A gilded and enamelled glass bowl in the Ayyubid-Mamluk style, signed E. Gallé, France, Nancy, 19th century

Gallé began to experiment with enamelling on glass in the late 1870s, drawing on the rich repertory of Ayyubid-Mamluk luxury glass whilst expanding on its decorative and chromatic range. In a statement to the jury of the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889 he wrote: "Since 1878, I have devoted myself continually to developing a palette that would allow me to decorate glass with the aid of colours and low-temperature vitrifiable enamels... I also developed reflecting colours by mixing them with hard Arabian enamels. Finally in 1884, I produced for the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs a new series of transparent enamels in relief... I therefore present you today with the results of my continued research: opaque enamels with artificial and bizarre colours, muted nuances designed to add some 'spice' to an already impressive array of colour." (W. Warmus, Emile Gallé: Dreams into Glass, Corning, New York, 1984, p.185). 

Gallé must have seen Mamluk originals during his travels in Germany as well as in his native France. The motif of the mounted archer firing backwards is consistent with figural types on Ayyubid-Mamluk enamelled wares of the thirteenth century (as well as conforming to what we know of the actual practices of the Turkish and Mongol cavalry).  Gallé adapted these iconic forms and arrived at something bold, original and vibrant.