Vase commemorating the Water Exhibition in Liège in 1939

High vase in colorless crystal, 52 cm and 5.5 kg, with red lining from the Val-Saint-Lambert factory.
The medallion features Liège’s emblem, the perron, and the date 1939. The base is also red.
Val-Saint-Lambert label (partial).

Liège and the 1939 water exhibition

Inaugurated on May 20, 1939, in the heart of Monsin Island, the splendid and popular International Water Exhibition in Liège welcomed a million visitors in three months, bringing together slag heaps and people, the river and freedom… With its river as a backdrop, the exhibition glorified above all the Meuse: a 180-meter-wide, two-kilometer-long “Meuse” integrated into the exhibition. The river could be explored by cable car or boat, and at one point was transformed into an Olympic-size swimming pool. The expression “water gardens” was coined during the exhibition… Within the exhibition and in the city, fountains multiplied. The exhibition covered huge areas of land right in the middle of the city, at the junction of the Meuse and the Albert Canal, which had just been completed after nine years’ work by 12,000 workers. It was spread out on both banks of the Meuse, around a body of water covering more than 30 hectares. The Albert Canal was inaugurated with great fanfare on July 30, in the presence of the royal family.