Starting in the 1890s, ceramic artists and glass makers began to look to the arts of Japan and China, highlighted at the Expositions Universelles held in Paris in 1878 and 1889, in order to create a new style and break away from the past. Ceramics adopted organic and asymmetrical lines. Damage during firing, the effects of the flames and dripped glaze created abstract decorations that revolutionized glass and ceramics.
In Nancy, Emile Gallé drew inspiration from plants in the fields, insects and the marine world to create poetic pieces of glass, playing on the multiple aspects of the material and its colouring.