October 18th will be a date to remember in R. Lalique Ashtray History. Likely the best collection of commercial ashtrays ever to appear at auction together will offered in over 100 ashtray lots! And there are over 30 other non-ashtray R. Lalique lots as well that by themselves would make a nice sale of the works of Rene Lalique.
We decided to let the pictures speak for themselves, not just for the individual pieces, but also for the ashtray collection as a whole. Note that a couple of the pictured items are of unknown age and a few lots have multiple items where one or more are modern crystal pieces. And only the ashtrays are shown.
So check it out. A Trianon Ashtray? You see one or two of those per decade. Or the seldom seen Belier Ashtray? Color and rarities abound: blue this and opalescent amber and green that. Of course for those readers not bored by details, here’s a link to download the catalogue listing for all the R. Lalique Lots with most all the riffraff* removed.
And of course the auction’s listing from the Worldwide Auctions Section can be found HERE!
Your man at the sale is Michael Jeffrey: +44 01722 424505 / mj@woolleyandwallis.co.uk.
* Riffraff is usually used to refer to the rabble, the mob or the lower classes as viewed from “above” of course. The word comes from the Middle English riffe raffe (one and all). Of course in modern times the riffraff are just called “The Deplorables” (count this writer in). Riffraff has also come to mean trash or rubbish; groups of objects not just groups of people. So we mean to say (tongue in cheek of course), if it’s not R. Lalique, well what else would you call it? 🙂
The whole Medusa And Serpent thing is a bit of a misnomer. In Greek mythology, Medusa was a winged Gorgon (one of three sisters) that had snakes for hair. People who looked at her turned to stone. It really should just be Medusa Ring and you can infer the whole serpent thing.
Of course the hero Perseus beheaded Medusa and even then her head was known to continue to turn those who looked at it to stone. Apparently the wings weren’t part of the stone effect*.
Even though the Greeks gave it a whole new name, I’ll bet a few of you readers know exactly what this whole Gorgon thing is all about. In modern times many people just call it “mother-in-law”.
OK, getting to our story, some incredible R. Lalique Jewelry has appeared with the Medusa theme, including the great Elizabeth Taylor Burton Pendant in 2011 that made over $550,000 at auction in New York. That pendant had a drop pearl and three snakes around a dark masque.
The ring has but one snake with enameled scales that extend to the shank, and which shows a bit more dramatically surrounding a dark blue-green glass masque. 18 carat gold, enamel and glass!
When the Sotheby’s jewelry expert wrote us here at World Headquarters about the listing of the ring on the website, the only comment was “This is one of the most exceptional rings I have ever seen by Lalique”.
Apparently at least two bidders agreed!
When the hammer came down on September 22nd in New York at their “Important Jewels” sale, against an estimate of $15,000 – $20,000, the ring without “Jewels”, “Important” or otherwise, made $322,000 including the buyer’s premium.
That made it the 5th highest selling lot for the day, and obviously the only “Jewel” without one.
Just for comparison, the four pieces that went higher contained:
1. A 24 carat sapphire and 9 carats of diamonds;
2. A 10 carat diamond;
3. A 10 carat diamond;
4. Three items containing a total of (get ready) 264.9 carats of yellow sapphires including one that weighed almost 85 carats alone, 33 carats of blue sapphires, and 49 carats of diamonds!
It’s a new world record price for an R. Lalique Ring at auction. And not a bad day for the great Rene Lalique.
* The Medusa stone effect should not be confused with the modern day stoner effect, where stoners sometimes try to fly off bridges without wings to no good effect!
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.
Isabey was founded in 1924, and the design of this bottle is from 1925. The company was named for an early 19th century artist. Isabey was owned (or financed) by Baron Henri James de Rothschild who was married to Mathilde Sophie Henriette von Weissweiller. Mathilde died at the age of 54 in 1926, while Henri (who was a playwright under the name Andre Pascal) lived thru the end of World War II and died in 1947 at the age of 75. Isabey was acquired in 1941 by Marcel Guerlain.
The rare Jasmin Perfume Bottle with its original box and label crushed the pre-sale estimate making a hammer price of €61,000 and with the 23% listed in the catalogue for buyer’s expenses**, made a total of about €75,000 or approximately $100,000 based on the day’s exchange rate. In a well-stocked sale of around 250 lots, it accounted for 1/3 of the sale total and was obviously the high seller of what was another great day for the great Rene Lalique and his wonderful R.Lalique glass.
If you want to know more about perfume bottles and Rene Lalique, head straight to the R.Lalique Perfume Bottles section of the Lalique Bio here at RLalique.com, where you’ll find information and links to all the resources about Lalique’s great perfume bottles here at THE Worldwide Gathering Place for R.Lalique collectors.
** The buyers charge of 23% in addition to the hammer price) is an estimate.
A new and updated edition of the R. Lalique Catalogue Raisonne De L’Oeuvre De Verre by Felix Marcilhac was released this week! Lalique’s works are shown in nearly 4000 photos in the 1064 page 4th Edition. UPDATE: The new Lalique Catalogue Raisonne 2011 Edition is in stock here on the website with a special offer of Free Shipping to buyers in the continental U.S. for orders placed by Pearl Harbor Day 2011!
The new edition has arrived just in time for RLalique collectors and Rene Lalique enthusiasts needing this great reference work. The last edition was published 7 years ago in 2004. It has been sold out for several years. Actual sale prices have risen north of $750 (sometimes well north) in our R. Lalique For Sale section, and on Ebay for the 2004 Lalique Catalogue Raisonne, and are quoted at over twice that at some online services.
The new edition of R Lalique, released in the last week, has a suggested retail price of €250, or about $350 at today’s exchange rates. There have already been well over a dozen of these change hands on Ebay at a 5% discount to list, or €237.50 (about $330), plus €70 to €87 (about $100 to $120) of shipping charges for buyers outside of France, where the current sellers are located. So a total delivered price of around $425 to $450.
The total price still represents a major drop from recent sales of older editions, and while some sellers are still hoping against hope (there is one listing currently on Ebay for a 2004 Edition for $1500), others have quickly brought their prices down below the cost of the new book to reflect the new reality.
A quick summary of the 4 Editions (each new edition adding new and correcting info):
Year: 1989 Dust jacket: Black
Year: 1994 Dust jacket: Blue
Year: 2004 Dust jacket: Red
Year: 2011 Dust jacket: Green
We expect within the next couple of weeks to have this new edition for sale in the Rene Lalique Books section of the site. It is likely that all potential buyers of this book, and especially U.S. buyers, will have their patience rewarded with a decent amount of savings if they wait for the book to appear at what has become THE address on the web for everything R Lalique! UPDATE: The new Lalique Catalogue Raisonne 2011 Edition is in stock here on the website with a special offer of Free Shipping to buyers in the U.S. that purchase by Pearl Harbor Day!
Hello Veronique. Can you tell us about the layout and structure of the museum space and grounds and how it relates to the focus and purpose of the museum? Will there be special or temporary exhibitions or just a big permanent one?
His creative genius, his industrial talent and, of course, his imagination, are all brought to the fore here. The creations of his successors, Marc and Marie-Claude Lalique, and from today’s design studio, are also on display. Finally, a special tribute is paid to the men and women who perpetuate glass-making skills at Wingen-sur-Moder today. The museum presentation aims to combine pleasure, discovery and learning. The museum is designed not just to showcase art objects, but also to teach. The pictures and audiovisual and multimedia documents that energize the sequence are also designed to help visitors relate to the artistic, cultural, social and technical context in which the works were created. It is hoped that they will arouse curiosity and open up new vistas.
Will you have either porcelain or crystal items from Suzanne, Marc or Marie Claude on exhibit?
Yes, we want to display the work of Suzanne, Marc and Marie-Claude in its best light. We are also planning to organize an exhibition devoted specifically to Suzanne, an exhibition that will, of course, feature her work in the field of glass and porcelain, but which will also enable us to demonstrate her contribution to the fields of textiles, painting and the theatre.
Can you preview a highlight or two of special items in your opening exhibition?
I could mention several, but I’d prefer to put the accent on two cire perdue works: the decorative Dolphin motif created in 1912, on the one hand, and the entwined Cherubs that adorn Mrs. Paquin’s dining room, on the other. I’d also like to give a special mention to a work by Marc Lalique: a monumental chandelier – almost 3 meters high and 2 meters in diameter – exhibited at the Paris Museum of Decorative Arts in 1951, which will adorn the entrance hall of our museum.
Will the museum lend its own items to exhibitions around the world in the future?
For the time being, our collections are not sufficiently large in number to allow us to part with our items, but we hope to be able to do so in the not too distant future.
How far a drive is the museum from Paris and what is the best way for a visitor to get to the museum if they are visiting from the UK, from France, or from overseas?
By car, Wingen-sur-Moder is around 4 hours from Paris. The high speed train is also an excellent way to get to Alsace – stations in Strasbourg, Saverne and Saarbrücken (D). Wingen-sur-Moder is situated on the Strasbourg-Sarreguemines-Saarbrücken railway line. There are also several airports nearby: Strasbourg, Saarbrücken, Zweibrucken and Baden-Baden.
What will be the cost of admission?
6 € for adults, 5 for group (more than 15 persons), 3 € for children.
Is there any information not covered by our questions that you would like to convey?
We hope to reach lovers and collectors of Lalique works through comprehensive scientific work, but we also hope to bring them to the largest possible audience. To do so, we offer various levels of lectures and diverse mediation tools. Although we will pay particular attention to the quality of the display cabinets and the lighting, we will also be using modern museum techniques: video guide, multimedia, large format photography etc.
In addition, we want to welcome an international audience: our texts will therefore be not only in French, but also in German and English. Likewise for the video guide.
As far as content is concerned, I also find it important to stress that we will be very keen to situate Lalique’s work in its context – Art Nouveau, Art Deco Movement etc. Manufacturing techniques also will be discussed and homage will be paid to the men and women who still today, perpetuate the know-how in Wingen-sur-Moder.
Veronique, we appreciate your time in answering our questions and sharing your expertise with our readers, and we wish you well in this great endeavor. Hopefully you will get some sleep in the week leading up to the opening.
* Editor’s Note: On July 1st, the day before the official opening to the public, there is inaugural opening for invited guests. We managed to wrangle one of those invitations from a serious mucky-muck ** VIP on the down-low ***, so that we could photograph it and our readers could see one for themselves. That is the invitation pictured above.
** The urban dictionary defines mucky-muck as: A pompous person of importance! Of course, it can be real or imagined self-importance. Which of those fits the person we got the invite from? Opinions vary.
*** down-low is an American slang describing an activity that is kept discreet. Often shortened to “DL”.
Photo Credits:
Veronique Brumm: David Desaleux
Architect’s Concept: Wilmotte- Artefactory
Invitation to VIP Opening: Downlow
Map of France: Wikipedia – Eric Gaba
Musee Construction: David Desaleux
We left off the introduction to the interview in our first article with Veronique explaining that she is an historian by training, with a specialty in glassmaking in the very region where Rene Lalique established his glass factory after World War 1.
Veronique, can you tell us more about your background?
I then did a masters on the professions of cultural development and tourism. In this context, I undertook an internship at the Glass Centre at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, an internship that confirmed my interest in glass.
I complemented this professional masters with a masters oriented towards research. It covered the development of the glass and crystal making heritage in Lorraine. I then chose to do a doctorate in information and communication sciences focusing on museology and cultural mediation. The subject of my thesis was the development of the heritage of the glass and crystal making industry in Europe. In this context, I looked into what makes us come to consider an industry, in this instance glass and crystal making, as a form of heritage and the way this manifests itself.
In addition, I’m very involved with the building site and work closely with the architects in order that the museum makes it possible not only to display Lalique’s works in the best light possible, but is also functional.
I’m also busy with the administrative and financial aspects of the project. This means, for example, that I prepare and monitor all decisions taken by the Board of Directors, that I prepare the budget, handle requests for subsidies, and other similar matters.
The question of partnerships is also one of my major concerns, whether these are partnerships with the project’s backers, the Lalique Company, the lenders, etc.
How is the museum structured for operations? Do you report to a board of directors? Do you have a staff? Are there public officials involved? Is it a non-profit organization? How is the museum funded?
These authorities handle funding for the project of 11.3 million euros with support from the State and from Europe. Therefore, although we have an excellent relationship with the Lalique Company, we are not a company museum.
Our organisation is non-profit making. The authorities mentioned previously have even put their heads together to ascertain on which cost allocation base it would fund a possible operating shortfall.
For the administrative organisation of the Syndicat Mixte, I should say that it’s managed by a Board of Directors composed of eleven members representing the four financial backers. It is chaired by a President, Mr Gaston Dann, and two Vice-Presidents. It is to them who I report on my work.
Regarding the team, there are four of us at the present time (February 2010): two part-time staff in the secretariat, a conservation assistant and a person in charge of tourist promotion and communication.
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!
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!
Rene Lalique made extensive use of Flora and Fauna in his famous Lalique Jewelry, and in the majority of his Lalique Glass designs. Nicholas Dawes, noted Rene Lalique personality, Antiques Roadshow Appraiser, and author of the seminal 1986 work “Lalique Glass“, is giving a lecture today in New York City analyzing the historical use of Flora and Fauna as art forms by Rene Lalique.
Mr. Dawes is in New York this week in his role as a consignment director for Heritage Auctions where he is overseeing this year’s largest Rene Lalique Auction on Thursday December 10th. We have previously written about this exciting Lalique Auction and have also included details in the Rene Lalique Auctions Worldwide Section here at RLalique.com!
This scholarly and informative lecture will be in Manhattan at 104 East 25th just off Park Avenue on the 3rd Floor at 4:00 PM. Readers of RLalique.com that will be in New York City today are invited to attend. There is no charge, and there will be a cocktail reception following the 1 hour lecture where attendees will also be able to view the many R Lalique items in Thursday’s auction. If you tell Mr Dawes you read about the lecture here at RLalique.com, he’ll buy you a drink at the reception! But even if you don’t tell him you saw it here, cocktails are free 🙂 and you will get a chance to talk to Nick and other Rene Lalique enthusiasts and collectors in attendance.
A wonderful opportunity to learn more about the talent and creativity of the great Rene Lalique.
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.
Rene Lalique and his R Lalique glass, jewelry and other creations, are being highlighted this year at a Rene Lalique Retrospective Exhibition in Tokyo Japan celebrating the 150 year anniversary of his birth.
We previously wrote about this great Rene Lalique Museum Exhibition back in April, before its opening in late June, and now it is in full swing. The Exhibition will be at the National Art Center in Tokyo until September 7th, and then moves to the MOA Museum of Art from September 15th to November 23rd. The Exhibition features over 400 works of the great Rene Lalique contributed to the Exhibition by museums and collectors worldwide. These works encompass the entire range of his output from cire perdue and unique objects, to jewelry, vases, car mascots, boxes, seals, perfume bottles, and more. It’s a great overall look at the designs and accomplishments of this amazing man.
Here is a video of the exhibition that is put to music. You can click the box in the lower right of the video screen below and it will put the video in full screen mode!
If you are traveling Japan in the next several months, this Exhibition is a fabulous opportunity to see so many of the great works of Rene Lalique, so much R Lalique, in once place, including many unique items that you may never have another chance to see in person.
We also have obtained a small number of Catalogues of the Exhibition. These great catalogues, titled Rene Lalique A Retrospective, are over 250 pages long and contain over 400 photos of the items in the Exhibition. You can find these for sale in the Rene Lalique Books and Library area of the website in the Rene Lalique Museum and Exhibition Books and Catalogues section.
And of course, this will take you to a detailed history and biography of the great Rene Lalique!
Lalique trophy is presented to the “Best In Show” at the Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach!
For at least 10 years, the Best in Show award at the amazing Concours d’Elegance has been a Lalique Trophy, presented by the Elegant Set, a quiet Carmel, California store associated with noted Lalique personality Nicholas Dawes. The actual trophy is a Lalique Crystal “Trophee” figure mounted on a custom base. Crystal Lalique Paperweights Chrysis and Tete De Aigle are also presented as class prizes. Of course, with the Rene Lalique Hood Ornaments gracing the front ends of so many of the finest motor cars of yesteryear in attendance, it’s only fitting that Lalique is in the forefront when awards are presented.
The Elegant Set has perhaps the largest inventory of Rene Lalique items in stock and on display of any gallery in the United States. It has been established for 25 years, and is a center of R Lalique activity during the Concours. A quick review of their current inventory reveals 24 different R Lalique Car Mascot models including for example a rare R Lalique Pintade Hood Ornament, and a host of other items ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands.
The day before the Concours, on Saturday the 15th, the Elegant Set hosts an R Lalique event, the most important feature of which is champagne and hors d’oeuvres from noon on! But it’s also a chance to see a good amount of R Lalique items in one place, and to meet and talk to Nick Dawes, who fields questions from all comers about R Lalique for most of the day Saturday, in between sips of champagne of course!
The Elegant Set is a private enterprise, but their involvement with the Concours and the exposure they provide for the works of the great Rene Lalique during this important motoring event spreads benefits far beyond Carmel that touch many R Lalique collectors worldwide. And The Elegant Set is so discreet they don’t even have a real address! Heck, they’re so discreet we don’t even have photos to go along with this post! So if this is the first you’ve heard of them, now you know why! But if you want to stop by, they are located at the corner of 7th and San Carlos in Carmel. And you can reach the Elegant Set’s Ken Derrick, also known in certain circles as “The Lalique Trophy Presenter”, at 800 497 4994 for further information.
If you call, the big question you might ask Ken our behalf is this: Why are they waiting until noon to start the champagne flowing?
Lalique North America announced the opening this Fall of a joint Lalique – Haviland Store in New York, which will replace the previously closed Lalique Boutique in the big city.
This announcement, follows through with the previously released strategy to join Lalique and Haviland operations in North America, and mirrors the Lalique – Havilland London flagship store opening earlier this year.
As discussed previously on these pages, Lalique and Haviland have joined operations in the US for the purpose of gaining operational efficiencies and cost savings, as new Lalique Cristal owners Art & Fragrance, and FSG implement their strategic plan to strengthen the brands of both subsidiary companies, which will remain separate entities notwithstanding the operational joining.
Maz Zouhairi, CEO of Lalique – North America and now CEO of Haviland’s North American operations was quoted as follows: “The initiatives surrounding this partnership solidify a stronger presence for both Lalique and Haviland as we position both brands for future growth.”
It’s obvious that Art & Fragrance and FSG are working hard in an innovative fashion during these difficult times, to solidify and enhance their joint operations. We wish them well.
Rene Lalique Auctions: Lalique Auction Sale comes to New York in Mid December!
RLalique.com has learned that Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas Texas, the third largest auction house in the world by sales volume, will hold an auction in New York City on or about December 16th, 2009 devoted to the works of the great Rene Lalique! This will likely be the largest of any of the Lalique Auctions held anywhere in the world in 2009. We rate this an exciting development and one which should focus a good deal of attention on the entire R Lalique collecting field. It also represents another great vote of confidence by one of the world’s top auction houses in the depth and stability of the market for R Lalique and the potential for success in the R Lalique Auction field.
Heritage Auction Galleries, headquartered in the building shown above, has been rapidly expanding in recent years, and it’s rumored that they plan to open offices in New York and Los Angeles in the near future. The move into R Lalique Auctions makes even more sense in view of their recent announcement of the hiring of the well known Nicholas Dawes as a Consignment Director. Rumor has it that Mr. Dawes used all of his considerable skills as an author to write the bio portion of the announcement himself! Heritage has something like 450,000 registered bidders worldwide, and reported sales in the last 12 months of over 700 Million Dollars. They bring a lot of expertise to this new Lalique Auction endeavor, including now the expertise of Nick Dawes.
Mr. Dawes is the author of the excellent 1986 standard reference work Lalique Glass, which has been out of print for quite some time (20 years?), but which is available here in the Rene Lalique Library at RLalique.com, along with nearly 1000 other R Lalique books and reference items. The only real question we have about this great news is this: Does the accompanying Heritage PR photo look like the same Nick Dawes pictured in his book?
RLalique.com will bring you more information as it develops!
Lalique and Haviland announced that they will join their U.S. operations, naming Lalique North America CEO Max Zouhairi as CEO of Haviland’s U.S. operations as well. The new arrangement will effectively bring nearly all operations in the U.S. of Lalique and Haviland together, while maintaining separate corporate identities. Joint stores, marketing, warehouses, shipping systems and general operations seem to signal a merger in virtually every way except the corporate paperwork. These developments were foreshadowed by the joint Lalique – Haviland store opening in London and related events reported on these pages in April of this year.
These are difficult times for many luxury goods suppliers and retailers, and Art & Fragrance, the recent purchaser and majority owner of Cristal Lalique, has not gone untouched by the worldwide economic difficulties, having just reported in May a loss for 2008 of 11 million CHF or about 10.3 million US Dollars. This Lalique – Haviland operational merger in the U.S. is designed to cut joint operating costs and at the same time maximize the marketing advantage of two of the greatest names in decorative arts and consumer products.Â
Along these same lines, just to let you know they aren’t letting the grass grow under their feet on this, they are having a joint Lalique Haviland Warehouse Sale in New Jersey on June 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th!
Of course the hero Perseus beheaded Medusa and even then her head was known to continue to turn those who looked at it to stone. Apparently the wings weren’t part of the stone effect*.
When the hammer came down on September 22nd in New York at their “Important Jewels” sale, against an estimate of $15,000 – $20,000, the ring without “Jewels”, “Important” or otherwise, made $322,000 including the buyer’s premium.
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.”
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 
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.
Coincidently, the museum architecture was modeled after the classic design of the Cleveland Museum of Art, which recently put on its own 
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.
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.
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 
You can also visit the 
On March 26th, at the Paris auction house of Olivier Coutau-BĂ©garie, on offer were about a dozen R.Lalique Perfume Bottles and Boxes. It was a nice selection of perfume bottles and included Le Jade for Roger & Gallet in the well known jade green glass, Fleurs D’Amour, Narkiss and Cigalia for the same perfumer, a nice black Ambre D’Orsay Perfume Bottle, also a clear Ambre bottle, the bottle Camelias, the bottle Le Lys, the perfume bottle Fleurs De France, and the bottle Violette also for D’Orsay, Marjolaine for D’Heraud, Bouquet de Faune for Guerlain, the perfume tester La Renommee again for D’Orsay, and to take the D’Orsay cake, the rare and wonderful Grace Perfume Bottle in original box, which made €17,000 hammer plus 23% buyers charges**, or a total of €20,910 or about $28,000 at the approximate exchange rate of 1.3325 on that day. On most R.Lalique Perfume Bottle days, the great Grace would carry the day in the high price department.
But on this day, Coutau-BĂ©garie had one more bottle up their sleeve. Lot 138, estimated below the Grace at €10,000 – €15,000 was a 8.5 centimeters tall soft triangular shaped bottle on low oval base, the bottle ingrained with a light almost ribbed design, topped by a pearl shaped stopper with a contrasting swirl motif on each side. This bottle, previously known to have been produced experimentally but not commercially, is shown in the 
Isabey was founded in 1924, and the design of this bottle is from 1925. The company was named for an early 19th century artist. Isabey was owned (or financed) by Baron Henri James de Rothschild who was married to Mathilde Sophie Henriette von Weissweiller. Mathilde died at the age of 54 in 1926, while Henri (who was a playwright under the name Andre Pascal) lived thru the end of World War II and died in 1947 at the age of 75. Isabey was acquired in 1941 by Marcel Guerlain.
The new edition has arrived just in time for RLalique collectors and Rene Lalique enthusiasts needing this great reference work. The last edition was published 7 years ago in 2004. It has been sold out for several years. Actual sale prices have risen north of $750 (sometimes well north) in our 
The total price still represents a major drop from recent sales of older editions, and while some sellers are still hoping against hope (there is one listing currently on Ebay for a 2004 Edition for $1500), others have quickly brought their prices down below the cost of the new book to reflect the new reality.
Hello Veronique. Can you tell us about the layout and structure of the museum space and grounds and how it relates to the focus and purpose of the museum? Will there be special or temporary exhibitions or just a big permanent one?
Naturally, the Musée Lalique has all the facilities one would expect to find in a museum created at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In addition to spaces for permanent and temporary exhibitions and storerooms, We have planned a café and a shop where visitors will be able not only to buy postcards, books and other related products, but also items of Lalique crystal. We also have an 85-seat auditorium where we will show a film on the history of René Lalique or his expertise, as well as specific programs in line with temporary exhibitions. This auditorium will also enable us to organize cycles of conferences and symposia. In addition, we have the advantage of three rooms to host educational workshops. A broad range of activities will be offered for children.
How far a drive is the museum from Paris and what is the best way for a visitor to get to the museum if they are visiting from the UK, from France, or from overseas?
Is there any information not covered by our questions that you would like to convey?
In our first article, we presented some photos of the site that would become the new MusĂ©e Lalique, and the architect’s concept of what the final project would look like. We accompany this article with photos of the MusĂ©e in progress as it moves from that original site toward the architectural plan. This is basically our “nuts and bolts” article, where we show the nuts and bolts of the construction of the Museum, and where we talk with Veronique about the nuts and bolts of the organization that created the Museum.
In my training, I was not only interested in the history of glassmaking in Wingen-sur-Moder, where the Lalique factory is still operating today, but also in that of Saint-Louis whose reputation speaks for itself; Meisenthal, known for having worked for Emile Gallé; and Goetzenbruck, which specialised in watch glasses and later in optical glass.
After completing my studies, I had the opportunity to work with the Conseil Général du Bas-Rhin. In the context of this mission, I was the curator of a Lalique exhibition held during the summer of 2006 at the Château de Lichtenberg, a few kilometres from Wingen-sur-Moder. I then had the good luck to cultivate an interest in the scientific aspects of the museum project. Gradually, my tasks have become more diversified.
I’m also busy with the administrative and financial aspects of the project. This means, for example, that I prepare and monitor all decisions taken by the Board of Directors, that I prepare the budget, handle requests for subsidies, and other similar matters.
The Musée Lalique is a public project, supported by the local authorities: Région Alsace, Département du Bas-Rhin, Communauté de Communes du Pays de La Petite Pierre and Commune de Wingen-sur-Moder.
For the administrative organisation of the Syndicat Mixte, I should say that it’s managed by a Board of Directors composed of eleven members representing the four financial backers. It is chaired by a President, Mr Gaston Dann, and two Vice-Presidents. It is to them who I report on my work.
Veronique, so that our readers will understand the importance of the “Musée de France” designation, can you tell us the names of some of the other Musées de France?
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.
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.
Mr. Dawes is in New York this week in his role as a consignment director for Heritage Auctions where he is overseeing this year’s largest Rene Lalique Auction on Thursday December 10th. We have previously written about this exciting 
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 
Of course, the hardbound catalog of the exhibition, conveniently titled “Imperishable Beauty”, is available here at RLalique.com in the 
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.
We previously wrote about this great 
This announcement, follows through with the previously released strategy to join 
Maz Zouhairi, CEO of Lalique – North America and now CEO of Haviland’s North American operations was quoted as follows: “The initiatives surrounding this partnership solidify a stronger presence for both Lalique and Haviland as we position both brands for future growth.”
RLalique.com has learned that Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas Texas, the third largest auction house in the world by sales volume, will hold an auction in New York City on or about December 16th, 2009 devoted to the works of the great Rene Lalique! This will likely be the largest of any of the Lalique Auctions held anywhere in the world in 2009. We rate this an exciting development and one which should focus a good deal of attention on the entire R Lalique collecting field. It also represents another great vote of confidence by one of the world’s top auction houses in the depth and stability of the market for R Lalique and the potential for success in the R Lalique Auction field.
Mr. Dawes is the author of the excellent 1986 standard reference work Lalique Glass, which has been out of print for quite some time (20 years?), but which is available here in the 