically used in their renowned production of paperweights. Paul Dunlop records just three such examples in his Dictionary of Glass Paperweights (2009), p.92 at the time of writing. A pair of fully signed vases of pear shape in the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum (inv. nos.PW1975.29.1106 and 1107) are illustrated by Geraldine Casper, Glass Paperweights of the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum (1989), p.64, nos.1106 and 1107 and a similarly shaped fully signed single vase is in Corning Museum of Glass (inv. no.2011.3.139). Another in a private collection is cited by Dunlop (2009), p.92 and is probably one of the pair of slender baluster vases from the Alschuler Collection sold by L H Selman in their Fall 2008 auction. A further pair of slightly different slender baluster vases, one of which is fully signed, is in Corning Museum of Glass (inv. no.53.3.60) and illustrated by Paul Hollister, The Encyclopedia of Glass Paperweights (1969), p.143, fig.162.

None of the recorded vases have covers and no other fully signed examples in this generous baluster shape would appear to exist, making the present example a great rarity and one of only six or so signed vases known to exist. For a fully signed Clichy miniature paperweight and a discussion of paperweights incorporating this rare cane, see lot 174 in this sale.