Posts Tagged ‘Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry’
Rene Lalique Sales Records: Highest Selling Lalique Auction Total In History With Just 16 R. Lalique Lots
February 18th, 2013
 There’s no more appropriate place for the sale of great R. Lalique items than Paris. Rene Lalique spent most of his life in Paris. He lived and died in perhaps the greatest of the European metropolises. Most of his inspired and unique works were created there, and it was there in 1900 and again in 1925 that Lalique rose above the fray; rose above the crowded field of artists and designers, and left his contemporaries behind as he captured the attention and the imagination of the world.
Many of his works, both unique and commercial show a heavy Japanese artistic influence. In a way, you could predict that perhaps the greatest of all French decorative artists, growing up in the rich pastoral countryside would embrace the natural world motif as a primary artistic expression in the same way that countless generations of Japanese artists had done before him.
 But you could not predict the new heights to which Lalique would take this traditional expressive motif, as he applied his interpretation of the surrounding world not only to artistically unique objects, but also to the mass production of the new art glass which he brought into the homes of so many people around the world. Echoing an old 20th century American summer camp fireside story, the “foo is on the other shoot”. For today, a whole new generation of eastern artists is trying to build upon the works of the great Frenchman; works that stand squarely on the shoulders of their own native ancestral designers.
So it is only fitting that the collection of Tokeo Horiuchi, the enthusiastic collector of turn of the century French decorative art; art which so clearly echoes the motifs of his homeland, would be destined for sale not in Tokyo, a center of high level natural world artistic efforts for so many long past generations, but would instead be brought to Paris, the scene, the home and the leading light of the great wave of the genre that brought Lalique’s work not just to one city or one country, but to most of the civilized world.
It’s also fitting that in a sale heavily laden with so many of the names you would expect to hear when assembling an entourage of the great decorative arts achievers of the day; names like Brandt, Cartier, Baccarat, Daum, Dunand, Frere, Galle, Guimard, Jallot, Majorelle, Sevres, Mackintosh and Morris; that the high seller in such a sale would be a non-commercial object made for the very 1900 exposition which was the foundation event for the assemblage. Yes friends, in the rural Midwestern United States, an area not unfamiliar to this writer, they call it a rail or a railing. And no, when they say rail, they aren’t talking about the bird family that includes the coot, though there are quite a few old coots ** and old railbirds *** back in the Western Reserve ****.
 Heck, when you think Midwestern railing, you think of a split piece of timber laying horizontally between two posts somewhere outdoors that keeps your livestock in place, and not exhibition visitors both astonished and at bay. For something like that, you’d need a fancy name and material other than timber, and in Paris for a high seller they had both.
Cire perdue bronze, in the form of a nude butterfly woman; a rail piece that can stand on its own with no fence posts needed :). And a railing that can stand on its own when compared artistically and monetarily to the best of the best in the 1900 design world. Oh yea, and it’s not a railing in Paris, it’s a balustrade…. a great French word that means “railing”. So yes, there are thousands of miles of balustrades in the rural midwest, but of course most of the inhabitants (the cows AND the people) can’t speak French so they don’t know it!
 There were 137 lots in the February 16th sale at Sotheby’s, of which 17 were the works of Lalique. Against an estimate of €200,000 – €300,000, the great Femme Ailee rail sold for a hammer price of €1,050,000 and a premium inclusive total of €1,240,750. At today’s exchange rate of about 1.375 dollars to the Euro (a rate used for all other approximate dollar prices in this article), the railing part made $1,706,000.
This same railing had previously sold at Christie’s New York Rockefeller Center Salesrooms as Lot 111 on December 10th, 1998 where it made $134,500 including the buyers premium *****. That’s less than 1/12 of the current price! It is one of five railing parts (having three different designs), several of which are shown in an iconic photo of the Lalique display at the 1900 Exhibition Universelle in Paris.
The sale price is likely the 2nd highest price ever achieved at auction for a single work by Rene Lalique, the Lady Trent Doors being the highest. We can safely say it’s the highest price at auction for a Rene Lalique Railing piece and it most definitely was the high selling item in the entire Sotheby’s sale.
Another new high seller for Lalique, and a world record price at auction for a Lalique Pocket Watch, was the very cool Butterflies and Bats Pocket Watch. It was also the 2nd highest selling lot in the entire sale, outselling an amazing Bureau Aux Archidees Louis Majorelle Desk! The small 2 inch wide jewel of a watch made an all-in €696,750 against a pre-sale estimate of €150,000 – €200,000. In dollars it’s about $958,000.
After the watch, things fell off really quickly (just kidding), as the third high seller for Lalique and fourth for the entire auction, the quintessential nude female pendant with comporting chain, sold for €312,750 or about $430,000, once again blowing out the estimated price of €100,000 – €120,000.
 Fourth in line for price honors was the 9 centimeters long and stunningly realistic enamel, gold, silver and diamond Butterfly Brooch which hit €300,750 all-in, or about $413,000 against an estimated price of only €60,000 – €80,000.
Fifth in the price department was a fabulous and so R. Lalique Brooch featuring the classic Lalique drop baroque pearl under a female face spreading to detailed enamel work. The estimate was €100,000 – €120,000 but the price was €216,750 or about $298,000.
In some ways the most surprising price of the sale was for lot 126, a clear and frosted Sauterelles Vase with patina that against a reasonable to strong estimate of €4000 – €6000 made an all-in €13,750 or about $19,000.
All in all, of the 17 Lalique lots, 16 sold, the only exception being the lowest estimated of them all, a Font-Romeu Vase with heavy patina estimated at €2500 – €3500.
The 16 sellers made €3,410,975 or $4,690,000 making this the highest selling group of R. Lalique at any single auction in history. Quality not quantity was key. Furthermore, every one of the 16 lots that sold made an all-in total that exceeded its high estimate. The average price for the sold lots was €213,186 or $293,000. An amazing group of numbers and another great day for the great Rene Lalique.
** In the U.S., an “old coot” is a kind of a simple minded harmless older person. But you can add some words like crazy or senile to the beginning to give it a more robust and a bit less harmless meaning.
*** A “rail bird” is a member of the rail bird family, which as we mentioned includes coots. But if you put the two words together, “railbird” in the U.S. is any sports enthusiast, but specifically a horse-racing fan who sits on, leans on, or hangs out near the track rail at horse races or workouts.
**** At the time of the founding of the USA, the 13 colonies agreed to compromise many of the land claims found in their original land grants, specifically the ones that gave them all the land to the next ocean. In return the new government assumed the States’ debts from the Revolutionary War. When Connecticut gave up its expansive land claims, it retained a claim to over 3,300,000 acres on some land in the Northwest Territory that was set aside for future settlement including land reserved for those who lost their homes in the war. That land, which now comprises part of Northern Ohio, was (and still is) called the Western Reserve; land reserved in the west. If you go there today, and head out east of Cleveland (named after the head of the Connecticut Land Company survey crew Moses Cleaveland … a printer dropped the first “a” from his name to save space) to Chagrin Falls and the Chagrin River Valley, you’ll find an amazing idyllic architectural and geographic make-up very much like the old Connecticut countryside. And if were wondering, 3,300,000 acres would equal nearly 6% of the entire UK.
***** The sale catalogue from the 1998 Christie’s New York Sale on December 10, 1998 is available for purchase (including the sales results) in the Decorative Arts Catalogues section in the Library here at RLalique.com. This Library section alone has nearly 500 different auction catalogues of sales, all of which include some Rene Lalique works in the catalogue. These are in addition to the separate Library section which is devoted to totally Lalique Auction Catalogues. Over 100 of those are listed there for sale.
Tags: R Lalique Architecture - Rene Lalique Architecture, R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry
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Lalique Jewelry At The Nelson-Atkins Museum World’s Fair Exhibition: Three Rene Lalique Jewels On Display – Great R. Lalique!
May 19th, 2012
In 1911, former Kentucky and Missouri schoolteacher Mary McAfee Atkins died at the age of 75. When her husband died 25 years earlier in 1886, he had left here about $250,000, which by the time of her death had become $1,000,000 (this at a time when $1,000,000 was a lot of money of course).
 She left $300,000 in her will to her adopted home town “… for the purchase of necessary ground in Kansas City, Missouri, and the creation of a building to be maintained and used as a Museum of Fine Arts for the use and benefit of the public.”
One notable event during the period when Mrs. Atkins was a widow, and just a country mile from her Kansas City, Missouri home, was the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis Missouri. A major World’s Fair (how could it be a World’s Fair and not be major is a good question), it was attended by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Geronimo…yes THE Geronimo, Henri Poincare, T.S. Eliot, Helen Keller, and too many more people and companies to mention. Well except one of course, because Rene Lalique objects were exhibited and sold in St. Louis. And it was there that Henry Walters, the eldest son of William Thompson Walters, a wealthy Baltimore (by way of Liverpool Pennsylvania) liquor trader and railroad man, would see and purchase some great Lalique Jewelry on exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition.
 Walters would die in 1931, leaving his palazzo like art house and contents to the City of Baltimore. It remains today, over 75 years after its opening in 1934, as The Walters Art Museum. And it has about a dozen great pieces of R. Lalique in its 35,000 object collection; a collection that coincidentally contains about the same number of objects as the Museum which is the main point of our story. A story we shall now resume :).
In 1915, four years after the death Mrs. Atkins, William Rockhill Nelson, the man who founded the Kansas City Star Newspaper died. He left the bulk of his large estate in a trust, the income to be used for the purchase of artworks such as paintings, sculptures, books, tapestries, and engravings “…for the delectation** and enjoyment of the public generally.” The estates of a couple other Nelson family members and Mr. Nelson’s lawyer also left additional funds for the same purpose.
 These Atkins and Nelson bequests were unrelated and each estate had its own plans. So it would be some time before events would take their course and these two different bequests would join purpose and coalesce into something tangible for an even greater public good. But coalesce they did, and with trustees for the schoolteacher, the publisher, and the local government working together, in December 1933, at the height of the great depression, on the grounds of Nelson’s former mansion, the new museum was opened to the public. The cost was a striking 2.75 million dollars.
The whole plan started off with land and money, but without much art. But with wildly depressed prices for fantastic artwork due to the depression, the new museum was quickly able to create a world-class collection across many fields.
 Coincidently, the museum architecture was modeled after the classic design of the Cleveland Museum of Art, which recently put on its own World’s Fair Exhibition around the objects of Lalique, Tiffany, and Faberge from the Paris Exposition of 1900.
Fast forwarding in our walk down Midwestern art history lane, in the early part of our new century, the Museum space was expanded for the first time, to nearly 400,000 square feet with the addition of about 165,000 square feet in the new Bloch Building. The Bloch Building was named after the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Henry Bloch and his wife Marion; Henry being the H in H & R Bloch.
 And it is at the Nelson-Atkins Museum Of Art in Kansas City Missouri, born of the generous mid-western philanthropic and charitable mindset that is a hallmark of the American character, as part of their amazing and creative exhibition “Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs, 1851–1939” that our story comes together.
This exhibition makes the point that all these various World’s Fairs were the embodiment of the then leading design and artistic expression as it stood around the globe. Companies and countries brought their best, and it would be shown in a milieu of the best, newest, most innovative products from dozens of countries and hundreds of companies. These Fairs were more than just big car boot sales looking for buyers. They developed into an expression of the state of art, design, and technology of the day. In the time before routine international travel, before computers and the World Wide Web, before the television, and in many cases before cars, planes, telephones, cameras, radios and even electric lights, these Fairs were the place you could go to see what would astound you in a time when the world was a larger, much more unfamiliar, and stranger place.
 It’s only natural that among the makers who would not shy away, but would savor the chance to bring the a-game*** to such a gathering, would be the great Rene Lalique. Be it Paris in 1900 or 1925, St. Louis in 1904, or anywhere else on the globe that the leading artistic endeavors of the day would meet and be compared side by side, Rene Lalique was an anxious participant. And it was that country mile from the schoolteacher and the publisher, a perfect place for the great Lalique to show his goods half a world away from home, that Henry Walters bought, retained, and donated for the public delectation, two of the three pieces of phenomenal Lalique Jewelry that have once again made the trip back to where they first met the American public eye, in Missouri.
And that fortuitous sale back in 1904 could not have occurred in a more apt setting. For Missouri is known throughout America as the “Show Me” state, an expression attributed**** to Missouri Congressman Villard Vandiver who in 1899 is reported to have said in a speech, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Just the place for Rene Lalique.
The Nelson-Atkins Inventing The Modern World Exhibition, bringing in objects from so many World’s Fairs held over nearly 90 years, allows a visitor to see the artistic and technological progression as time moved through the industrial revolution and the age of invention. And it allows viewing each Fair and its objects in the context of the flow of history, not just for design and industry, but culturally as well. Because wrapped up in each object on display is the ability, the talent, the aspirations of the artist, and the state of the industry and the cultures from which they sprang.
 In addition to the wonderful Pansy Brooch and Grape Necklace from The Walters, is the amazing Wasps Stickpin exhibited at the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1900. This stickpin has been lent by the Design Museum in Copenhagen Denmark. All three objects are stunning in their overall artistic concept, presentation and detail. And all three are trademark Rene Lalique; natural world motifs magnificently executed using materials for what they bring to the artistic nature of the project, and not just creating holders for valuable gems.
Note that each of the three Lalique Jewels is documented in the seminal work Rene Lalique Schmuck und Objets d’art 1890 – 1910 by Sigrid Barten, which is available for purchase in our Library. The Grapes Necklace is Object 346 and can be found on Page 246. The Wasps Stickpin is Object 1400 on Page 478, and the Pansy Brooch is Object 1061 on Pages 414-415.
The Nelson-Atkins is open Wednesdays 10 to 4, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 to 9, Saturdays 10 to 5, and Sundays Noon to 5. You know what we said earlier about the mid-western mindset? Admission is free. While you’re there, you might want to check out the other stuff they have as well :). Visit their website or call them at 816-561-4000 for more information.
The Exhibition will be at the Nelson-Atkins through August 12th, 2012. It will then move to the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh for the period October 13th, 2012 to February 24, 2013. On April 14, 2013 it will open at the New Orleans Museum of Art and remain there until August 4, 2013. It will then move to its final stop at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina from September 21, 2013 to January 19th, 2014.
 You can also visit the R.Lalique Jewelry section of the Rene Lalique Biography here at RLalique.com, where you will find links to all the great jewelry resources on the site. And visit the Lalique Museum page for a listing and links to over 80 different museums worldwide that have works of Rene Lalique in their collections. This list includes the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art as their collection contains a great looking black glass Lezards et Bluets Vase and a Sauterelles Vase, The Walters Art Museum, The Design Museum Denmark in Copenhagen, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the New Orleans Art Museum.
** Delectation means enjoyment or pleasure. So a food that is good might be called delectable, which would be pleasing or delicious. If it’s really good, it could be delectacious, but we’re not sure if that is a real word or not.
*** “a-game” is an American expression which means to bring your best.
**** “show me” as the watchword for Missouri has other claimed origins, none this compelling.
Mrs. Atkins photo from Mr. Denardo.
Three inside photos of the Exhibition by Bob Greenspan.
Tags: R Lalique Exhibitions and Rene Lalique Exhibitions, Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry
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LR – RL Signature: Louis Rault – Art Nouveau Medalist, Designer, Chaser & Rene Lalique Contemporary
April 6th, 2012
 On almost any day of the year, somewhere in the world there is a medal, button, pendant, cufflink, locket, hatpin, or similar object for sale with the mark you see in the first photo here, represented to be the work of Rene Lalique. The hard evidence is the signed “RL” signature. And the soft evidence is the style of the piece, and the likely period of its creation.
But the hard evidence is wrong. The signature is not RL, it’s LR and it’s the mark of Louis Armand Rault, a Frenchman who lived from 1847 to 1903. Rault was a sculpture, a chaser, a jeweler and a medalist. Born the son of a shoemaker in St. Calais in the Pays-de-la-Loire region of northwestern France, by the age of 21 he was working for Boucheron in Paris. The great Henri Vever believed that Rault might have been the most talented chaser of all time! Rault created many unique and attractive objects, a number of which are in major museums.
 But his most often seen works are in a handful of designs that were apparently licensed for use by many different manufacturers. So for example, one of his females in profile designs, may appear in a gilt metal stickpin stamped out in France, or on Sheffield Silver buttons made in England, or on a pendant with the addition of gems around the neck of the female. In addition to sometimes being enhanced with various gems and stones, Rault’s medals also appear inside intricate surrounds or incorporated into other objects such as ashtrays.
 The objects with these designs all have two things in common. They all sport the LR mark shown here. And they all often appear advertised as the work of Rene Lalique. This is true for direct sales ads, online auctions, and at auction houses.
In the very active Fake Lalique section at THE R. Lalique Worldwide Gathering Place, we receive a steady steam of reports from buyers, sellers, and interested parties about the never ending offers of Rault signed LR works improperly attributed as being signed RL for Rene Lalique.
Keep in mind that a false attribution does not always mean purposeful malice by the seller. With that supposed RL mark, a seller may think it’s truly R.Lalique, or maybe it’s just their best guess or wishful thinking. Or maybe the did some research and found the same design attributed to Rene Lalique by other sellers.
 Whatever the seller’s motive or knowledge or lack thereof, the only thing that should concern you as a buyer is to be armed with enough information to dodge these kind of bullets. What the seller knows or doesn’t know is of little import.
We decided that the best way to minimize the continued occurrences of these false claims was to create a Louis Rault reference page that can be easily found by owners and potential buyers of these Rault items who are looking for information and photos to identify these signed LR pieces. And so has been born the LR-RL Signature-Mark confusion page. Check it out.
Tags: R Lalique - Rene Lalique Authentication, R Lalique and Rene Lalique Fakes-Copies-Frauds, Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry
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Lalique Jewelry: Unique R. Lalique Art Nouveau Jewels Sparkle At Sotheby’s New York
February 11th, 2012
Rene Lalique Jewelry hit another auction sales home run at Sotheby’s Important Jewels auction on February 9th, 2012 in New York City. Tucked into the middle of the two session sale were four R. Lalique jewelry items, all thought to be unique pieces from the period before 1905.
 In summary, the four lots were estimated in total at $255,000 to $340,000. Against this estimate, the four made $652,000, or over 2 and 1/2 times the low estimate and nearly double the high one.
Lot 253 was the high seller of the group; a wonderful combination Lalique pendant-brooch, with a small watch where you might typically find the trademark suspended natural pearl.
Two coherent pieces, finished well both back and front, they made $188,500 against and estimated $75,000 – $100,000.
2nd high seller and a personal favorite of this writer was Lot 252, a typically designed and presented Lalique Pendant with an off-white enamel face, blue enamel poppies, yellow-green enamel leaves, and sporting a gray-lavender drop pearl. This wonderful Lalique Jewel is shown in a drawing on Page 274 in the seminal work by Sigrid Barten titled Rene Lalique Schmuck und Objects d’art which is available in the Lalique Books section here at RLalique.com.
This amazing piece of R. Lalique artwork made $176,500 against an estimate of $60,000 – $80,000.
 3rd place went to the Dragonfly Pendant-Brooch selling as Lot 254 and featuring two facing dragonflies done up in blue, teal, white, and plate blue plique-a-jour enamel, and having a central oval cabochon opal, white opal spindleberries, and stems enameled in white.
The missing pin did not deter bidders from pushing it up to $170,500 against an estimate of $60,000 – $80,000.
4th in price, was Lot 255, a two part offering consisting of a matching Lalique Brooch and Lalique Clasp. Each piece had a central amethyst, each featured white, cream and pink enamel work, each had a well worked mirrored gold patterned back, and the Brooch additionally showed clusters of iridescent glass raspberries.
The nice matched pair made $116,500 again the thrice low $60,000 – $80,000 estimate.
The nearly 400 lot sale at the company’s York Avenue salesrooms totaled just over $10,000,000, with the Lalique Jewelry comprising but 1% of the offered items, yet making over 6% of the sale total.
Once again, the market continues strong as more buyers recognize not just the attractiveness of the works of Rene Lalique, but also Lalique’s importance in art history and the art nouveau and art deco movements. You can find out more about Rene Lalique Jewelry and entire amazing story about the life of the great man by visiting the Rene Lalique Biography, here at RLalique.com: THE Worldwide Gathering Place For Rene Lalique Collectors and R. Lalique Enthusiasts!
Tags: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry
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Rene Lalique Pendant Owned By Elizabeth Taylor Sells For $566,500: A Great R. Lalique Sales Result!
December 18th, 2011
 Richard Burton, perhaps the most well known among the 8 husbands and other loves of Elizabeth Taylor, was apparently the most prolific jewelry buyer in her life. Burton gave Taylor some incredible pieces of jewelry including for example a pearl (NOT the drop pearl with this pendant) from the 1500’s once owned by England’s Mary Tudor and for which Burton paid $37,000 in 1969. This pearl was found in the Gulf of Panama in the early 16th century at a time when Spain was exploring and colonizing the new world. At the time, it was the biggest pearl known, being 56 carats!
It was taken to Spain by Don Pedro de Temez, the administrator of the Panama Colony and presented to King Philip. Philip gave the “La Peregrina Pearl” (la peregrina means the pilgrim or the wanderer) to Queen Mary as a wedding present when they got married in 1544, and it appears in a portrait from that same year of Queen Mary The 1st, painted by Hans Eworth; a painting that Taylor and Burton helped the National Portrait Gallery in Great Britain to acquire in 1972. This pearl reverted to King Philip on Mary’s death, and was part of the Crown Jewels of Spain for around 250 years. Several portraits exist of royalty wearing this pearl including portraits painted by Diego Velazquez. In 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte put his brother Joseph (Giuseppe) on the Spanish throne, but Joe’s time as King of Spain lasted just 5 years due to some setbacks for the Bonaparte crowd and the Spanish not taking too kindly to an imposed French King. Being a first class guy, Joe grabbed the pearl (and a lot of other jewelry) on the way out the door as he fled.
Joseph ended up living in the United States for roughly 15 years from about 1817 to 1832, mainly in New Jersey, where among his other activities he had two American daughters by a mistress. When Joseph died he left the pearl to his nephew Charles Louis Bonaparte, who later was Emperor Bonaparte. Charles sold the pearl while exiled in England to James Hamilton, who would become the Duke of Abercorn (an interesting guy that fathered 14 kids by one wife and who among other things was the Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland!). The pearl stayed in his family until 1969 when it was auctioned at Sotheby’s to Burton, who gave it to Taylor as a present! Can you imagine a better or longer provenance? The pearl sold this week for near $12 million! You can watch a video of the sale of this pearl (and a couple other lots from this auction) at the Christie’s website here.
But the Richard Burton gift of interest to us is the blue and green glass R. Lalique Pendant *** featuring a medusa head in a frame of three gold serpents with blue and green enamel and having the Lalique trademark single suspended pearl. A much smaller pearl than the one previously discussed. 🙂
Why three snakes? They’re symbolic of the fact that Medusa was one of three Gorgons!
This wonderful Lalique Pendant appeared in New York in the sale of the Collection of Elizabeth Taylor Jewelry as Lot Number 281 estimated at $40,000 – $60,000; a not so hidden gem amongst the raft of big gemstone offerings. When the hammer came down, the total sale price including buyers premium was an over 10 times estimate $566,500.
A pearl of a result for a great example of the art that is Rene Lalique jewelry.
If you want to learn more about the great jewelry of Lalique, you’ll find insightful reporting and links to the extensive information at RLalique.com in the R.Lalique Biography section for Lalique’s Jewelry!
*** Christie’s has identified this great object as a brooch. The form of this object appears to us to more closely resemble an R. Lalique pendant than a brooch. An inspection of whatever pin is on the back of the piece, which we have not seen, would settle the question from among the various possibilities.
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Lalique Pendants: Rene Lalique Ivory Maiden Pendant Obtains a Jewel of an R. Lalique Result
May 25th, 2011
 Rene Lalique could not have a better representative to carry the water of his great art nouveau production than the wonderful Ivory Maiden Lalique Pendant that appeared as Lot 405 in Geneva Switzerland on May 17th as the single Rene Lalique unique jewelry piece in the Sotheby’s sale of “Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels”.
And this particular Lalique Pendant in this type of sale setting, provided as good an example as any to compare and contrast the jewelry artwork of Rene Lalique and its typical restrained use of valuable gems, with the large precious gemstone jewelry pieces so prevalent at top jewelry sales.
The pendant features a subdued carved female figure made from ivory, standing on a pedestal framed in a blue and lavender enameled floral art nouveau surround. The pendant is suspended from an enameled chain of rod or baton shaped links. And the presentation is finished with the classic Lalique Pearl Drop suspended from the bottom of the piece by a mount of small diamonds.
It is an amazing representative of the many incredible artful jewelry objects created by Lalique at the top of his artistic jewelry skills just after the turn of the century. This piece, created in the middle of the first decade after 1900, was destined to be one of the pieces that represent the end years of Lalique’s concentration on individual and unique objects.
It would not be long after the creation of this gem that fate would bring Lalique and Francois Coty together, and sweep them both up in the spreading industrial revolution of mass production, mass marketing, invention, and economies of scale.
 Helping things along at the auction was the fact that this pendant is shown in an original Rene Lalique Drawing reproduced in the seminal Sigrid Barten book on Lalique’s Jewelry and Unique Objects, Rene Lalique, Schmuck und Objet’s d’art 1890-1910 where it appears on Page 330; a little documentation never hurting a final price of course.
Against an estimate of CHF80,000 – CHF105,000 (roughly $92,000 to $120,000), the fabulous pendant was sold for CHF218,500 (about $250,000) to include the buyer’s premium.
The final price was over three times the low estimate and nearly 2 and 1/2 times the high estimate, an achievement not entirely unfamiliar of late to followers of this website.
Another jewel of a result for the great Lalique!
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Lalique Necklace: Rene Lalique Longchain Necklace Makes $32,500. An Elegant Lalique Jewelry Result In New York!
May 1st, 2011
Rene Lalique Jewelry came thru once again with another firm sales result at Sotheby’s New York on April 14th. The only R. Lalique item in their Sale of Magnificent Jewels, Lot 277 was a nearly three foot long Longchain Necklace which featured four basically identical design elements of green enameled and gold leaves decorated with a half pearl on each side of each leaf. These four elements were interspersed between green enamel rods.
 Against an estimate of $20,000 to $30,00, it came right in the mid-range for a hammer price of $26,000, with the 25% buyers premium pushing the final all-in total sale price to $32,500.
Longchain necklaces are uniquely suited to modern fashion because elegant examples not overloaded with design elements can be worn to accompany both more formal or informal dress. But with the size of Lalique’s design work on the elements being small in relation to the overall scope of the piece, a necklace such as this one might not garner the kind of price that a unique Lalique brooch or other item would demand.
Of course, there is the whole “un-flashy” look about a piece such as this one. And this necklace at this price is actually wearable in ways that some of the higher priced Rene Lalique Jewellery might not be. This Longchain also has the wonderful flexibility of being suitable for the roaring 20’s flapper** long chain look, or it can be worn with an extra wrap around the neck to shorten it up. Either way, it’s an accoutrement and not the center of attention.
Elegant and restrained are the two words that come to mind when seeing a Lalique necklace such as this in person. And while it is far from the most expensive Lalique Jewelry item to cross the block recently, it has an appeal at least as great today as when it was created over 100 years ago.
For more information about the great jewelry of Rene Lalique, head over to the Lalique Jewelry section of the Rene Lalique Bio, where you’ll find links to all the vast jewelry resources on RLalique.com. Or Lalique Longchain Necklace will take you straight to our original auction listing.
** Flapper is word used to describe young women that ignored social norms in the first few decades of the 1900’s. Put together thoughts like Jazz, prohibition in the U.S., dancing, smoking, drinking, short skirts, makeup, and driving a car (heaven forfend :), and you begin to get the stereotypical picture of an emerging liberal counterculture represented by the “flappers” in the more stern social setting of 100 years ago. Of course getting the vote for women was also a liberal counterculture idea in the earliest part of the 20th century!
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Lalique Art Nouveau Necklace at Christies Geneva Makes $333,661 – R. Lalique Sales Prices Continue Strong
November 22nd, 2010
The great Lalique has made another strong auction showing, this time on November 17th at Christies in Geneva Switzerland.
On offer in “Jewels: The Geneva Sale”, was a single piece of Rene Lalique unique jewelry described as “An Art Nouveau Fringe Necklace by Rene Lalique”. This wonderful artistic creation was sold along with its “beige fabric Lalique case”. And the entire lot was highlighted in the Worldwide Lalique Auctions Section at RLalique.com for several weeks. Here is the original Lalique Necklace listing.
The elegant Lalique collier is referenced in the seminal work by Sigrid Barten, “Rene Lalique Schmuck und Objects d’art 1890-1910“. Composed of pearls, brown glass, white enamel and gold, it is a striking showpiece measuring 40 centimeters and being circa approximately 1900.
Against a pre-sale estimate of $61,000 – $81,000, the necklace made over 5 times the low estimate and over 4 times the high, ending at a resounding CHF 327,000 or $333,661 including the buyer’s premium.
Described in the sale catalogue as “The Property of a Lady”, the winning bidder secured what can only be described, notwithstanding its lack of precious stones, as a real gem of a necklace and an outstanding piece of Lalique Art Nouveau artwork.
For links to all of the jewellery resources at RLalique.com, check out the Lalique Jewellery Section of the Rene Lalique Bio.
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Lalique Necklace Auction: A Great Looking Lalique Jewelry Item Makes $77,500 At Sothebys New York
April 24th, 2010
 A great looking Rene Lalique original necklace that came up for auction as Lot 33 at Sothebys New York on April 20th sold for $77,500 including the buyers premium.
At the auction titled “Always in Style: 150 Years of Artistic Jewels” (what an appropriate title for the unique jewellery works of Lalique), Sothebys presented an elegant Rene Lalique Necklace described as follows:
“18 KARAT GOLD, ENAMEL AND FRESHWATER PEARL CHAIN NECKLACE, RENÉ LALIQUE, FRENCH, CIRCA 1900
Composed of baroque freshwater pearls, interspersed with white enamel feather links, length 58¾ inches, signed Lalique, French assay marks.
A sketch of a feather link chain is illustrated in René Lalique: Schmuck und Objets d’art 1890-1910, Monographie und Werkkatalog, Sigrid Barten, p. 256, cat. no. 398.2; and a description of this necklace (not illustrated) under cat. no. 398.1.”
A timeless and elegant Lalique design and another great auction sale result for the enduring works of the great Rene Lalique.
To learn more about the jewels of Lalique, see the Rene Lalique Jewelry section of the RLalique.com Lalique Biography.
And you can find information about this necklace, as well as every Rene Lalique past auction item previously listed on RLalique.com, in the new Lalique Auctions Past section of the website!
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Rene Lalique Jewelry Exhibition: Lalique Exhibition of Jewelry – Glass in Moscow Russia at the Kremlin in September
March 9th, 2010
Nearly 900 years ago around the middle of the 12th century, the first walls were built for a compound that has survived nearly a millennium. About 200 years after these early walls appeared, the first stone bell tower was built on the site. There is an amazing amount of history at this location, including the construction of many cathedrals (all Russian Tsars were crowned in the 15th century Cathedral of the Assumption), the occupation and attempted destruction by Napoleon in 1812, and of course, the housing of the offices of the various governments in charge of the general and sometimes much wider area.
But our interests focus beginning in the early 1500’s when the Ivan the Great Bell Tower was built. The bell tower was later raised, around 1600, to its current height of 266 feet, and next to it sits the giant (200 ton) Tsar Bell, said to be the largest bell in the world. The tower also is supposed to mark the geographic center of Moscow and it contains over 20 bells. Until the mid 1800’s brought the construction of the Christ the Savior Cathedral, which was demolished by Stalin in 1931 and then re-built in the 1990’s (see the recent last photo below), no building in Moscow was taller than the Great Bell Tower, and until around 1917, no other building in Moscow was allowed to be built higher than the Great Bell Tower.
 A few decades after the Great Bell Tower was built, during the period of roughly 1530 to 1550, a church was built next to it. 150 years after that, the church was converted into an Assumption Belfry, and later the first floor of that Belfry was transformed into a museum exhibition hall.
And it is there, where 200 years ago one Frenchman wreaked havoc not just on the citizens of Moscow, but on this site generally, including the burning of part of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, that another Frenchman will be honored. For in September, in the church turned Belfry turned exhibition hall in the shadow of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the Kremlin presents an exhibition devoted solely to the works of another historical Great; the Great Rene Lalique!
The exhibition: Rene Lalique and His Art, will commence September 21, 2010, and run until January 9th, 2011. Lenders to this exhibition include the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon Portugal; the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris France; the Lalique Museum in Hakone Japan; and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States.
 Yelena Gagarina, in charge of Kremlin museums, related at a press conference: In the fall, the Kremlin will host a collection of art nouveau jewelry designed by Rene Lalique. It’s going to be a very beautiful exhibition but also a complicated one. We are bringing to Moscow many great and unique items including from Portugal, Paris, Japan, and New York. I hope visitors will appreciate Lalique’s sketches and his fantastic jewelry skills. His work does not boast a large amount of valuable gem stones or rich materials but they are very interesting in terms of design.
All these contributing museums, and near 60 others that have Rene Lalique works in their collections, are listed on the Lalique Museum page at RLalique.com, where you can access links to their websites. And in the jewelry section of the biography of Rene Lalique, you can access all the resources at RLalique.com related to Lalique Jewelry. And finally, to discover all Rene Lalique exhibition information at RLalique.com, both current and historical, check out the Lalique Exhibition section of the Lalique bio.
We will bring you more news and details about this great upcoming exhibition when it becomes available.
Photos: The first photo above is an aerial view of the Kremlin complex, where on the right side of the photo you can see the Assumption Belfry next to the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. The second photo shows the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the foreground, and behind and to the left the Assumption Belfry. Both photos are courtesy of the Kremlin and we appreciate their permission to use them!
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Lalique Jewelry Auction: Rene Lalique Brooch Roses at Sothebys Makes Several Times Estimate
December 10th, 2009
Rene Lalique Jewelry continued its trend of strong auction sales prices yesterday in the November 9, 2009 Magnificent Jewels Sale at Sothebys New York. The wonderful Lalique Roses Brooch made from diamonds, pearls, glass, and enamel, and which has graced the home page of RLalique.com for the last several weeks, sold as Lot 88 for $86,500 all-in against a pre-sale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000! This continues the estimate crushing trend of auction prices garnered by unique Rene Lalique jewelry and other unique works created in the late 19th Century and early in the 20th Century.
Further details concerning this jewel of a brooch can be found in the RLalique.com Rene Lalique Auction Results page for the brooch, or by first going to the Lalique Auctions Past section of the website. Additionally, Rene Lalique Jewelry will take you to all articles in the RLalique.com News and Blog which relate to the unique jewelry creations of Rene Lalique, and Rene Lalique Biography will get you detailed information about the rise of Rene Lalique in the late 1800’s to become the world’s most celebrated jeweler.
Finally, you’ll find in our Rene Lalique Auctions Section that more unique jewellery of Rene Lalique, including the wonderful gold and enamel figural brooch pictured here, is on tap for late January in the UK.
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Lalique Jewelry Exhibited At The Cincinnati Art Museum: Rene Lalique Leads Art Nouveau Jewelry Exhibition!
December 3rd, 2009
Rene Lalique Jewelry is leading the Imperishable Beauty exhibition of art nouveau jewelry at the Cincinnati Art Museum on view thru January 17th, 2010.
The exhibition in Cincinnati Ohio contains over 100 pieces from a single private collection, of which the most significant numbers are the works of Rene Lalique. Other contemporaries from around the world that are represented include Louis Aucoc, who was an early employer of Rene Laiique, Boucheron, Descomps, Angenot, Edmond-Henri Becker, Paul-Emile Brandt, Charles Desrosiers, Faberge, Fouquet, Lucien Gaillard, F. Walter Lawrence, Paul and Henri Vever, Vladimir Soloviev, Philippe Wolfers, Victor Gerard, Frank Gardner Hale, Louis Zorra and others. The works of 34 art nouveau jewelers in total are on display.
 This is the same art nouveau jewelry exhibition that was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA) that was the subject of a previous Lalique Jewellery Exhibition article in this Blog.
Here is a link to general exhibition information at the Cincinnati Art Museum where you can also find the hours and dates the great jewelry is on display.
One theme is evident throughout Lalique’s jewelry in the exhibition. His turn towards jewelry as art and not just a valuable setting for gemstones, freed him to create unique objects that only included gems for what they added to the art of the piece, and not because the gem by itself was of high value. Lalique’s innovation in valuing the entire object as artwork, allowed him to incorporate a large number of ancillary materials not commonly used in the day, and it elevated him beyond the 19th century jewelers that were basically building holders for valuable stones, and not attractive objects d’art in their own right.
If you want to learn more about the man that glassmaker Emile Galle referred to as “The Inventor of Modern Jewelry”, visit the Rene Lalique Biography page here at RLalique.com.
 Of course, the hardbound catalog of the exhibition, conveniently titled “Imperishable Beauty”, is available here at RLalique.com in the Rene Lalique Books and Library Section containing Museum and Exhibition Books and Catalogues. The exhibition book is 176 pages and a total of over 100 great color photographs of Rene Lalique jewelry and other art nouveau jewelry in the exhibition. The three photos shown here are small samples of the Rene Lalique jewelry on display, and of the content of the great exhibition book, which is published and copyright by the MFA. The book also contains scholarly analysis of the motifs and the development of the art nouveau jewelry movement.
 And in case you need more of an incentive to visit the exhibition, the museum location is another reason to make the trip! Cincinnati is a lively and charming Midwestern town. Jerry Springer, yes, TV show Jerry Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati around 40 years ago! There is plenty to keep a tourist busy including the great waterfront and riverboats on the Ohio River, major league sports, a regional amusement park, and a pretty good night life. But just a few minutes outside of town, you will find yourself in a rich and rolling rural countryside with a quieter and slower Midwest family atmosphere, and just a stone’s throw from Kentucky bluegrass country.
This is a world-class exhibition in a great river city, and a wonderful chance to see a large number of unique works of Rene Lalique alongside the products of his contemporaries.
Tags: R Lalique Exhibitions and Rene Lalique Exhibitions, R Lalique Rene Lalique Exhibitions Sales Catalogs, Rene Lalique Combs and R Lalique Hair Combs, Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry, Rene Lalique Museums: R Lalique Museum Collections
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Lalique Jewellery: Rene Lalique Auction Sales Prices Continue Strong
November 18th, 2009
Rene Lalique Jewelry at Auction continues it’s string of strong sales performances with a couple of nice Rene Lalique jewelry items at Sothebys Geneva putting in another strong showing for Lalique auction sales.
Sothebys had two Lalique jewellery “gems” in their November 17th sale of Magnificent Jewels. Frenzied bidding from an overflow crowd and busy phone lines were the rule of day for this sale of great jewellery, and the works of Rene Lalique were no exception!
The first Lalique offering, selling as Lot 368, was the Lalique pansy motif Sautior, consisting of 15 pansy decorations, separated by white enamel and yellow gold baton links. This elegant Lalique Sautior held a detachable pocket watch decorated on the bezel with foliate plique à jour, and on the back with pansy flowers. The Sautior is pictured in the 1987 exhibition book The Jewellery of Rene Lalique**. Against a rather wide but spot-on estimate of CHF 100,000 to 150,000, this great Rene Lalique jewellery object made an all-in price of CHF 152,500, or about $151,000 U.S. Dollars.
 Equally cool, though not as unique or as valuable, the circa 1911 production brooch Grenouilles appeared as Lot 369. This is a typical glass brooch from the time of larger production of Lalique’s glass decorative and useful items. Its Catalogue Raisonne number is 1357. The brooch was estimated at CHF 6,000 to 9,000, and made an all-in price of CHF 10,000, or nearly the same in U.S. Dollars. A great result for a production brooch, and anyway you look at it, a strong and high auction price for a strikingly designed object.
You can learn more about Rene Lalique and his rise to become the most celebrated jeweler of his day, at our Rene Lalique biography page, or by going to the Rene Lalique Jewelry tag here in the Blog, where you will find all the informative and well illustrated articles we have written which relate to the great Lalique’s jewelry creations.
** You can also find the rare and fascinating 1987 exhibition book The Jewellery of Rene Lalique in the Rene Lalique Exhibition Books and Catalogues Section of the Rene Lalique Library here at RLalique.com. The catalogue is in English, is near 200 pages, and has approximately 235 great photos of Rene Lalique Jewelry and of Lalique’s Drawings. A great resource for both wonderful photos and detailed information about Rene Lalique and his jewellery.
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Lalique Jewelry: Rene Lalique Jewelry Makes For Great Lalique Auction Results at Christies
October 26th, 2009
 The Rene Lalique Jewelry at Christies New York on October 21st consisted of five lots of jewelry, (including the great hair comb shown here) and the Lalique Religious Chalice we discussed in an earlier report. All unique and original works of Rene Lalique, with mid-range estimates averaging nearly $250,000 for the six great pieces!
All six sold at the auction, for a total including premium of $1,778,750 or just a hair (comb) under an average price of $300,000!
Speaking of hair combs, the great looking Rene Lalique Hair Comb described as “Art Nouveau Horn and Enamel” was first on the auction block. Against an estimate of $18,000 to $20,000, it made a premium inclusive estimate crushing $92,500! This writer does not have enough hair to even need a comb, else the bidding likely would have continued even past that point 🙂
 Second up was the Rene Lalique Brooch featuring “two carved ivory bathers” in high relief”. The brooch made roughly double it’s $20,000 to $30,000 estimate, finding a home at a premium inclusive $56,250 total price.
As things would have it, these great Lalique pieces were just the appetizer, as the main course, high seller of the Rene Lalique pieces, and the piece that has graced the home page here at RLalique.com for the last several weeks, was next to sell.
 It was ” AN ART NOUVEAU MULTI-GEM AND ENAMEL PENDANT NECKLACE, BY RENE LALIQUE The openwork oval-shaped enamel pendant, depicting Sarah Bernhardt as Mélissande in La Princesse Lointaine, walking through the woods with her dog, within a sculpted 18k gold leaf frame, set along one side with three old European-cut diamonds, suspending a drop-shaped amethyst, within a sculpted gold surround, to the gold fine link neckchain, mounted in 18k gold, circa 1898, 24 ins., with French assay mark, in a Lalique green leather fitted case”.
Quite a pendant it was; a tour de force of the techniques, talent and subject matter of Rene Lalique. To further entice buyers, it sold with a book that had some relevance to the entire story of Rene Lalique. The book was described as follows: ” … accompanied by a beige leather-bound copy of the script of La Princesse Lointaine, a gift to Sarah Bernhardt from Edmond Rostand, the front decorated with a gold and silver-topped gold lily stalk, the blossoms set with rose-cut diamonds and cabochon citrines, the sculpted gold foliate clasp set with garnets, peridots, tourmalines and amethyst, mounted in gold, 1895, 5½ x 8 ins., in an Edmond Rostand black leather case Pendant signed Lalique for René Lalique, script signed by Edmond Rostand.”
Sarah Benrhardt, Rene Lalique, Edmond Rostand, Paris 1895, art, art nouveau, jewelry, theatre; it was enough to entice any aficionado of the period and the subject. The pendant was the high seller of the Lalique pieces, outselling even the boxed suite to come, and making a premium inclusive total price of $554,500 against a spot-on estimate of $400,000 to $600,000.
 The fourth Lalique lot to appear was a dog collar: “AN ART NOUVEAU ENAMEL AND DIAMOND DOG COLLAR, BY RENE LALIQUE Designed as a rectangular openwork panel depicting two light blue enamel revelers playing their pipes, with dark blue enamel tree branches and old mine and rose-cut diamond leaves, mounted in 18k gold, circa 1900”. Now who’s dog wouldn’t need a collar like this for those special occasions. Seriously, every dog has it’s day, and so apparently does every dog collar! This collar made $446,500 against a wide but conservative pre-sale estimate of $150,000 to $250,000.
 Number five on the R Lalique list, was the set of jewelry described as follows: “A SUITE OF ART NOUVEAU DIAMOND, STAR SAPPHIRE AND ENAMEL “THISTLE” JEWELRY, BY RENE LALIQUE Comprising a necklace, designed as a latticework of dark blue, lavender and pink textured enamel thistle motifs, enhanced by single and rose-cut diamond leaves and thorns, with geometric dark blue enamel detail, the center plaque and clasp set with an oval star sapphire; a bracelet and brooch en suite, mounted in 18k gold, circa 1900, necklace 14¾ ins., bracelet 6½ ins., with French assay marks and maker’s marks, (necklace may also be worn as two bracelets, 7¼ ins. each), in a R. Lalique blue leather fitted case”. What a great lot: an original set of matched jewelry from the great Rene Lalique! Against an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000, it sold for $482,500 including premium. A “sweet” set of jewelry it was!
 Last but not least of the works of Lalique was the great Rene Lalique Religious Chalice we previously wrote about: “AN ART NOUVEAU IVORY, GOLD AND ENAMEL CHALICE, BY RENE LALIQUE The white, brown and beige enamel and gold base, depicting scrolling vines and leaves, extending an ivory stem, the base set with nine seated sculpted ivory worshipers in painted black robes, to the gold cup decorated with a series of eight white enamel Apostles, with white enamel ferns and scrolling vine detail, circa 1903-1905, 12½ x 8¼ ins., in a Lalique black leather fitted case”. The chalice, having a much narrower appeal than the typical jewelry items, was the only one of the six items failing (barely) to make the low estimate, yet selling for a great price of $146,500 against the estimated $150,000 to $250,000.
See more Rene Lalique Religion related items, or more Rene Lalique Jewelry sales.
A jewel of a sale for the “inventor of modern jewelry”, whose great unique artwork in all mediums from glass to jewelry are in high demand over 100 years after their creation. You can read more about Lalique at our Rene Lalique Biography page, and of course, you will find many fabulously illustrated jewelry reference items including a great Rene Lalique Hair Comb Exhibition Book in our library section on Rene Lalique Books & Catalogues From Modern Exhibitions.
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Rene Lalique Jewelry: R Lalique Brooch Le Baiser – A Lalique Kiss – An RLalique Hug – And The RLalique.com Daily Mail
October 18th, 2009
Rene Lalique’s jewelry and all his original works have created a great public interest around the globe. As a result, every day mail pours into RLalique.com World Headquarters with people interested in everything from R Lalique Identification or authentication, to wanting to purchase something or track down a piece they have been looking for, or to talk about the Rene Lalique Sellers Services we offer, or wanting some Rene Lalique Consulting or looking for an R Lalique Appraisal; the emails and the reasons for them run the gamut of just about anything you can imagine to do with the great Rene Lalique.
We thought we’d publish one of our many email exchanges from this week to give you a glimpse of some of the goings on here at the desert hub of worldwide RLalique activity. From this email exchange, you might think we have WAY too much free time, but nothing could be further from the truth!
We’ve made minor edits to remove the identity of the RLalique.com Enthusiast, and to add photos and links for the benefit our RLalique.com Blog readers.
The Email Question:
 “Hey there,
Ok, you guys may be my last hope of finding an answer I’ve been looking so long for. About approximately 16 or 17 years ago we had at our Dallas Museum of Art, a fantastic Lalique exhibit. One of the items was a brooch of a man & woman just about to kiss. It must have been made of frosted crystal. It looked like a piece of carved ice. It was beautiful. But engraved around the edge of the brooch were words. Beautiful words that I thought I’d never forget. The words were just a short phrase. But now, I cannot remember what they said. This is my question. Do you know how I can find out what the words say? In my recent searches, I see they have mimicked this brooch on a perfume bottle. It seems the brooch may be called Le Baiser brooch (1904) If I knew at the time it would be so hard to remember I would have wrote it down at the time…. Can you help me?”
Our Reply:
 Hi RLalique.com Enthusiast. Thanks for contacting us and for visiting our website.
The brooch “Le Baiser”. This seems like a tough question. But, we have the answer!!!!!
The brooch you are asking about is owned by the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris… having been donated to them in 1960.
It was lent by them in 1998 to the 3 city exhibition “The Jewels of Lalique” that was in NY at the Cooper-Hewitt, and in DC at the Smithsonian, and then in Dallas the last couple months of 1998 ending on January 10th, 1999 which is where you saw it.
The brooch also was in Japan in 2000-2001 at a huge exhibition of RLalique held there at 3 locations including in Tokyo at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum that we talked about in the Blog a couple months ago… which is the former residence of Prince Asaka and which contains the great Lalique Doors!
AND, most importantly, it appears in the book Lalique Par Lalique, the smaller early edition from 1977/1983, where they discuss the inscription that is enameled on the edge!
“Je reve aux baisers qui demeurent toujours” ….. I dream of kisses eternal! Or ….. I dream of kisses which stay forever!*
And so do we!
Best Regards,
RLalique.com
PS – It is amazing what you can put together in a few minutes when you are sitting in the middle of The Rene Lalique Books and Library room! (End of Reply)
This brooch was donated to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in 1960 by a son of Rene Lalique named Rene Le Mesnil. You can read about it in the Lalique Jewelry section of the Lalique Biography here on the website.
 Seriously, we know how the ancients felt when they walked into Ptolemy’s great Library at Alexandria! Ok, not that “seriously”, but you get the point
And of course, the Lalique Exhibition Catalogues for the exhibitions mentioned in our reply and shown in photos here are obviously available in the Rene Lalique Books and Library section here on the website. They will be found in what is by far the largest selection of Lalique Exhibition Books and Catalogues for sale anywhere in the world. The Lalique Par Lalique book mentioned in our email reply is also in the Library in the section on Modern Lalique Books, where similarly, you will find it among what is by far world’s largest selection of post war books on Rene Lalique and his works.
And don’t forget when you are traveling, to check out our extensive list of Lalique Museum Collections around the world. Wherever you go, you won’t be far from some great R Lalique items.
Now here is the reply (verbatim) from the RLalique.com Enthusiast!
Amazing!!!
You guys are my HERO!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much….
..I would give you a hug!!!!!!
So here’s a cyber HUG !!!!
Thank you (End of Reply)
Hmmmm, we never got a cyber hug before! But it’s greatly appreciated!
And now you know, not just a little more about Rene Lalique, you also know that the Testimonial Page here at RLalique.com likely contains just a small sampling of the great responses and reactions we’ve had from our global readership to the concept of our website!
Finally, having received our first cyber hug, we will leave you with this thought:
Nous rêvons aux étreintes qui demeurent toujours” ….. We dream of hugs eternal!
*Based on reader input we altered the 2nd translation changing the word “last” to the word “stay”.
Tags: R Lalique - Rene Lalique Authentication, R Lalique Exhibitions and Rene Lalique Exhibitions, R Lalique Rene Lalique Exhibitions Sales Catalogs, Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry
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