The flowing lines of a flowering trumpet vine wrap around the rounded glass shade and base of a lamp illuminated by the recently invented electric lightbulb. Emile Gallé was France’s premier glassmaker and leading innovator of the late 19th-century Art Nouveau moment, a style defined by curving forms and natural imagery. While Gallé’s organic decoration was highly modern at the time, his process of layering and carving colored glass is based on early Roman Empire (c. 25 BCE–25 CE) technology.