Fine glassware, vases and tiles are produced by the Liuli Gongfang glass factory in Shanghai.
The company was founded in 1987 by two glass artists (one of whom is also a former actress) and currently operates in Taiwan, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore and Malaysia. In 2008 two galleries were opened in the USA: in New York and San Francisco.
It turned out that Liuligongfang art glass has remarkable milestones in its short history: it has been exhibited in several dozen countries (for example, in 1998, the Liuligongfang glass collection was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London). Some of the items have been acquired by famous museums outside of Asia. And in general, in the press, the founders of Liuligongfang are also called the founders of modern Chinese artistic glassmaking.
The very name of the company refers to the ancient Chinese art of glassmaking. “Liuli” – Liuli (琉璃) is an ancient Chinese word for a work of art made of glass.
In the manufacture of their works, Liuligongfang artists use such well-known European technologies as casting, and in particular, the famous “lost wax casting” (le moulage en сire perdue (French) or lost wax process casting (English)), as well as pâte de verre (lit. from French “glass paste” or “glass dough”). Before the pâte de verre technology was reinvented by the Dom brothers in France, it was invented by the ancient Egyptians, and in China it gained prominence during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) but was later lost.
