In 1900, enchanted observers marveled at how light played with color, as it reflected off leaves or the wings of a dragonfly. However, unlike moths, dragonflies don’t navigate by the light of the moon. Instead, they use sunlight’s energy on their wings to fly. Dragonflies swarm with predatory precision, catching mosquitos with their feet. Indeed,…
Decay is sensual in itself. The Mediterranean Sea Holly’s cone flower turns brown in the fall, and its silvery blue bracts cannot hold water anymore. In a flower’s life cycle, death comes without tears. With a Japanese inner eye, Lalique must have noticed the sea hollies in a garden one day, as their decaying colors…
Victorian diamond brooches came with different settings, so they could be worn separately or together as a tiara. Art Nouveau brooches could also serve multiple purposes. Indeed, some were designed as a tiara and ended up as a brooch. Such is the case with this bee-and-flower ornament designed by Rene Lalique in 1905/6. A pencil-and-ink…
The setting of gems is profound meditation. How can a tiara or crown give its wearer the verisimilitude of God on Earth? Rene Lalique couldn’t care less. He transformed the appearance of jewelry with new themes. Combining French Symbolist philosophy with ideas from Japanese art, he incorporated gem setting into raptors’ claws in this comb,…
They were friends for 50 years. Perhaps that’s why Gulbenkian (right) obtained diplomatic immunity and became the Iranian ambassador to Pétain’s Vichy government in 1939. On October 30, 1939, 79-year-old René Lalique rushed to his factory in Wingen, Alcase. The glass-making fires were out. He tried to save his priceless glass molds, but the German…
Carved out of clarified horn, two groups of three fern leaves make up the center, while two smaller sets taper off at the sides. An artist can say many things with one line. Lalique used a curved line of rose-cut diamonds mounted in gold. The beginning of the line forms the base of the diadem…
This article on Google documents fake Lalique auctions on E-bay. Beginning collectors, please remember: Lalique, LC Tiffany, Faberge and other great jewelers transformed jewelry with ideas: metamorphosis, symbolism, nature, modernism — the same ideas, which were inspiring Rodin, Redon, Rimbaud, and artists all across the Western World. Japonisme came from welding Edo Japanese art and…
Different fittings can attach to many extraordinary pieces of jewelry. For example, a brooch could become a hair ornament, quite easily. Lalique made this corsage into a breathtaking fairy tale of 18K gold, diamond leaves, mother-of-pearl flowers, and green enamel. It is on display at the Musée Lalique, located on the Rue du Hochberg in…
Lalique introduced horn into the jewelry repertoire. In this tiara, c. 1902, the iridescent horn has different hues, lighter in the center, darker on the sides. The flowers have diamond centers. A gold hinge attaches the tiara to a three-pronged tortoiseshell comb. Lalique uses a curved horn base to showcase flowers cast in glass with…
Calouste Gulbenkian was the oil entrepreneur who opened up commerce from the Middle East to the West. He also had a 50-year friendship with Rene Lalique and obtained pieces directly from the artist. His art collection numbered over 6000 pieces, to which a museum in his name was built in Lisbon. This comb depicts leaves…