Sadness Galle Vase
This generic title was used by Galle from about 1890 to cover all the vases whose moods evoked melancholy thoughts, feelings of sadness, death and decay. They are more subtle than the Noir vases, using a variety of techniques and colors. The designs are frequently of dead or dying flowers or flowers like the snowdrop with its hard, brief life. Insects are predatory. Flowers shiver in the dying rays of a winter sun. Several Vases de Tristesse were designed in memory of dead friends. Others were commissioned. They frequently have appropriate words engraved on them. Sometimes the name of the person whose memory is being evoked. Shapes vary from straightforward vases to funerary urns.
