Few things are as mundane as baseboard. It’s the narrow length of wood that runs along the bottom of interior walls to protect against scuffs and dirt. A practical, boring necessity.
Yet in 2008, when American Stephen Cavallo introduced architectural cast glass as a decorative alternative, baseboard became a billboard for the merits of bespoke design.
Custom cast glass is a labor-intensive creation. Each section requires three moldings—metal, silicone and plaster—that are hand-poured, hand-cast and hand-polished before being discarded. The finished product is heavier and more expensive than marble.
On the flip side, it’s among the most skillful glass produced in the world, and it’s having a moment.
“We’re working on a cast-glass commission for a nightclub that requires 15 sections of baseboard, and 15 sections of architrave, all gilded in moon gold leaf,” says Dominic Schuster, a U.K. specialist in antiqued and gilded glass. “It will cost around $300,000 once complete, but the client wants something a bit novel and flashy, and money isn’t an issue.”
Schuster began in architectural restoration under the mentorship of conservator Lucinda Compton. There, he learned intricate techniques such as gilding, Asian lacquer and European japanning. He has since discovered that antique restoration has its benefits in modern design.
“Most clients want something made using the historic techniques, such as lacquer, Arte Povera, pâpier mâché and tôle, but they want it applied to contemporary pieces,” he says.
Schuster’s work spans residences, commercial properties, superyachts and private jets. Today, his focus is on producing bespoke interior glass and antique mirror, a line of work that he stumbled into by accident.
“An antiques dealer walked into my workshop cursing his head off because he had bought a Georgian gilded pier glass and accidentally broke its original mercury mirror plate,” he says. “It was a lovely big plate, heavily degraded, and he was freaking out. For some reason, like an idiot, I said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll see if we can replicate it.’
The words just came out of my mouth, even though I had never touched a piece of glass in my life before.”
Not only did Schuster pull it off, but he also soon realized there was more of a market for antiqued mirror glass than for actual antiques.
“I’m one of only three antiques restorers still producing aged mirror-glass today,” he says. “Handling and restoring real antiques teaches you what old mirrors truly look like, how they braid around the edges and creep in here and there.”
Schuster’s studio employs about a half dozen artisans, and produces wall art and mirrors for an international clientele. He works with yacht designers including RWD, and outfitters such as Metrica, to create one-offs. Superyacht owners typically prioritize beauty over practicality, and the rarer the better.
A recent yacht project with an Art Deco interior included a request for long, thin slips of antique peach glass that was popular in the 1940s. “It originates from Belgium but isn’t made anymore, and luckily I have the last few pieces of it left,” he says.
On a 279-foot (85-meter) refit, the interior marble was ripped out and replaced with white gold gilded glass mirrors. “It wasn’t toughened glass because they wanted to save on weight, and we had to fit it around a console table, but you can’t have right-angled internal cuts on mirror because it easily cracks from that point,” he says. “It has to have a radius corner, which means there will always be a slight gap, so we covered the edge with a trim that we blended in with the table.”
Schuster is inspired by Art Deco furniture designers such as Jean-Michel Frank and André Arbus. “I used to love restoring their parchment tables and items that use the most extraordinary materials,” he says. That creativity is now channeled into his mirror and glass work, using foxing to create patterned effects, or applying gold flecks—an effect used in Oriental lacquer—for a hint of sparkle. For his silver-leaf finish, he says, leaving moisture in will create a smoky look.
His water glass mirror uses Georgian drawn glass (the process of pulling molten glass slowly upward) to emulate ripples of water. Other varieties of glass have bubbled dimples that, when gilded, give real depth. “I laminate and cover it with a second piece of glass to create a flat protected surface that appears to be textured,” he says.
Alongside bespoke commissions, the studio is branching out into retail items, such as the verde antico mirror. Made from cylinder drawn glass with an irregular undulation, it takes inspiration from natural Greek stone of the same name.
“The glass sheets don’t come with a straight edge, so they’re normally cut square, and the edge is discarded,” Schuster says. “I like the soft rolled finish of the edge, so we decided to use it for the borders to give a striking and organic aesthetic.”
It’s then finished in palladium gold leaf with a shallow domed brass slip made from off-cuts.
His Baku mirror has a hand-painted design backed with a silver leaf gilded finish. It’s framed in a patinated metal finish. The Eclipse range has elements of the Bauhaus period. It’s a mixture of sandblasted fine lines and black opaline, half gilded in a variety of gold leaf and color-tinted mirror with edges wrapped in a traditional Venetian black baize.
Schuster sources plain, colored and textured glass from England, Belgium, Germany and Mexico. It is then hand silvered. Alternatively, he uses manufactured mirror, stripping it back to the original silver before applying acids to achieve an aging, or foxed, appearance before it’s neutralized, sealed and foiled.
Silvering a piece of pale bronze glass will produce a mirror with a deep, rich tint. The choice of leaf—white gold, moon gold, champagne or Schuster’s favorite,
palladium gold—will produce different tints.
When installing mirror glass on yachts, movement also needs to be factored in.
“The yacht, the flex in the adhesive, the timber frames, it all moves,” he says. “We’re not just putting a bit of glass in a frame like we used to. We’re cladding walls and yachts and planes, and it must be super precise.”
For more information: dominic-schuster.com
Winter 2024
