Bottle with stopper - with Gothic enamel decoration and Villon quotation (part of liqueur set)

The foot is shaped of shell-like motifs, decorated with regular frills, lined with gold. It supports a widening, "bulgy" cylindrical body. There is a glass thread of regular ribs, running around the narrower middle part. The neck is narrow, cylindrical, with a small spout. The stirrup handle is placed on the body, near the neck. The stopper forms an Anjou lily. The whole surface is covered with Gothic decoration of polychrome enamel: a half figure of a crowned woman with a harp, Anjou lilies, and an inscription shaped of Gothic initial letters - a quotation of Francois Villon's Ballad of women of the time past:
"La Royne Blanche comme lys
Quit chatait a voix de seraine"
"Dictes moy out n'en quel pays,
Est Flora la belle Rommaine"
The body shows four pieces of an exploded gold foil, at an equal distance form each other. Although the inscription on the flask is Gothic the painted ornaments resemble Islamic mosque lamps: the various colours cover the whole surface like a carpet. This effect reached Gallé by the works of Philippe-Josephe Brocard, who was inspired by Islamic mosque lamps. Brocard s works were fairly popular at the 1873 Viennese World Exhibition it was partly for this reason that the "use" of Arabic- Islamic motifs and shapes became wide-spread. A silk paper stencil of "Royne Blanche" and a cup with the decoration of this flask and the stencil are published by Brigitte Klesse (see Klesse 1982 Nos. 39 and 40.).