French Art Deco Legras Cameo Glass Vase in Opaline with Amber Overlay

French Art Deco Legras Cameo Glass Vase in Opaline with Amber Overlay, circa 1926 to 1933
An elegant French Art Deco cameo glass vase was produced by the Legras workshops in Pantin during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It is executed in thick opaline glass, overlaid with a warm, amber-yellow casing that has been selectively cut back to form a bold, architectural, geometric design. The decoration is carved directly into the layered glass using acid and wheel finishing techniques rather than applied color, giving the surface true sculptural depth and a luminous internal glow.

The composition reflects Legras’s mature Deco vocabulary, combining sweeping ribbon-like arcs with sharply rising stepped chevrons that echo the skyscraper and cathedral forms that defined the Paris Deco movement after the 1925 Exposition. The vase has a full swollen body, a narrowed shoulder, and a subtly flared rim, proportions favored by Legras for their high-grade carved models because they allow deep cutting while preserving structural strength and visual balance.

Signed in cameo Legras, this vase represents true Paris studio production rather than mass export glass. The quality of the glass, the depth of the carving, and the disciplined modern geometry place it among the more refined examples of Legras’s Art Deco output. It is well-suited as a stand-alone statement piece or within a curated collection of French studio glass from the Deco period.