Glass Factories in 20th century Belgium: Verrreries de Scailmont

The Scailmont factory originally specialising in non-crystal decorative glass, was established by H.R. Hirsch in 1901, in Manage, then one of at least 10 glass factories in the immediate area.
In 1908 Hirsch was replaced by Georges Sacré as new director of the company. He approached Henri Heemskerk in 1924 to become chief designer of the Scailmont glassworks, a job which Heemskerk gladly accepted. Heemskerk worked at Scailmont from 1924 until 1951 and made many designs for moulded and satin-finish vases with art nouveau and art deco decorations. The success of Charles Catteau following the Paris Exposition of 1925 led to increasing popularity of their products and S.A. Verrerie de Scailmont employed 800 people at it's peak in 1930.
Nearly all the art production is clearly marked with the factory name and often a designers mark, as well (e.g. 'HH' or 'Catteau'). Some products were identified by paper labels. The factory is particularly associated with enamelled glass and satin finished vases in the art-deco style. They had a long association with Boch Freres and Val-St-Lambert (and produced designs for these companies) and also sometimes marketed their own designs under the (telex-)name 'Vermont'. In later years they survived to became one of the most long-lived pressed glass manufacturers in Belgium.
Many of the designs by both Heemskerk and Catteau include satin-etched decors, sometimes cut-to-clear and sometimes done onto pressed glass blanks. There is also evidence that the factory supplied blank glass items to several decor-studios in the 'Region du Centre'.
The most popular of these are also thought to have been copied at a later date by another manufacturer (possibly Nieman) so collectors consider that only marked items are definitely genuine.
It is also thought that the factory reproduced designs from French makers (without permission).
Other Scailmont designers and decorators included Henri Martin, Robert Hofman, Léon Lauwerys and Karel Heller.
Scailmont Merged with Durobor in 1976 to become 'Hainaut' and then 'Vereno' before finally closing in 2000.

Links:
Many of the best websites about Scailmont are in French (FR).
Click here and they will be opened in a new browser window

www.artdecoducentre.be (FR)
University of Liege, GR ATlas (FR)
www.glass-wiki.net (EN)
www.marcpairon.com/CharlesCatteau (EN)

Henri Heemskerk (1886-1953)

He started very young as a painter with Boch Fréres Keramis in La Louvière. He became a lecturer at the school of industrial arts in La Louvière (giving lessons in painting and glass etching), and also worked as chief designer for Scailmont from 1924 to 1951. He was interested particularly in satin-finished forms which were cut back to clear glass, as well as pressed glass design and enamel painting. Most of his signed work dates between 1925 and 1930.
He also worked with overlays in silver and other metals and also marbelised opaque glass.

ISBN: 978-2-930469-36-2

Charles Catteau (1880-1966)

was trained at the Douai Academy and National School of Ceramics, Sevres and started work for the Belgian Royal Porcelein Factory in 1904. After 1906 he worked for Boch Freres and began to establish a style of Art Deco specific to Belgium.
From 1907 he was a teacher of decorative arts at the School of Industrial Arts at La Louvière, and over the next 50 years became a major influence on a generation of designers in porcelein, glass and metalwork.
In 1925 he showed his work at the Paris Exposition to great acclaim. He drew his inspiration from a wide range of avant-garde arts, and specifically from Picasso and the Ballet Russe, German Bauhaus and Japanese assymetry.
His glass designs were manufactured at Val-St-Lambert (crystal) and Scailmont (half-crystal and hard glass) and his ceramics for Boch 'Keramis' became bestsellers in Belgium and France.
An exhibition of work by Charles Catteau and his contemporaries was held at the Royal Museum of Mariemont (April-Sept 2011) and a substantial reference book published to accompany it (pictured left).
As well as hundreds of full page full colour photographs the book includes articles by Daniel Massart, Isabelle Lecocq, Isabelle Verhoeven and various other local experts.

The above vases were designed by Charles Catteau and have the etched mark of Scailmont.

Photos © Frederick Cooper: with permission
Signed in the press with 'Scailmont HH' indicating the designer as Henri Heemskerk

Photos © S.Outelet: with permission
The satin-finished vase on the right of the row above was originally produced with the impressed signature of Catteau.
A later version from a new mould also exists, but does not bear his name and may have been produced at another factory . Other differences in the detail are clear upon closer inspection.

Designs for Scailmont by Heemskerk's pupil, Henriette Dupont in 1924. It is not known whether these designs were ever realised as products.
Photographs © Frey-Kerrard; by kind permission