After 1851, the Joseph Paxton “Crystal Palace” in London, instigated glass production on a massive commercial level and competition for glass innovations. Crude glass cloches existed in the botanical world for centuries. Cloche is a French word meaning bell shaped. Curved and domed glass was no longer executed at the end of a blow pipe by Queen Victoria’s reign. The ever class conscientious Brits, prided themselves in their ability to afford curved glass and domes of refinement to draw special attention to their collecting madness. Anything of noteworthiness was put under a dome of glass, a cloche. Ancient relics, jewelry and the new craze for Taxidermy were all put under glass by those that could afford this new pristine dome. Today, placing something worthy under a cloche singles the object out for special attention.
In 1995, Dana Nicholson of Nicholson Studio Inc. designed and fabricated custom made cloches for Yati’s 70 Green Street High Fashion store to highlight her jewelry. When the store was disassembled, Dana Nicholson reclaimed the cloches and years later, installed them in the Studio's new showroom. Dana was given a challenge to fill the cloche each month with a different composition to represent that month. We now have 2015, in a 12 month cloche presentation, with the featured months below along with Dana's thoughts and monthly inspirations.
If you are interested in a custom cloche, please contact our studios 212 966 4000 nicholsonstudio@aol.com