Category Archives: Lalique

Some Lovely Things

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The first thing I will show today is a tiara hinged to a tortoiseshell comb. Called the bluebird comb, it was done by Lucien Galliard, c.1900.  Three dark and light blue enamel and gold bluebirds have diamond eyes and soar through pale blue and white plique-à-jour enamel clouds. The stars are made from old-cut diamonds.

Lucien Gaillard employed Japanese craftsmen in order to create jewelry for the 1900 Paris Exposition. When Lalique saw his collection, he told Gaillard to focus on that area. Following the Exhibition, Galliard’s Japanese craftsman created unique pieces such as the Bluebird Comb, even though he put his own signature on them. Price estimate: $100,000 – $150,000.

The next three combs are Lalique. First is a horn shield, scattered with peridots, decorated by two snakes about to strike. In a clear realization of the Symbolist philosophy, the bodies of the snakes are elongated and shaped to make up the tines of the comb. c. 1898. It sold for $107,500.

This Lalique hazelnut comb was made to be worn in December. The carved horn panel boasted hazel leaves, which covered two chestnuts. He textured the leaves and stem in gold, c. 1900. Price est: $200,000 – $400,000. It did not sell.

My final Lalique comb is  a horn comb with a blue and green enameled Japanese landscape  The sunset was done in yellowish orange enamel.  c. 1900. This sold for $273,500. Go Rene!

The next piece I’d like to show is a tiara with horn leaves, apple blossoms, diamond pistels, and textured gold branches and twigs, enhanced by baroque pearl buds by Paul Leinard. c. 1905. It sold for $60,000.

Another tiara that caught my eye was an Italian bronze with gold filigree, pale blue enamel, and the micromosaic art for which the Italians have no peer. c. 1800. It sold for $6000.

And finally, I can’t help myself. Fabrege. Maker’s mark for August Holmström on frame. Sold for $2,071,389. What can you say.

Metamorphosis

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Metamorphosis, a poetic strategy whereby plants and animals fused with the human form, was commonly used in art nouveau jewelry, perhaps most famously by Rene Lalique. Jewelers created mystical creatures, who emerged from nature erotically, as leaves and dragonfly wings were teased into looking like parts of the body. In comb making, parts of an animal or human body were elongated into being functional parts of the comb.

This comb was the star of the Lalique / Japanese comb-comparison exhibit in Hakone, Japan. The museum wouldn’t send the catalog outside of Japan. I had to ask my friend Shigeru-san’s brother to get it for me and send it. But, oh my God. I never knew this comb existed.

It is an honor for me to present what I believe to be the first Internet images of Lalique’s comb, “Metamorphosis.” It is ivory, with gold trim, pearls on the gold. The trim is faceted to the ivory by nails on the side and gold loops ended by lapis hearts. In it, a woman is born out of leaves: Rodin on a comb, an astonishing marriage of art and functional design.







My Little Mystery

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About a year ago, I bought this little ivory comb on Ebay for around $24. I liked it. It was unusual. No one else wanted it. So, c’est la. As I was researching the web one day, I came across this little interesting picture from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The picture was called “Designs for a Pendant and Comb.” The text read, “René Lalique (1860-1945), Design for a comb (right), Pen, ink and gouache, Museum no. E.838-1949. The comb was possibly designed to be made from ivory or horn. The latter is an unusual material for jewellery but one that Lalique made frequent use of, especially in his many ornamental combs.” Here was the drawing.



Here is what I bought.





It has what I believe to be a Japanese signature. We know Lalique was heavily influenced by the Japanese comb makers. My little comb even has the same number of tines as the drawing. I have no idea if the maker ever saw Lalique’s drawing, but when I look at my comb, I am reminded of that wonderful children’s novel, “From the Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.” It’s a mystery.

Hair Comb Exhibit at the Lalique Museum in Hakone, Japan

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After the opening up of trade routes to Japan, Edo combs were introduced at the Paris exhibition of 1867. They took the European art world by storm and began a craze in France called Japonisme . Western artists noticed the strong Japanese relationship with nature, which produced jewelry that was at once delicate and powerful. Rene Lalique was heavily influenced. He chose comb motifs (swallows, hanging wisteria) and materials (horn), which were common in Japan but shunned in Europe at the time.

It is interesting to compare his famous work Two Swallows with a Stalk of Oats c. 1906-1908, carved horn gold and diamonds, with a Meiji kanzashi of plover birds. In Swallows, Lalique takes the Japanese motif to a new level of inventive design and composition.





In this comb housed at the RijksMuseum in Amsterdam, Lalique makes Guelder rose flowers on stems of translucent horn. Apparently, they are so fragile that the flowers of diamond clusters seem to be bending the leaves.





No Lalique post would be complete without an orchid. This one lives in a museum in Lisbon.



From June 23 to Nov 25 2007, The Lalique Museum in Hakone Japan will have a Special Exhibition: The Charm of Hair Ornaments – Lalique’s Combs and Japanese Traditional Kushi.” I don’t know that these particular pieces will be showcased, but there will be 20 Lalique combs made with his own hands on display.

To Delight The Eye

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I liked these. :-)

Edo comb, possibly Japanese hibiscus? 18th century.



Liturgical comb of Boxwood inlaid with geometric marquetry & studded with silver. Italy, c.1500.  The Italians were world renowned for intarsia wood craft during this period, the most famous example being The Gubbio Stuiolo at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.



Here is a tiara from Rene Lalique, 1903-1904.



This is a lovely tortoiseshell comb by Alexander Parkes, England. c. 1870.



This winged ornament sat atop a tiara, which would be worn to the opera, perhaps a performance of Wagner “Die Walkure” (The Valkyrie). It is made of tortoiseshell, diamonds and pearls. France. c. 1900.



And finally, because I must… ;-) An English rose-cut diamond and pearl tiara, c. 1860. To die for. :-)



C’est la vie, peeps! Have a great month. :-)

Some Lovely Things on Ebay

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Here is the most recent set of beautiful combs, which were listed on ebay. Also listed was a drawing of a horn hair comb with notes in Rene Lalique’s own hand, from his family’s collection.

Tortoiseshell comb, c. 1850, with intricate hand-carved openwork design and real rubies, diamonds, and sea pearls. It sold for $405 on Nov. 16.




Joseph Rodgers’ hallmark is on this Sterling silver comb, c. 1898. The comb is small, about 3.34″ wide by 3.1″ high. It sold for $68.02 on Nov. 12.




Design for a horn hair comb, ink and watercolor on BFK Rives parchment paper, with annotations in Lalique’s hand, upper right, c. 1900. (Provenance: Lalique Family collection.) It sold for $4000 on Nov. 17.

Rene Made This With His Own Hands

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Well, sometimes your mind explodes. I would have never thought a comb Rene Lalique made with his own hands would come to public auction. I would have thought a museum would grab this for their lives before any competition would find it.

Here it is: “Rare Horn, Mother-Of-Pearl, Enamel and Topaz Tiara, Circa 1903, Rene Lalique.” Estimate: $330,000.

Description: “Naturalistically designed as branches of pussy willows, the trunk bark defined by wedge-shaped topaz offset by a brown enamel field, continuing to carved gold and horn branches painted with brown enamelling, punctuated with carved mother-of-pearl and horn pussy willows in various stages of bloom, the three-prolonged comb of horn, connected to the diadem by a gold hinge, signed”

It went to Albion Art’s Virtual Museum.

From Diana Scarisbrick: “A French Art Nouveau horn, mother of pearl, enamel, topaz and yellow gold diadem by René Lalique, designed as two stylised trailing willow (Salix) stems, the three pronged  hinged horn comb supporting a textured yellow gold trunk set with three rows of baguette-cut topaz from which emanates to either side two trailing branches of carved mother of pearl and horn catkins in various stages of development, signed ‘LALIQUE’.

“In his quest for a new style of jewellery, Lalique challenged the conventional tiara crowning the heads of women at formal events, signifying their wealth and status. The alternative he offered here  is  inspired by the commonest of trees, the willow. As in nature, he attaches two leafless branches complete with catkins to the bark of the tree, and places them so that they rise above the brow, drawing attention to the head, not through the glitter of diamonds, but by the sheer originality of the motif. Similarly typical of his independent style are the materials used – mother of pearl, horn, enamelled gold – which are inexpensive and relatively humble. The three pronged transparent horn comb below is hinged so as to lie flat on the crown of the head and support the arched ornament framing the face. These jewels for the hair were popular and it is significant that of the nine combs Lalique showed at the exhibition held at Agnew’s in London in 1905, no less than eight were made of horn.”