Le Verre Wine Glasses

Elise Pioch Balzac's Le Verre reworks a 1976 design by Denise Larcombe, one of the first female industrial designers in Australia, drawn from Larcombe's own archive held in the Powerhouse Collection. Working in close collaboration, the glasses are hand-cast in a single mould from amber borosilicate glass, its flat stem and squared foot follow Larcombe's original sketch, a shape her employer's machine-made process could never have produced. The bowl narrows almost imperceptibly from base to rim, a detail added to draw out the notes of a good wine. Sold as a set of two, it sits equally well on a table or alone on a shelf, the way Larcombe keeps her own favourite glass pieces at home. It brings a fifty-year-old design into production for the first time, a collaboration between the designer who dreamed it and the maker who found a way to make it real.

The moment they both knew the design was right came when Larcombe picked up the very first sample glass and turned it over in her hand before she said a word.

“I would hope it felt natural in people’s hands and that they could admire the simplicity.” – Denise Larcombe