Saint-Louis Bagatelle Dark Blue Vase

The Saint-Louis Bagatelle Dark Blue Vase is a monumental crystal vase standing 500 mm tall, its slender form covered in a deep dark blue enamel surface. At this scale and in this color, the piece is conceived as a room-defining decorative object — as much sculpture as vessel. The dark blue enamel gives the tall form a richness and density that clear crystal cannot, and the combination of the vase’s elegant proportions and the depth of the blue creates a presence that reads across a room. Each piece is accompanied by a numbered certificate of authenticity.

The Bagatelle is produced at the Cristallerie Saint-Louis in Lorraine, and the enamel surface treatment is applied and fired by hand by artisans who bring the same level of craft to the decorative finishing process as to the blowing and cutting that precede it. Producing a vessel of this height with the precision of form and evenness of color that Saint-Louis demands requires the most experienced glassblowers in the house.

The Bagatelle belongs to Saint-Louis’s category of exceptional vases — pieces presented with numbered certificates that exist at the intersection of decorative art and functional object. Its name, French for a small elegant trifle, is offered with a degree of irony: there is nothing small or trifling about a piece of this scale and ambition. Established in 1586, Saint-Louis stands as Europe’s oldest crystal manufacturer, holding the title of Royal Cristallerie since 1781.