Igor Mitoraj — Crystal & Daum Editions

Alongside his bronze and marble production, Igor Mitoraj collaborated with several crystal manufacturers to produce a small number of editions in glass and crystal — works that translate his characteristic fragmentary heads and torsos into a radically different material register. The two principal series are the Tybr, produced by Daum of Nancy in pâte de verre, and the Saturnia, a frosted crystal edition with intaglio interior relief. Both are signed numbered editions, and both occupy a collector category almost entirely separate from the mainstream Mitoraj bronze market.

The Tybr — Daum Pâte de Verre

The Daum Manufactory in Nancy — one of the great names in twentieth-century decorative arts, founded by the Daum brothers in the 1870s and celebrated for Art Nouveau glass — produced a series of pâte de verre sculptures in collaboration with Igor Mitoraj. The Tybr (the Italian name for the Tiber, Rome's river) is the centrepiece of this collaboration: a fragmentary head, its features partially absent in the characteristic Mitoraj manner, rendered in the dense, opaque, gem-like material of pâte de verre.

Pâte de verre — literally "glass paste" — is made by grinding glass into a fine powder, mixing it with a binder, packing it into a mould, and firing it. The result is a material with a depth and translucency that no other technique produces: not the blown clarity of crystal nor the opacity of ceramic, but something that holds light differently at every angle, the interior glowing faintly from within. In Mitoraj's Tybr, this quality transforms his familiar broken-face subject: the fragment seems lit from inside, as if the inner life of the figure is the source of the light that passes through it.

Daum editions are among the most carefully documented objects in the decorative art market. Each piece carries the Daum signature (engraved or applied in gold), the edition number, and the artist's signature. Certificates of authenticity accompany documented examples. The Tybr is typically 15–25 cm in height, in a numbered edition of limited size.

The Saturnia — Frosted Crystal Series

The Saturnia series takes its name from one of Mitoraj's recurring subjects — Saturnia, the Roman moon goddess, here interpreted as a female head with closed or absent eyes. The Saturnia editions are produced in frosted crystal: the surface treated to diffuse light rather than transmit it, creating a matte, slightly luminous finish that reads as both contemporary and archaic. Some examples incorporate an intaglio interior relief — a design etched or cast within the glass body, visible only when the piece is backlit or held to the light.

The Saturnia editions are typically larger than the Tybr — substantial desk or display objects, 20–35 cm across — and the quality of the frosting and interior relief varies between pieces in the series. Examples with the most resolved interior intaglio are the most desirable. The signature appears engraved on the base, with edition number.

Collector Market for Mitoraj Crystal

Mitoraj crystal occupies a distinct niche within the wider Mitoraj market — one that overlaps with both the contemporary art glass collector and the traditional Mitoraj bronze collector, while being fully at home with neither. This position means the secondary market for Mitoraj crystal is thinner than for the major bronze editions (Centurione, Persée, Eros Bendato), but that thinness cuts both ways: when a Tybr Daum or a Saturnia appears at auction, it often achieves a strong price precisely because serious crystal collectors and serious Mitoraj collectors both recognise the rarity.

Daum editions as a category trade at a premium in France, Belgium, and the United States — markets where the Daum name carries significant recognition. Mitoraj bronzes trade most strongly in Italy, Poland, and Germany. A Tybr Daum sits at the intersection of both markets, which is reflected in its auction performance when well-documented examples appear.

I buy Mitoraj crystal privately — both Daum editions and the Saturnia series — at prices reflecting current market levels. If you own a Mitoraj crystal piece of any type, please send me a photograph and I will reply the same day with an honest assessment.

Mitoraj and the Decorative Arts Tradition

Mitoraj's engagement with decorative glass and crystal was not incidental. His studio in Pietrasanta was embedded in a tradition of high-craft production — bronze foundries, marble carvers, ceramic manufacturers — and his willingness to work across media was part of a deliberate strategy to extend his vocabulary beyond monumental sculpture. The Daum collaboration in particular placed him in the company of other twentieth-century sculptors — Arman, César, Niki de Saint Phalle — who worked with Daum to produce limited editions that bridged fine art and the decorative object.

The Tybr and Saturnia series demonstrate that Mitoraj's central preoccupations — the fragmentary head, the play between presence and absence, the surface as the site of meaning — translated with full coherence into crystal. The material differences between bronze and pâte de verre are profound, but the sensibility behind them is continuous.

Condition Notes

Crystal and pâte de verre are among the most durable of art materials when not subject to mechanical shock. The main condition risks for Mitoraj crystal are: chipping at edges and extremities (particularly on fine detail areas), surface scratching (which is visible on frosted crystal but can often be professionally polished), and loss of original packaging or documentation. The Daum signature and edition number should be clearly legible. I buy Mitoraj crystal in any condition, with or without original documentation.

Identifying Your Mitoraj Daum Crystal

Mitoraj crystal pieces — whether Daum pâte de verre or the Saturnia frosted crystal series — are among the most clearly documented of all his editions, but they are also among the most frequently misidentified in the secondary market. The following guide addresses the key questions a seller or prospective buyer should ask.

Is It Daum or Another Manufacturer?

Daum of Nancy is the most prestigious and most documented of Mitoraj's crystal collaborations. A genuine Daum edition carries three identifying marks that should all be present on an authentic example:

• The Daum signature — typically engraved in the glass in thin cursive lettering, reading Daum France or Daum Nancy France. On pâte de verre pieces, this is usually on the underside or the rear face. The lettering is precise and consistent.
• Igor Mitoraj's signature — separately engraved, typically near the Daum mark. On the Tybr series, this reads Mitoraj in his characteristic cursive. Both signatures should be present on genuine Daum–Mitoraj collaborations.
• The edition number — following the artist's signature, in the format XX/XX (e.g., 7/99 or 12/35). Daum editions are strictly numbered and the size of the edition (the denominator) is consistent across all examples of a given model.

If your piece has only one of these three marks, or none, it may be a different edition, a later reproduction, or a non-Daum manufacturer. Send me a photograph of the base and signature area and I will give you an honest identification.

Identifying the Saturnia Series

The Saturnia crystal pieces are a separate production from the Daum editions. They are characterised by:

• A frosted, matte surface across most of the exterior — light-diffusing rather than transparent.
• A female head or face as the primary subject — usually with closed or partially absent eyes, consistent with the Saturnia (moon goddess) iconography.
• In the finest examples, an intaglio relief visible from within when the piece is held against a light source — a design etched or cast inside the body of the glass that is not visible on the exterior surface in normal lighting.
• The Mitoraj signature engraved on the flat base, often with an edition number. The manufacturer's mark (if any) will be separately engraved — some Saturnia examples were produced through glass manufacturers other than Daum.

The most desirable Saturnia examples combine a clean exterior surface (no chips or scratches), a fully resolved interior intaglio, and complete documentation. Backlighting at the time of sale dramatically demonstrates the interior feature and should be shown in any photograph.

Materials and Condition Assessment

Both pâte de verre and frosted crystal are stable materials under normal conditions, but they present specific condition vulnerabilities:

• Chips and edge damage — the most common issue. Check all projecting forms (the nose, chin, and brow ridge on facial works; any protruding relief element) under direct light. Fine chips to extremities are common and generally acceptable; chips to signature areas reduce value.
• Surface scratching — on frosted crystal, scratches appear as brighter lines against the matte surface. Light scratching is usually restorable by a professional glass conservator. Deep scratching is permanent.
• Internal fractures — rare in pâte de verre but possible if the piece has been subjected to thermal shock. Hold the piece to a strong light source and look for internal fault lines. A piece with internal fractures is structurally compromised and significantly reduced in value.
• Documentation — the original Daum presentation box (typically a dark velvet-lined wooden or lacquered case), the certificate of authenticity (a folded card or booklet with the edition number), and any original gallery receipt or invoice. Each document present adds to value.

The Daum Collaboration — Context and Significance

Daum of Nancy occupies a specific position in the history of French decorative art. The firm was founded in 1878 by Jean Daum and subsequently developed by his sons Auguste and Antonin into one of the major studios of the Art Nouveau period, contemporaneous with Émile Gallé. Through the twentieth century, Daum maintained its reputation for technical excellence while gradually shifting its programme towards editions by living artists — a strategy that placed it at the intersection of the decorative arts market and the contemporary art market.

The artists who worked with Daum in the late twentieth century form an instructive list: Salvador Dalí, Arman, César, Niki de Saint Phalle, Gaston Chaissac, and a range of others working in figurative and abstract traditions. The Mitoraj collaboration belongs to this context: a sculptor whose reputation was built on monumental bronzes extending his vocabulary into a completely different material, with the benefit of Daum's technical expertise and their established collector base.

The choice of pâte de verre for the Tybr collaboration was significant. Pâte de verre is one of the most demanding and material-specific of all glass techniques, and the resulting objects have qualities that other techniques cannot match: the dense translucency, the way the colour runs through the material rather than sitting on its surface, the sense that the object holds light rather than merely reflecting it. These qualities map onto Mitoraj's concerns in an unexpected but coherent way — his bronzes are about surface and interiority, presence and absence; a pâte de verre Tybr literalises this by making the interior of the material as expressive as the modelled exterior.

The Tybr — named for the Tiber, the river through Rome — is also one of Mitoraj's most explicitly Italian subjects: the river that runs through the city where his artistic sensibility was most deeply shaped, past the ruins and the churches and the market stalls, past the Castel Sant'Angelo and the bridges that carry the city's weight across the water. That a work with this name should be made in glass — a material that holds and transmits and is transparent to time — is not incidental.

I buy Mitoraj crystal at private prices reflecting genuine auction market levels — without the buyer's premium, seller's commission, and transport costs that reduce the net return from auction. If you own a Mitoraj Daum or Saturnia piece, please send me a photograph of the piece and the signature/edition area. I will reply the same day with an honest assessment.

See also: Torso Bijou (decorative bronze) · All Mitoraj bronzes wanted · Auction prices guide · Works index

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