Saint-Louis Cristal "Versailles" Medici Vase — Cobalt Blue Overlay Cut to Clear, Signed France

A signed Saint-Louis crystal vase in the house's emblematic Versailles pattern, executed in the scarcer doublé (overlay) technique — a cobalt-blue casing layer cut back through to reveal clear crystal beneath. The campana urn form flares to a wide rolled lip, the body worked in tall flat ribs (côtes plates) that read as bright vertical panels against the blue, and the shoulder banded with a course of deeply cut diamond points. It rises from a knopped stem to a heavy square plinth cut with a radiating star.

The Versailles model was created in 1921, drawn from a 17th-century marble vase sculpted by Jean Cornu for the gardens of the Château de Versailles. It is among the most demanding pieces in the Saint-Louis repertoire, requiring seven to eight weeks of work and exceptional precision from the glassblowers and cutters. The overlay version is considerably less common than the plain clear model — the blue layer must be blown, cased, and then cut through without breaking into the clear body beneath.

The result reads very differently depending on the light: deep and saturated at the rim and rolled lip, brightening to a clear aquamarine through the ribbed panels, and fully colorless in the diamond band and foot.