R Lalique Cire Perdue Wasp Vase by Rene Lalique

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Louis Cartier & René Lalique Rare Brooch At A Christie’s Paris Online Jewelry Sale

July 27th, 2022

    

    

    

OUTER SPACE

Selling on July 7th, 2022 as Lot 17 in a Christie’s Paris online auction finally appears evidence of the long rumored collaboration between Cartier and Lalique! The unlikely confirmation came in the form of a stork, wolf, and sun motif platinum and rock crystal 8-sided boatload of rose-cut diamonds and a couple of square-cut sapphires brooch that the auction house dates to 1910. Crazy when you think about it that this masterpiece of early 20th century design has seemingly remained hidden from public view (or at least hidden from our view) for over 110 years until it came out in Paris in July. And sure enough, when you turn it over, there are signatures for both Cartier and Lalique! What are the odds that it appears in our lifetimes? How blessed are we to even see a picture of it?      

    

    

    

    

    

PLANET EARTH

Now, returning to planet earth, there was no rumor of collaboration between Cartier and Lalique that ever reached our rumor piqued ears, we made that up. And conceding we don’t know everything (just don’t tell our kids that), in the last 110 years no evidence of any such collaboration has appeared. When asked, the auction house said the only evidence they have for saying anything about a collaboration is the R. Lalique signature on the back of the brooch. And there we have it of course. Wishful thinking standing reality on its head with no documentation. In keeping with our often stated advice to typical collectors, signatures, no matter how much wishful thinking is floating around in outer space above, do not typically authenticate R. Lalique pieces down here on planet earth. Most signatures are easily faked. And while some signatures are obviously fake (we’ll leave you to judge for yourself which category the R. Lalique signature on the brooch fits into from among the several possible options), it is meaningless to evaluate a signature if you cannot document or back-up the piece the signature is on. We advise collectors to evaluate the piece first, and then look to the signature for confirmation on their judgment. In this case, the first obvious question would be “What was Lalique’s contribution to this piece?”. Was it the wolf, the stork, the sun, the shape, the diamonds filled surround, the sapphires, the platinum, the rock cyrstal…? Another might be … What about the design, materials, and style of this piece tells you it’s from our guy? And one more thought you might have is …… Why is this the apparently first we’ve heard about it in 110 years? If you conclude it’s just not him, then no signature should convince you otherwise. Lalique kept lots of records, drawings, etc. We assume Cartier did the same. And a piece assigned this level of importance would hopefully have been mentioned or pictured in period publications. These guys were in business to make money. Why collaborate if you aren’t going to tell anyone :). The judgment of the market? At a seemingly low estimate of €20,000 – €40,000, the brooch made €22,680 all-in. Heck, even FAKE molded all-glass dome shaped mass-produced commercially sold rings falsely claimed to be R. Lalique have made around that much without any signature at all and with a much shorter story. Maybe the “We’ll take your word for it” crowd has a spending limit in that €20,000 or so range?

As is our modus operandi, if anyone out there in R. Lalique Land thinks we have anything wrong in this post, please let us know by posting a comment here. We will promptly and cheerfully make any appropriate corrections. And we welcome any comments from anyone having additional relevant information.

Im Kinsky Auction House Reports They Sold The Fake Ecailles Vase!
We recall the words of the great American showman P. T. Barnham**
“There’s A Sucker Born Every Minute And Two To Take Him”

July 8th, 2021

Im Kinsky auction house is reporting that they sold the René Lalique Vase Ecailles Fake Ecailles Vase that was Lot 627 on July 6th, 2021 for a hammer price of €5000 as shown in the 2nd and 3rd screen shots below. Assuming we deciphered their commissions page properly, the all-in total price is in the low to mid 6000 euros range. The approximate dollar equivalent would be in the low to mid 7000 dollars range. But whatever the exact final price, it’s a scandal.

Our initial post on this vase offering can be found at: Im Kinsky Auction House In Vienna Offers A Fake Ecailles Vase as René Lalique. In that post you’ll see the information documenting the fake that we sent to the email address listed for the Im Kinsky guys pictured below.

Im Kinsky Auction House Vienna CEO And Equity Partners

Fake Ecailles Vase Sale Report Page On Website Of Im Kinsky Auction House Vienna For July 6, 2021

Sale Report Page On Invaluable For Fake Ecailles Vase At Im Kinsky Auction House Vienna July 6, 2021

And as usual, if anyone out there in R. Lalique Land or anywhere else thinks we have anything wrong in this post, please let us know by leaving a comment here. We will promptly and cheerfully make any necessary corrections.

** P.T. Barnum: The quote in the title of this post is attributed to P.T. Barnum. Barnum was a famed American businessman, philanthropist, author, publisher, politician, and showman. He said of the latter “I am a showman by profession … and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me”. His most famous accomplishment was the founding of the Barnum & Bailey Circus (The Greatest Show On Earth) when he was 60 years old in 1870. Barnham died in 1891 but the show went on. In 1907 the circus was sold to the Ringling brothers and the show went on. In 1919 it was merged with the Ringling brothers’ circus and the show went on. The show finally ended its nearly 150-year run in 2017 with the closure of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Im Kinsky Auction House In Vienna Offers A Fake Ecailles Vase as René Lalique On July 6th, 2021

June 29th, 2021

Fake Ecailles Vase At Im Kinsky Vienna Austria Falsely Advertised As René LaliqueAuthentic Ecailles Vase by René Lalique Pictured on Page 51 Of The Book The Glass Of Lalique By Christopher Van PercyAnother fake Ecailles Vase has appeared, this time in Vienna at the auction house Im Kinsky.

The blue vase pictured to the left is being offered as Lot No. 627 in the Im Kinsky July 6th, 2021 auction and it carries the Est: €2000 – €4000.

Here is a link to see the listing on Invaluable for that Fake Ecailles Vase.

Humorously in Im Kinsky’s lot description for the fake, they point to Page 51 in the 1977 Christopher Vane Percy book The Glass Of Lalique as a reference for their fake vase. We show you the Percy vase on the right.

Of course Percy has an authentic Ecailles in his book as you can see here. So there is no way the design on it matches the fake at Im Kinsky.

Just below we have also included a photo of the “Source Of The Problem Vase”. The pictured vase is a model by an unknown maker. Someone got their hands on one* of those models and removed the top rim and part of the neck and put a forged signature on the underside to create the fake Ecailles Vase above. Obviously the original designer/maker of the “Source Of The Problem Vase” was not trying to make a copy or deceive anyone. It’s the later alterations that create the problem. And then of course, once the fake vase shows up on Im Kinsky’s doorstep, they inexplicably offer it as René Lalique Vase “Ecailles” after at a minimum having seen the Percy photo.

Loose Copy With Rim Of Ecailles Vase - This Is The Source Of The Problem VaseWhen we saw the fake being offered we sent Im Kinsky a detailed email on June 21st to their office@imkinsky.com email address with an explanation about the vase, directing them to the various reference places and evidence on the website.

Their website has the office@imkinsky.com email address as the contact for the 2 people pictured under the heading “CEO and Equity Partners”. We figured we’d go right to the top!

Following is the text of that email.

Note: We converted the three information links in the email for purposes of this article to clickable links for the convenience of our readers, and we corrected typos:

Hello. In regard to Lot 627 July 6th – René Lalique Vase “Ecailles”, the vase in your photo (attached to this reply) is a fake. It’s not R. Lalique and it does not match the reference you have given in your lot description for the photo in the Percy book. Any signature on (the) vase in Lot 627 for R. Lalique is a forgery.

We commend our article on this subject to you:

Ecailles Vase Copies On The Loose

And we recommend you refer to the model page on the website for the Ecailles Vase to see many legitimate examples of this vase and see what authentic Ecailles Vases look like:

Ecailles Vases

You can also see the following page that has several of the same fakes as yours in different colors:

Ecailles Vase Close Calls

If you have any doubts after reviewing the article and the other pages, we strongly recommend you consult a local expert with knowledge of R. Lalique that you are familiar with.

We will look forward to hearing from you, and if you have any questions, we would be happy to answer them if we can.

Best Regards,

Greg

Your description:
Description: René Lalique Vase “Ecailles” blue opalglass, satin-coated; carved signature on the bottom: “R. Lalique France N: 1080” h. 25.3 cm Christopher Vane Percy, René Lalique. Das Glas, Würzburg 1981, p. 51


Greg Zimmerman

RLalique.com

Free R. Lalique Authentications For Auction Houses

Free Worldwide R. Lalique Auction Listings For Auction Houses

END OF EMAIL

Not having heard back from the auction house after a few days, on June 24th we forwarded the same email to a person listed on their website as an Expert for Art Nouveau & Design, and to another person listed on their website as an Expert Assistant for Art Nouveau & Design. That area of Expertise just seemed to be the closest to R. Lalique on the list of all the many experts and areas of expertise they advertise they have at Im Kinsky. And we wanted to try to make sure the email got into the right hands.

However as of June 29th, 2021, a full week from our first email, we have not heard back from anyone at Im Kinsky and the vase remains on-offer in their auction catalogues with the false claim of René Lalique Vase “Ecailles” for the auction that is now only a week away. As a result we decided to go ahead and publish this article so that interested parties and anyone doing research in the future may be aware that the vase in Lot 627 on July 6th, 2021 at Im Kimsky is in fact NOT a René Lalique Vase “Ecailles”. It is an unrelated vase that was purposefully altered by a person or persons unknown who also added a phony signature to the vase. That phony signature includes the René Lalique & Cie model number for a real Ecailles Vase. The addition of that forged model number eliminates any doubt that the alterations were all done to facilitate the false and ridiculous claim (Grandma would say “outlandish” claim) that the vase is an authentic R. Lalique Ecailles Vase.

You may have heard the expression: “You can write the word dog on the side of a cat, but that won’t make the cat bark”. Hopefully all the various relevant experts at Im Kinsky (whoever they may be) will realize there is no barking going on here. But if they do hear the barking, and if they see their blue fake as identical to the Percy vase, someone might want to look into group discount rates at local Vienna audiologists and optometrists to schedule ear and eye checks.

As usual, we emphasize that what the seller or auction house knows or doesn’t know, did or didn’t do, thought or didn’t think, and all that kind of stuff, is not really important to you as a buyer when building your collection. The only thing is for you as a collector to be sufficiently knowledgeable and careful to avoid nightmare items such as this one and get the right stuff.

UPDATE July 8, 2021: Im Kinsky scandalously went ahead and sold the fake vase at their July 6th, 2021 sale. It made a hammer of €5000. See our succinct Im Kinsky Sold The Fake Ecailles Report detailing their disappointing action. END OF UPDATE

And also as usual, if anyone out there in R. Lalique Land or anywhere else thinks we have anything wrong in this story, please let us know by posting a comment here. We will promptly and cheerfully make any necessary corrections.

*It’s possible that they got their hands on two of the same color of this model. Time will tell.

Coty Galeries Lafayette La Feuillaison Perfume Bottle Advertised as Rene Lalique

March 26th, 2021

Rare Rene Lalique Galeries Lafayette La Feuillaison Perfume Bottle – 82694 Updated 7-4-21 to delete link to Ebay listing that no longer works.

You know when you see a listing like the one at the above link; the seller usually has some knowledge on some level. After all the bottle is not signed for Rene Lalique, nothing on the bottle or label would point you to Rene Lalique, and there is no authoritative documentation of any kind that would back-up the false claim that Rene Lalique had anything to do with this bottle. Yet the seller proudly claims out of thin air* “…..made for Galeries Lafayette by Rene Lalique.” Starting off the listing title with the word “Rare” is just icing on the claim cake.

Coty Perfume Bottle Labeled For Galeries Lafayette La Feuillaison UnsignedSure enough when questioned, the seller pointed to the Utts’ groundbreaking 1990 book Lalique Perfume Bottles as the source of the information to back up the Rene Lalique claim, including a specific page number that made this an R. Lalique bottle.

Answer
“We found it on Lalique Perfume Bottles by Mary Lou and Glenn Utt page 137 and also if you google it you’ll find some people who have their own sites specializing on Lalique bottles, no one has it and or are looking for it.”

Of course the Utts’ book doesn’t say this bottle is R. Lalique. It’s a pretty good looking bottle that has value on its own, but it’s obviously not R. Lalique. The bottle in the listing is nowhere to be found in the Utts’ book. However, the actual R. Lalique Perfume Bottle for Galeries Lafayette La Feuillaison** is pictured and described on Page 24 of their book with the original label still in place.

Here’s a link to an actual R. Lalique La Feuillaison Perfume Bottle on the website that is the same as the bottle documented in the Utts’ book.

Obviously the Ebay bottle is just an unsigned*** bottle Coty supplied to the store with the perfume.**** The bottle has nothing to do with Rene Lalique. The EBay seller is stumptownusa.

Post Publication Update: At the time we posted this article, the seller had one bid at the starting price of $298. That bid was revoked. When the listing expired the seller removed the “Rare Rene Lalique” start of the title, and also removed “by Rene Lalique” from the description, and re-listed the bottle. End Of Update.

*Out of thin air from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/out+of+thin+air “Out of nowhere; out of nothing.” And also “Auster spins stories out of thin air.” Our Note: The opposite meaning is also in use today as in “vanished into thin air”. The first known use of the phrase “into thin air” and what got the whole thin air thing started was in 1610 in the Shakespeare play The Tempest. There we hear Prosepro say: “These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve”. Our note: A true thought to keep in mind as you decide how you spend your short time in this world.

**There is a 2nd R. Lalique bottle that was used for La Feuillaison eau de toilette.

***Unsigned: We regularly advise typical collectors never to purchase any unsigned piece. Never Ever, Never Never.

****We are not Coty experts. Coty was known to supply bottles and perfume to Galeries Lafayette (and other stores) and La Feuillaison was a Coty fragrance. It was a sizable part of Coty’s business to anonymously supply complete presentations labeled for stores.

Ecailles Vase Copies On The Loose!

April 17th, 2020

The article was published on April 17, 2020. It was updated on June 25, 2021. See the end of the article for that update.

Ecailles is the French word for scales. What could be fishy about that, right? Let’s see what happens.

Ecailles is a great looking and reasonably hard to find vase. Its claim to fame is that it’s giving Biskra and Davos Vases a run for the money in the “Worldwide R. Lalique Rare Vase Colors Competition”. Ok, there’s no real competition like that. But it makes sense they are a colorful trio because Biskra, Davos, and Ecailles were all created early in the Great Depression in the same 30-day period during the spring of 1932. Apparently Lalique picked that time period to liven up the new offerings with new colors.

Moving along, these first two photos are of a blue Ecailles Vase that sold at Rago Arts and Auction Center in Lambertville New Jersey on September 22, 2017 as Lot No. 26. What a great looking vase. It sold for $6500 all-in.

  • Rene Lalique Ecailles Vase In Blue Glass Side View

    Rene Lalique Ecailles Vase In Blue Glass View From Slightly Above

  • This 2nd pair of photos is of a vase that sold as an Ecailles Vase at Heritage Auctions in Dallas Texas on November 23, 2015 as Lot No. 60224. This vase sold for $11,875 all-in. Please go ahead and compare the Rago Ecailles above to the Heritage vase below. And if you decide to check further and do some research, obviously only the Rago vase above is going to match the literature and documentation for Ecailles.

  • Ecailles Vase Loose Copy In Blue Glass Side View

    Ecailles Vase Loose Copy In Blue Glass View From Slightly Above

  • Finally, this 3rd pair of photos is of an unsigned vase by an unknown maker. Let’s call this the “source of the problem vase”. It fills in all the blanks. You can imagine what a haircut might make it look like, or you can just scroll back up to the Heritage vase.

    Ecailles Vase Loose Copy With Rim In Blue Glass Side View

    Ecailles Vase Loose Copy With Rim In Blue Glass View From Slightly Above

  • You can see a few more examples of the copy in other colors on the Copies and Close Calls page at Ecailles Copies.

    Obviously the “source of the problem vase” was not originally made with the intention to deceive anyone. It’s only the later alteration of the vase, and/or the addition of a forged signature, and/or just the representation that it’s R. Lalique, that make it problematic. Whoever created this vase didn’t include some spurious signature on the underside, and they obviously did not intend to make an exact copy.

    As usual, we emphasize that what the seller knew or didn’t know, did or didn’t do, thought or didn’t think, and all that kind of stuff, is not really important to you as a buyer when building your collection. The only thing is for you as a collector to be sufficiently knowledgeable and careful to avoid nightmares and get the right stuff.

    And also as usual, if anyone out there in R. Lalique Land thinks we have anything wrong, please let us know by posting a comment here. We will promptly and cheerfully make any necessary corrections.

    Article Update: June 25/July 5, 2021 – The listing for the Ecailles Vase vanished from the Heritage website at some point after we first published this article. That’s not really a bad thing because fakers can use that auction listing as a reference and evidence that their fake vase is real when trying to pass it off on somebody. On the other hand, having the evidence of the original listing in the proper context such as this article is important as well. So we have included a screen shot below. Also, now that you know how this fake was created, it’s worth pointing out at the bottom of the screenshot is the Condition Report’s hilarious statement of fact: … “neck has been chamfered slightly”.

    Ecailles Vase Loose Copy Heritage Auction Listing Showing Sold That Since Vanished From Heritage Website

  • The Czech Ring Box Is Outed – Not R. Lalique Boutons De Fleur

    June 27th, 2019

    Curt Schlevogt Czechoslovakian Glass Ingrid Catalogue Picture of Two Ring Boxes and Two Rings

    First, a little bit of background on what was a long wait.

    Curt Schlevogt Czechoslovakian Glass Ingrid Ring Box With Lid Off title=

    Here at World Headquarters, we have a list. In the course of things, we can’t chase everything down in an instant, so as questions arise or specific stuff pops up that might cause a raised eyebrow with all the people that help out with the site, some stuff just gets put on the list. And we wait.

    Sometimes the wait is a few weeks or a few months. Sometimes it’s just a phone call or can take a few years. Sometimes it’s longer. For just one small example, in 2008 we wrote an article about an R. Lalique Fake “Seal” that had been sold to a collector. We were pretty sure there was no such authentic seal :), but we didn’t know exactly what it really was. The purchase was from a “reputable” regular dealer in R. Lalique. It wasn’t until 2017 that we were able to definitively identify the “seal” as a stopper to a specific perfume bottle made by an American glass company when one of the great volunteers that help out on the site came across the bottle. 9 years later, what the heck.

    Curt Schlevogt Czechoslovakian Glass Ingrid Ring Box And An R. Lalique Feuilles Menu Holder And A Crystal Lalique Base To An Oil And Vinegar Set Selling Together in One Auction LotAnyway, for why we are rambling, back around 2011 a brown patinated two-part egg shaped flower motif Ring Box sporting a double row of facets appeared in the literature as R. Lalique. And it was also appearing at well known auction houses. And crazy enough, the money was pretty big. Reports we received put it selling with a ring in 2011 at €15,000 hammer, another example came in 2012 with sepia patina and a ring for €9500, and one with a brown patina and a ring went all-in in 2014 for about $20,000.

    All the while, we had never had our hands on one of these boxes, but we weren’t going to throw away 5 figures to prove ourselves right. And with those prices, actual reputable sellers, and the literature, we decided to keep an open mind (no matter how slightly) that we might be mistaken, even though it’s true that if you listened closely enough when seeing a photo, you could hear the box whispering “Czech, Czech, Czech”. So we waited.

    Opportunity Knocks!

    Then back in April 2019 at a small online house sale in Columbus Ohio, appears a mixed lot with 3 items: A modern base to an oil & vinegar set, an R. Lalique Feuilles Menu Holder, and there on the left of the photo was a hazy shaped depiction of THE ring box. It was faintly whispering. Our only question was how the auction knew to describe it as “Ingrid Crystal”.

    Not being one of those auctions with stuff like a live auctioneer or live bidding, and with no way to get questions answered, we waited. In the end our winning bid was $45 plus shipping across country, around $65 all-in! Yippee! And in due course the goods appeared in the daily shuffle of deliveries piling up inside the main entrance.

    Curt Schlevogt Czechoslovakian Glass Ingrid Ring Box Signature Under Heavy LightOther new ground was broken with this purchase, because it’s a pretty hard rule with auctions of R. Lalique that if we are planning on bidding on something R. Lalique at auction for ourselves or on behalf of anyone else, we list that auction on the website and compete with everybody else. And in this case, the Feuilles Menu holder was surely an authentic piece of R. Lalique. But given our altruistic* intent on this one, not wanting to throw away thousands of dollars on a Czech box, and wanting to keep another example of this thing out of circulation, we were not exactly quick in listing it on the site.

    In due time the delivery was un-packed, and it took several minutes with just the right light to see the answer to the Ingrid I.D. The bottom was signed INGRID Czecho-Slovakia as shown in the photo here. After that it was easy to find the right documentation through the Czech glass links you can find in the Sources of Fakes section of the website. And we found many examples of the same signature with the same issue of getting the light just right and at the right angle on other Ingrid items. We’ve included 2 photos of the underside of one of the ubiquitous green malachite looking perfume bottles that appeared recently at auction. The two green photos shown here are of the same underside of the same bottle. One looks blank; the other has the right lighting and angle of photo to reveal the signature.

    The other thing that everybody ignored about this box was the most obvious. Can you imagine walking into the Lalique shop in Paris in the 1932 and seeing a double faceted brown patinated box holding a green or blue ring of entirely different design? That incongruous presentation would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

    Curt Schlevogt Czechoslovakian Glass Ingrid Perfume Bottle Underside Without Heavy Light Looks Like No SignatureAnd did you notice in the Ingrid catalogue photo shown above that in-between the two ring boxes are two rings? Buckle up if you paid 5 figures for an unsigned or suspiciously signed ring that looks just like one of those! There may be turbulence ahead. See the Fleurs-2 and Fleurs-3 Rings.******

    You can see all the previously mentioned sales on the Czech Ingrid Bouton De Fleur model page we’ve left up in the Box Category of the R. Lalique Catalogue so interested persons can find and properly identify their box. Obviously some are floating about with R. Lalique signatures or missing Ingrid signatures. And anyone who insists this is an R. Lalique Box, we will make you a real cheap deal compared to those auction prices on the one we have 🙂 … NOT!

    Also, this is probably a good time to mention for the umpteenth** time that typical collectors should avoid unsigned and undocumented pieces. There is an amazing selection of great R. Lalique items out there. Over 99% of those pieces are properly signed and fully documented. What’s the point? And collectors should trust their instincts. If it feels like a fish, swims like a fish, looks like a fish, and smells like a fish ……………. something may be fishy***.

    Curt Schlevogt Czechoslovakian Glass Ingrid Perfume Bottle Underside With Heavy Light Signature AppearsAnother point to keep in mind. The Ingrid line of Czech glass was not made with the intent to deceive anyone. The Czechs have a rich and centuries old glassmaking tradition. A few designers did jump on the emerging 20th century consumer glass bandwagon with pieces in the Lalique style. But the great early designers in this area such as Heinrich Hoffmann and Curt Schlevogt****  had zero reason to deceive anyone. Schlevogt, the creator of the Ingrid pieces had the Ingrid signature proudly placed on the box we bought. It’s only the later representation that this model is R. Lalique, and/or the removal of the Ingrid signature and/or the addition of a phony R. Lalique signature, that makes one of these boxes problematic in the R. Lalique marketplace. They are less valuable but not problematic at all in the proper context.

    And lest we forget, there is a 2nd blue glass Boutons De Fleur Box for which we have never seen a scintilla of documentation. It’s a bit more convincing than this Czech box (not a high hurdle really), it has a much cleaner yet more detailed design, and there is a ring that matches it in both color and decoration. But it’s un-documented nonetheless. Who knows what future house sales in America’s heartland may uncover!

    And as is our MO*****, if anyone out there thinks we got anything wrong in this article, we will be happy to hear from you, and we will promptly and cheerfully correct any factual inaccuracies. So please no complaints about run-on sentences, our mangling of the English language, made-up words, or any of the numerous grammatical errors. To paraphrase Dragnet’s Joe Friday “Just the facts ma’am.”

    *Altruistic means to show an unselfish concern for others ………as we break our elbows patting ourselves on the back.

    **Umteenth or Umpteenth is a real word! It’s the last in a never-ending or indefinitely long series or repetition. Think about a parent saying to their kid: “This is the umpteenth time I’ve told you to straighten-up your room.”

    ***Something is fishy: An expression that can be traced to before the Civil War. It has come to mean that something is suspicious or not right. Think of a good-looking fish at the market that when you get close enough and pick it up you find it’s really slimy or slippery (a word that has its own alternate related meaning) and has started to smell.

    ****Curt Schlevogt worked for Hoffmann and in 1928 married Hoffmann’s daughter Charlotte. Charlotte died in childbirth giving birth to their daughter Ingrid, after whom his first collection of glass (introduced and exhibited in 1934) was named.

    *****MO (pronounced by saying the names of letters “Em Oh”) is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase Modus Operandi. It’s the typical mode or method of operation; how one usually does things. In the current culture, “this is how we roll” would be a comparable expression.

    ******Fleurs-2 and Fluers-3 Rings: These 2 links were added in September 2019.

    Hot On The Heels Of The Pink Wonder: A Blue Acanthes Vase Look-Alike Does Ebay

    November 26th, 2017

    Acanthes Vase In Blue Glass Not Matching Authentic Examples Sold On Ebay For $4550

    Following up on the Pink Acanthes story from June, appearing on Ebay this month was a blue glass Acanthes vase look-alike that had many of the warning signs. And while questionable items appear on EBay all the time, what got our attention with this particular vase is not just that it sold for $4550 to some really lucky buyer, but that it doesn’t appear to be in the same mold as the pinko vase you’ve heard tell about. Sure they both have unfinished wrong necks. They both have the apparently low mold quality to the design. They both don’t match the literature for authentic pieces, and they both lack the great molded signature you like to see on an authentic Acanthes.

    Acanthes Vase In Blue Glass Signature Not Matching Authentic Examples Sold On Ebay For $4550

    But where so many of these propositions fall flattest, is how the base is finished. In the great falling flat contest, the blue one seen here takes the prize. A right minded *** person might think that if all the other signals were missed, that all by itself the bottom of this vase should have the lucky buyer singing the blues.

    Obviously opinions vary since it’s hard to imagine bidders chasing the vase up over $4000 if they didn’t believe the vase was an authentic R. Lalique vase. So take a look and judge for yourself if this looks like what you’d expect from the underside of an authentic R. Lalique Acanthes Vase or any R. Lalique Vase.

    And if you don’t know enough to decide for yourself, make it a point to see and handle as much R. Lalique as you can. Get educated and get independent advice on your purchases.

    Nobody wants to be a penguin, right?

    One other note about the Ebay listing. The seller never said it was an R. Lalique Acanthes Vase. What the seller did do was title the listing: “R Lalique France signed numbered blue colored glass Art Deco vase”. We’ve had sellers including auction houses say with a straight face that all they meant was it was signed as stated, not that it was actually what the signature said. Two words come to mind when hearing that explanation when a seller has left their own purposefully created inference out there without contradiction: Sharp Practice ****.

    Of course on Ebay in the title to your listings: “Only mention the brand name of the manufacturer that actually produced your item …” ***** Good luck with that in this instance!

    And this is a good time to repeat our oft pontificated advice: It doesn’t matter what the motive or knowledge of the seller was. It only matters what you know. Maybe the seller just meant to say it was signed as stated. Your job as a collector is to know what’s right and wrong and not rely on the seller.

    Acanthes Vase In Blue Glass Not Matching Authentic Examples Sold On Ebay For $4550

    ** Hot on the heels is a phrase that is said to have originated with hunting, capturing the reality of the living warm creature with all living things getting hotter as the pursuers get closer to the pursued. It’s almost the opposite of “the trail went cold” for the same reason. So here it’s used to say that the blue came right after the pink. In this instance the phrase “Hard on the heels of ..” would also be appropriate.

    *** A right-minded person is in a good mental state… sane, rational, stuff like that.

    **** A sharp practice is a crafty or deceitful dealing.

    ***** Here is an excerpt from the Ebay Page headed “Creating legally compliant listings” :

    “Search manipulation (using unrelated brands in a listing title in order to attract people searching for those items) is another misuse of brands that isn’t allowed on eBay. Example: If you were listing an Acme TV for sale, you can’t mention other television manufacturers in your title simply to attract buyers looking for those items. This kind of search manipulation isn’t allowed on eBay. Only mention the brand name of the manufacturer that actually produced your item and don’t misrepresent your relationship with that manufacturer”

    The Czech Forest Vase – A Common R. Lalique Forgery

    October 11th, 2017

    The Czech Forest Vase is one of the most often seen vases with a forged R. Lalique Signature. But in last week’s mail came an inquiry from a purchaser who had bought the vase on hope alone without even the phony signature in place. The correspondence speaks for itself. **

    Czech Forest Vase Sold As R. LaliqueDear Madam or Sir,
    I bought this vase on a budget resolution and I am not sure if this is a
    real vase from R. Lalique.
    It would be great if you can help me out.
    The vase has no signature or a mark at the bottom. The weight is 3267 Grams.
    On the floor of the vase there are strong traces of use.
    I was searching your website and I did find this vase. The model looks
    like a fake one, but the color is different.
    I am a collector and it would be great if you could tell me more about it.
    Attached you will find some pictures of the vase.

    Thank you in advance for your effort.

    Kind regards from Stuttgart,
    Hopeful Buyer

    Our reply:

    Hello Hopeful Buyer. Thanks for contacting us.

    The vase in your photos (1 is attached to this reply) is a Czech forest vase.

    You can see it in a Czech glass catalogue at this link in the Sources of Fakes section of the website:

    Czech Glass Catalogue

    Also here is an Ebay search for the phrase Czech Forest Vase where you can see some for sale:

    Czech Forest Vases For Sale On Ebay

    And another Ebay search to see some that actually sold:

    Sold Czech Forest Vases On Ebay

    General Rule: Do not buy any piece of “R. Lalique” that is not signed and documented.

    Best Regards,

    RLalique.com

    And the buyer’s follow-up:

    Czech Forest Vase Shown From Above Sold As R. Lalique
    Dear RLalique.com,
    Thank you for your Mail. You have a great website!
    The next time I will be more careful.
    Kind regards
    Hopeful Buyer

    Obviously the buyer should have checked (there is a bad pun in there somewhere) the website before the purchase and not after 🙂

    ** The emails were cleaned up slightly to remove personal info, compact the content, and correct errors/typos etc.

    Meteor Perfume Bottle Made By Coty – Not R. Lalique!

    August 5th, 2017

    Meteor Perfume Bottle Made By Coty Circa 1949 Signed Coty France In The Mold On The UndersideIn 1949, Coty (no Francois, he was dead in 1934) introduced the fragrance Meteor. It was presented in a bottle made in its own glassworks, the Coty Glassworks. All the bottles we’ve seen, some with glass disk shaped stoppers, others with some kind of plastic or Bakelite caps or stoppers, are all signed Coty France. That makes sense; they were made by Coty in France. Duh.

    Nowhere is there any R. Lalique signature on any of items in the perfume’s presentation for the obvious reasons, including the absence of Rene Lalique in 1949 owing to his death 4 years earlier.

    This all brings us to the reason for this article. A regular seller of R. Lalique on Ebay, screen name georgina8648, with an Ebay store named “Lalique Originals”, has for sale as we speak, a 1949 (or later) Meteor Perfume Bottle at the following link advertised thusly (the whole reason for this article was not to work in the word “thusly”):
    UPDATE 1 of 2 – August 9, 2017: The seller has changed the listing. See a link to the original listing at the end of this article. END OF UPDATE 1 of 2

    That ridiculous claim of R. Laliqueism (yea, we just made that word up, and we might have made up thusly also, someone should check) is further buttressed in the item description with the following nonsense:

    “The box is tatty** but reasonably intact for its 100 years.”

    Maybe if the marbled plasticky (and there we go again) cap was pink, these claims would gain some credence in certain highfalutin*** circles. But the cap is not pink, so there will be no moral support from any fellow dealers, pinkos, or other really smart people.

    But maybe there should be, because when you look at the photos of the bottle in the plastic base with the wonderful cap, and that great Coty France molded signature on the underside, the whole thing just screams R. Lalique, doesn’t it?

    Back to planet earth, so why is there even a thin thread for a seller to try to stand on with this R. Lalique claim?

    Well, for starters, in their groundbreaking 1990 book Lalique Perfume Bottles, the Utts say on Page 100 that there is a drawing by Rene Lalique of a similar bottle design for Coty for Meteor from 1914 showing a label that says “Meteor Harrods London”. No bottle has ever appeared with this label of course that we know of and we know of no evidence that any Meteor bottle was made in 1914. Not having seen this drawing ourselves, do you think it has a plastic cap and base? And for the 2nd hook, there appears in the 2014 Catalogue Raisonne a picture of a similar bottle to this 1949 Coty bottle, without a stopper and sans the plastic cap of course, and having a different neck, but with a Meteor Label. The Cat Res dates its bottle to 1911. Either way, and assuming the best case, in 1911 or 1914 Meteor was just a twinkle in the eye of Rene Lalique and the anti-semitic wind-bag Francois Coty.****

    This best case would mean the 1949 Coty bottle is a somewhat close copy by Coty of an original R. Lalique design. And that is assuming there were prototypes or bottles made back in 1914 or 1911 or whenever for a fragrance that was not marketed until after 2 wars later when both Coty and Lalique were dead! Of course, the Cat Res says the 1911 bottle was not signed. Hmmmmm, this bottle is signed …. for Coty! How weird is that?

    Plastic Stand For The Meteor Perfume Bottle That Was Made By Coty Circa 1949 And Is Signed Coty France In The Mold On The UndersideNow we’ve never had an unsigned prototype bottle in-hand, or seen one in the flesh. But of course we’ve never seen the Grateful Dead and we’re pretty sure they exist. So anything is possible. But again, so what? None of these side-show highlights can make the 1949 Coty bottle an R. Lalique bottle.

    Anyway, one of our great volunteers wrote the seller with the salient facts, delivered with no rancor. Yet after a respectful waiting period the seller’s claims remain, and we figured it’s time to get on the record. But the really good news for anyone out there that thinks for a few hundred dollars you are going to get a legit R. Lalique bottle full of 100 year old perfume topped by the coolest marbled cap, is that Meteor bottles appear regularly costing only hundreds of dollars, with boxes that are not ratty/tatty, and properly advertised for what they are: Coty Bottles. But here we have an R. Lalique dealer adding a few decades and taking a few liberties. Who else would work that up? Of course this is not exactly an epiphanetic (the last made-up of word of this article) moment! Sadly, it’s more along the lines of Captain Renault’s exclamation to Rick (Humphrey Bogart) in the movie Casablanca: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”. You can click the preceding link and see the 20 second sound byte / video for yourself!

    ** In our deprived upbringing, and with the world having been a much bigger stranger place, and with only having our Midwest educations to rely on in those younger days (where made-up words and run-on sentences were standard), we called (and still call) worn-out or beat-up things ratty, not tatty. And what is weirdly coincidental about all that is when we typed ratty into a dictionary online (just wanting to be sure we weren’t using another made-up word), 2 of the definitions that came up were of course “shabby, untidy or in bad condition” and “resembling or characteristic of a rat: his ratty eyes glittered“. What a crazy close thought to all this. Seriously, are we the only ones here who smell a rat?*****

    *** Highfalutin is a real word! It’s stuff like pretentious, affected, bombastic, and pompous.

    **** Coty bought the newspaper Le Figaro in 1922 and turned it into a virulent anti-semitic rag sheet. Then in 1928 he started the newspaper L’Ami du peuple (The Friend of the People), a low priced scandal sheet in which for one very small example he railed against Jewish Bankers calling their behavior inhuman and rapacious. Coty was actually found guilty in court in 1933 for libeling Jewish war veterans groups in France.

    ***** “I smell a rat”, is basically the same as the phrase “something about this smells fishy”. It means you think something is wrong.

    UPDATE 2 of 2 – August 9, 2017: The seller has changed the listing to remove the claim of R. Lalique from the title and also the claim of 100 years old. Here is a link to a picture of the original listing.

    Original Listing

    You may have to use the zoom function of your browser (or whatever program opens images for you) to get the cached image to expand in the window if it does not appear full size. After clicking on the link to the item, a new window will open with the cached image in it. On a Mac, just click on the image and see if that expands it. If not, press the apple key and click on the cached image in your browser window. On a PC, hold down the alt key while clicking on the cached image. END OF UPDATE 2 of 2

    R. Lalique Cire Perdue Vase Appears At Auction Online!

    October 10th, 2015

    R. Lalique Cire Perdue Vase Branches De Mures Formant Deux AnsesCire Perdue Vases don’t come up for auction very often. Usually just a few a year. And to say they don’t usually appear at the online auction websites such as Ebay would be an understatement. But a great looking Cire Perdue did just that this week when it appeared from a Wisconsin seller (with over 18,000 positive feedbacks) that had purchased it at an estate goods shop.

    The starting price was $999 with no reserve.

    The online auction Item I.D. is 381432155308.

    The new arrival is the vase Branches De Mures Formant Deux Anses. The vase has been unknown in modern times, likely purchased back in the day and not having come back to market. It appears in the Catalogue Raisonne only as a drawing.

    The mold number 193 and the year it was made 1920 both properly appear on the underside in the glass as 193-20 and match the information in the drawing of the vase.

    The vase features a wonderful blackberries motif and is represented by the seller to be basically in original condition, save minor fleabite type stuff with no cracks or chips. Obviously there are manufacturing imperfections caused by the nature of the process used to create the great Cire Perdue.

    The copious photos included in the auction listing appear to confirm the condition description.

    We were alerted to the offering around an hour after it appeared online, and immediately posted the vase in the Worldwide Auctions Section here at RLalique.com.

    There is also a close-up picture in the highlight photos at the top of the auction page with a text link to take you straight to that listing and save having to scroll through all the other listings that are on that page (82 as of this writing).

    The vase is 6 and 1/4 inches tall and a bit over 4 inches wide at its widest point.

    Several bidders and interested parties have contacted World Headquarters to talk about the vase.

    Judging from the level of chatter (with possibly some educated surmise thrown in), it seems that the vase should do quite well.

    R. Lalique Cire Perdue Vase Branches De Mures Formant Deux Anses Underside Showing Signature And Other MarkingsOf course as usual it will likely be a bit of a nailbiter** at the end as the hoped-for pre-arranged automated bids come in (or not) with seconds to go.

    Additional information about Cire Perdue pieces, including an explanation of how they are made, as well as links to all areas of the website that might be informative on the subject, can be found in the Cire Perdue Section of the biography of Rene Lalique!

    UPDATE 10-18-15: The vase sold for $65,100. Four different contenders had bids in at $45,000 or more.

    **A nailbiter (or nail biter) is a tense or anxious situation, which is why many people chew on their nails to begin with.

    Medically speaking, the habit of nail-biting is referred to as onychophagy. So if you bite your nails in public, you can rest assured that medically trained passersby may very well be referring to you in a smarmy manner as an onychophager, a word we just made up but seems right and it could even be a word.

    And if all this is not bad enough, you might as well know that the American Psychiatric Association classifies nailbiters as OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and words like “pathological” have often been used in conjunction with nail-biting behavior.

    Basically it’s literally, figuratively, and literarily, about as close as you can come to wearing your bad habits on your sleeve (reaching back over 500 years to Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello – “But I will wear my heart on my sleeve”).

    Bammako Vase Thrift Shop Purchase – A Story of R. Lalique Goodwill

    April 11th, 2015

    We get a ton of incoming email inquiries here at World Headquarters. One came in recently with the following subject line:

    Possible Bammako vase purchased at Goodwill for $5.99!

    R. Lalique Bammako Vase Found At Goodwill for $5.99R. Lalique Bammako Vase Signature: Found At Goodwill for $5.99The buyer of the vase was checking with us to see if the vase was authentic, and provided the following information:

    I had it for two weeks before I looked for the maker’s mark. It is 18 cm.

    The purchase was made based on looks and price. The buyer did not know it was the work of Rene Lalique.

    How did the owner of the $5.99 purchase even find out the name? That’s easy. Here’s the typical scenario:

    You don’t know anything about R. Lalique or Rene Lalique.

    You find, inherit, or otherwise acquire a vase with an R. Lalique signature on the bottom. You type R. Lalique Vase into Google and see what comes up.

    Hopefully your top result will be the main Vases Page in the Rene Lalique Catalogue here at RLalique.com. You click on that result and scroll through the photos of over 270 different vase models to find the one that matches your vase. The name of the vase is right under the picture, and in one click you are on the model page for that specific vase where you get just about all the information you might ever want to know.

    The two photos shown here were included with the email. They tell the whole story. You can judge for yourself how we responded.

    Pierre Leblache – Hardweejun On Ebay – Buyer Beware

    April 4th, 2014

    Pierre Leblache is an Ebay seller doing business under the screen name Hardweejun. But here at World Headquarters he’s known as Johnny Shoe Trees! **

    He’s had a questionable listing or two over the years, and we thought it’s about time to bring one to your attention.

    Lucien LeLong Parfum B Perfume Bottle 1926

    The message from the title is easy enough to understand. Obviously a Rene Lalique bottle :).

    Ebay has pretty strict guidelines about spamming listing titles for a variety of good reasons. These reasons can be summarized (by us) as follows: Titles are for saying what you are selling! They are not for saying what you aren’t selling. Here, JST starts right out: Rene Lalique! Wonder why?

    Obviously we know of no evidence that the bottle shown in the ad and pictured here was made by Rene Lalique.

    In the “take from this what you will” department, it’s interesting how the description for this particular ad is in French! When we viewed the seller’s other items at the time of writing this, all 8 of his other ads were in English. But no matter, as the title proclaims “Rene Lalique”, who cares if you can’t read or understand French ****. And such a bargain for under $100. Hardly seems worth the effort typing up all that French language gobbledegook *****.

    We once wrote this New York seller to ask him to backup a long-winded and involved claim in an ad essentially stating that a particular perfume bottle was authentic per Lalique company documents. He replied that all those documents were at his French country house! Surprise! That was some time ago. Obviously we never got to see any documents.

    As always, we are happy to be corrected if we have our facts wrong. So if anyone has any authoritative evidence close-at-hand showing the bottle in this article is a Rene Lalique Perfume Bottle, please let us know. In the meantime, be careful out there.

    UPDATE: April 16th, 2014

    Another ridiculous listing has appeared from Hardweejun, this time Item No. 371043589156 titled “Rene Lalique 1937: Original “Tzigane” Bottle for Corday. VG Cond. No Label.

    The bottle has no R. Lalique signature. This is excused in the description with the crazy comment as follows: “Lalique did not sign the bottles he made for parfumeurs (except occasionally for his best friends and clients such as Coty or Worth) and he usually only signed the bottles sold empty in his store.”

    This nutty claim is of course contrary to the facts.

    The Tzigane Perfume Bottle for Corday was introduced in 1938. It had the words Tzigane and Cordy Paris molded into the glass on the side of the bottle, and the molded signature R. Lalique on the underside. Conveniently, we have a photograph of the underside of an R. Lalique Tzigane Perfume Bottle which is shown below in the right hand photo with a molded R. Lalique signature. We put the photo of the underside of the Hardweejun bottle on the left, right next to the R. Lalique molded signature Tzigane photo on the right so you can see for yourself if there is any kind of difference that might be of interest.

    Tzigane Perfume Bottle For Corday With No R. Lalique Signature On The Underside Offered by HardweejunTzigane Perfume Bottle For Corday Molded R. Lalique Signature On The Underside

    A couple closing points about this. We always say don’t buy signatures, because there are so many fake signatures out there. But for this model, there are Tzigane bottles that are very close to Lalique’s original design, that were not made by Rene Lalique. And here, you wouldn’t be buying the signature, you would be buying no signature. That brings us to our second point. For most collectors, it’s best to avoid the convoluted explanation of why there is no signature on a piece that someone is trying to sell you. Instead, stick with pieces that stand on their own, but are backed up by an authentic signature. You want the piece to authenticate the signature, and not the other way around. Here you have a convoluted explanation for why there is no signature. Why would a typical collector get down in this mud trying to figure this all out, when there are obvious authentic R. Lalique Tzigane bottles for sale all the time that don’t require some crazy (or any) explanation?

    And our final thought: When you go to sell your new no signature purchase however many years down the road, will you be prepared to tell that same story to your prospective purchaser?

    Once again, be careful out there.

    End of April 16th, 2014 Update

    Start Update April 7th, 2018

    Really?

    All of the text that follows in this update is the verbatim listing language without changes except bolding the text for a couple of the most amusing sentences.

    Ebay Item 372263747980 Rene-Lalique-1920-Opalescent-Glass-Statuette-034-Naiade-034-5-2-034-Signed-VG

    Naiade Statuette Being Sold By Hardweejun Claiming The Base Was Made As ShownContrary to what is often written even in respected publications, René Lalique’s 1920 “Naïade” (Water Nymph) figurine never was a car mascot. Lalique called it a “statuette” and it did not have the standard base fittable over a car radiator. The Marcilhac book is quite explicit, sorting the mascots and the statuettes some 100 pages apart.

    “Naïade” represents a nymph listening to a sea shell. The opalescent mermaid-like body is suggested with fish scales on the lower part of the statuette, but the top is most definitely human and feminine, with exquisitely displayed hair, arms, breasts and especially bosom (photos 4,5,6). In the whole Lalique production, “Naïade” is the most revealing and Rubens-like. While the base seems narrow, it is perfectly balanced, an intact original and not a reduction, one of three different bases with which the statuette came. This explains why the signature, R LALIQUE in raised letters, is placed mid-body (photo 7, to the right of the scales) and not on the base. It is photographed larger in photos 10 and 11.

    “Naïade” is repertoried and photographed in the large book by Felix Marcilhac, the unofficial “Lalique Bible”, on page 399 of the 2011 French printing in the “Statuettes” section (not “Bouchons de Radiateur”), under reference 832 (photo 12). The caption specifies that the figurine was produced until WW2, never made again afterwards.

    The condition is very good. with no chip, ding or any structural damage. There is one defect, though, from origin: a bubble inside the glass. It is visible when looked at straight (photo 3, lower part right), it otherwise appears as a spot in the glass (photos 2,4,5). There is no other damage.

    End of April 7th, 2018 Update.

    **This seller once had a pair of used loafers for sale on Ebay for something like $800. And in the photos showing the old shoes, they had shoe trees in them. BUT, when you read the fine print in the ad, even though shown in the photo, the shoe trees were not included! That’s right, for $800 no shoe trees! Apparently the expression really is: Keep your friends close and your shoe trees closer! And there you have it: JST!

    *** TBE = Tres Bon Etat (very good condition). TPR = Tres Pas R.Lalique!

    **** Here is a link to an article with the notorious video of President Obama making fun of the poor French language skills of Americans.

    ***** Gobbledegook is something that’s hard to understand. Think mumbo jumbo, or the expression “It’s all Greek to me!”, that descends from a line in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.

    R.Lalique Creation – Creation R. Lalique – Creation Lalique: Signatures That Say “Not R. Lalique”

    March 30th, 2014

    R.Lalique CREATION Signature That Is Modern Post-War on Dans La Nuit Perfume Bottle For Worth

    Glass items that have an R. Lalique signature along with the word CREATION are often a source of confusion for owners and potential buyers. However, there is no authentic R. Lalique pre-war item made during the lifetime of Rene Lalique that has the word CREATION as part of the signature.

    Dans La Nuit Perfume Bottle For Worth With R.Lalique CREATION Signature That Is Modern Post-WarBut these CREATION items account for a regular supply of listings on the Suspicious Auctions page here at RLalique.com because they are often falsely represented as period works of Rene Lalique.

    The R. Lalique CREATION signature at the top of this article is typically found on the blue Worth round flask shaped bottles as shown in the second photo.

    The only real difference in this example signature and similar ones found on other flask style blue Worth bottles would be the volume of the bottle in ml as shown for different size bottles.

    Before we get too far into this, we want to remind everyone that we assume that most owners of these items offering them up as R. Lalique period pieces actually believe that they have a genuine R. Lalique pre-war item.

    Dans La Nuit Stars Perfume Bottle For Worth With CREATION R.Lalique Signature That Is Modern Post-WarBut whether it’s duplicity, ignorance, or wishful thinking on the part of a seller is irrelevant to a potential buyer.

    As a buyer, you want to be educated enough to either have the facts or to know where to get them. To be savvy enough to rely on your own analysis and research and not on what a seller might or might not say.

    In short, it’s best to spend time checking out the facts and the piece, and not fretting over what the seller might or might not know.

    Dans La Nuit Stars Perfume Bottle For Worth With CREATION R.Lalique Signature That Is Modern Post-WarAll the perfume bottles pictured in this article contain the CREATION signature. All are post war modern bottles, and none are authentic R. Lalique pre-war bottles notwithstanding the molded signatures.

    And as an item of interest but not relevant to authenticity as R. Lalique, some or all of these bottles were not even made by the modern Lalique company.

    The third photo above is the signature on a mid-1980’s modern reproduction of the ball shaped Dans La Nuit Stars Perfume Bottle for Worth shown in the fourth picture.

    We’ve also included the modern Molinard de Molinard Perfume Bottle with the CREATION LALIQUE signature as shown in the two photos below.

    CREATION Lalique Signature That Is Modern Post-War On A Molinard De Molinard Perfume BottleThere are some third party reference materials out there that say (directly or by inference) that this model Molinard bottle is a reproduction of an original Rene Lalique design (see Lalique Perfume Bottles by the UTTS Page 85 and the 2004 Catalogue Raisonne Red 3rd Edition Page 945, both saying this is a 1929 R. Lalique design for a Molinard Bottle named Iles D’Or, but all references to this bottle are omitted from the most recent 2011 Green Edition of the Cat Res). So we figured to show it just make sure there is no confusion.

    Molinard De Molinard Perfume Bottle With A CREATION Lalique Signature That Is Modern Post-War Of course, if you just remember the general rule that the CREATION mark on the underside means modern, then you won’t be confused.

    Obviously it would have been better if like the collectible auto business here in the U.S. they had used the phrase “recreation” (or with the hyphen “re-creation”) as the meaning would then be hard to miss.

    All these modern signatures (and quite a few others) are documented and discussed in the signatures section here at RLalique.com, on the page for post-war modern crystal Lalique signatures.

    Lalique Dealer pinkcupcakes-uk Selling Rene Lalique Glass On Ebay: R. Lalique Buyers Beware

    February 23rd, 2013

    It’s been a while since we have been motivated to write about an Ebay seller of the works of Rene Lalique. The last time was to bring the practices of the Ebay screen name Dounial, aka Naim Bouchareb, dba Renaissance Antiques of Iowa to your attention.

    But we write today to discuss three offerings on Ebay from pinkcupcakes-uk (we shorten that up to “Pinky” for brevity), a Norwich UK regular dealer in R.Lalique items.

    Rene Lalique Ondines Plate With Significant Modifications

    While you are looking at Pinky’s offerings, keep something in mind. It’s not just what an ad says that can cause a buyer to be misled. It’s also what it doesn’t say. The seller in this case is a regular dealer in R. Lalique. When you look at the first ad at the link below, think about not just what the ad does tell you, but what this Lalique Dealer doesn’t tell you.

    And our usual reminder that the motivation of the seller is irrelevant to your decision about buying from or dealing with a particular seller. A seller may not be intentionally misleading or purposefully putting out false information, they might believe their own false claims. But purposeful or not, the end result of relying on false claims is the same for the buyer. So it’s not really worth spending a ton of time pondering the question of malice or ignorance. The damage to a buyer can be just as great from dealing with an ignorant dealer as a dishonest one. We’ve railed* before that if you are going to buy from a regular seller of R. Lalique, how important it is to deal with a competent and honest dealer. So we deem it best to just be as knowledgeable as possible and to avoid dealers that fall into either category.

    With all that said, here is the title of the first offering:

    rene lalique opalescent glass ondines plate c 1921 marcilhac 3003.

    This representation from this regular seller of R. Lalique items appears in the ad:

    “very unusual shape of plate no chips /cracks/or hairlines”

    Lalique Moissac Footed VaseA representation that word by word could be claimed to be true. We can see you at the used car dealer now, when the salesman tells you the car you are looking at has no dents, no scratches, and no paint chips of any kind! The only problem is that the front bumper, both front fenders, and the hood are missing. But not a scratch, not a dent, and no paint chips anywhere. Hmmmmmmmm.

    The second listing is titled:

    rene lalique vase “moissac” thickly adjoining pointed leaves c 1927 model no 992.

    Funny how these footed Moissac Vases with R. Lalique signatures always seem to come thru a dealer. Note in the photo below that in this example the R. does not appear to line up with or match LALIQUE.

    Lalique Moissac Footed Vase R Lalique Signature

    We don’t know of any evidence that these footed Moissac Vases were made before the war. That is why footed Moissacs do not appear in the Rene Lalique Catalogue here at R.Lalique.com. We also note that they do not appear in the 2011 R.Lalique Catalogue Raisonne by Monsieur Marcilhac. We of course would welcome any factual evidence from anyone to back up the claim that these Moissac Vases with the wide base are authentic pre-war R. Lalique items.

    Rene Lalique Deux Sirenes Box For D'Orsay With Non-Original Glass Bottom And Missing SignaturesThe third and final listing we want to bring to your attention has met the difficult task of hitting a trifecta** of issues in just one listing. A trifecta within a trifecta when considering the entire situation really.

    Item 251231416506 stunning rene lalique d orsay powder box of mythological maidens c1920!

    1. The glass bottom to the box is not original to the piece. Hard to have a box without the bottom. Not a lot of picture is given to that glass bottom in the photos. “pristine condition” is the claim at the top of the ad from this regular seller of R. Lalique items.

    2. The box appears to be cut down. The molded signatures are not shown on the lower portion of the top piece where you would expect to find them. “pristine condition” is the claim of this regular seller of R. Lalique items.

    3. This is almost laughable. Pinky shows you two pictures of a signature in the ad. But they aren’t from the box, we think they’re likely from a Gui Vase. Now that’s a mark of authenticity and reliability when a seller shows you photos of the signature, even when it’s not on the piece in the ad, right?

    So to review, we have a mutilated plate with no cracks, chips, or hairlines, a highly questionable vase, and likely just part of the top of a box, mated with a bottom not original to the top, and a signature from some other item showing in the ad. Oh yea about the box… “pristine condition”.

    All for sale at the same time by the same lalique dealer. Do you think this dealer may have had his share of complaints? Check out the comments about Pinky from some satisfied customers:

    I purchased it as a relisted item …ignored emails and then said “dog ate it”

    Seller response to my query was abusive

    BEWARE OF SELLER!!!!!!!!

    Item had big chip not described at all in description. I wouldn’t buy from again

    BEWARE .THIS SELLER DOES NOT TELL THE TRUTH. USE YOUR BUYER BEWARE WISELY!!!!!!!

    Item had faults not described at all in description. I wouldn’t buy from again.

    Worst transaction I’ve had, never again!!

    Item damaged. Was returned. They relisted as PRISTINE !!!!!!!!!

    Seems like more than your run-of-the-mill*** issues for a seller with a 123 feedback rating.

    If more R.Lalique listings with questionable and/or outright false claims continue to appear from Pinky, we’ll update this article with the new material from time to time.

    * Railed is used as the past tense of the verb “rail” – to strongly espouse a position. An example would be “The speaker railed against corruption in politics.” Typically you would “rail” against something. Here, we “rail” for something.

    ** A Trifecta in horse racing is correctly picking the top three finishers in order in a race. But like so many other sporting expressions, it is now used more off-handedly to include any triple accomplishment, be it good or bad. Consider a lousy restaurant trifecta – bad service, horrible food, and high prices.

    *** Run-Of-The-Mill is an American expression from the late 1800’s ramp-up into the industrial age, where ordinary production of items from a mill, nothing special, were referred to as run-of-the-mill. It’s now used in a variety of run of the ____ phrases to mean ordinary, common, or usual.

    Rene Lalique Espalion Vase: R.Lalique Appraisal And Lalique Video

    August 13th, 2012

    The R. Lalique Espalion Vase is a one of the great Rene Lalique Vase models from the art deco era. First introduced in 1927 during the most roaring of the roaring 20’s, this was a vase that held true to the roots of Rene Lalique design. The vase was uniquely shaped, had a fern leaf motif all-over the exterior, and small rim opening more suitable for the shorter and smaller daily flowers of the day. It was an extremely attractive decorative object in its own right even if never used as a flower holder. The popular model was sold on several continents by Rene Lalique et Cie retailers and they have found their way all over the world in the 85 years since their introduction. The Espalions are typically seen in opalescent or just clear and frosted, but sometimes in a great blue glass as well as the amazing cased opalescent green shown in the accompanying photo.

    Rene Lalique Espalion Vase Pair In Blue Glass And Cased Green Opalescent Glass

    As with so much other R.Lalique, the vase that is the subject of this article found its way to the American heartland. Owned by the wealthy Kellogg Family in Minnesota*, it journeyed by gift and then inheritance to another R.Lalique rich U.S. state: Oklahoma.

    Out it came at the Tulsa stop of the Antiques Roadshow in an episode that first aired in January of 2012. The appraiser, David McCarron, has over 1/4 century of experience in decorative arts including stints as both auctioneer and appraiser. Currently based in Massachusetts, he has worked for a variety of firms including Sotheby’s and Freemans, has even appeared on Oprah (doubtful that he jumped up and down on the Oprah couch to proclaim his love for decorative arts**), and has been with the Antiques Roadshow since its 1997 inception. His take on the great Lalique Blue Glass Espalion Vase can be seen HERE.

    We don’t know for sure, but we’re thinking there’s a good chance David is a follower of the RLalique.com website! Here is part of what our Rene Lalique Biography says in the introduction to Rene Lalique:

    “In 1900 at the age of 40, he was the most celebrated jeweler in the world and an art nouveau artist and designer of magnificent proportions. But by 1925 at the height of the art deco era he was the most celebrated glassmaker in the world.” Amen.

    * This Espalion is not the only blue glass R.Lalique vase attributed to the Minnesota Kellogg Family. This writer acquired a wonderful blue glass R. Lalique Borromee Vase from the same Minneapolis family.

    ** The actor Tom Cruise weirdly jumped up and down on the Oprah Show couch in 2005 to proclaim his love for the now latest of his several ex-wives.

     
     

    Copyright 2014 by City Concession Co. of Arizona Inc. We are not affiliated with anyone using part or all of the name Rene Lalique. We are a gathering place for R. Lalique enthusiasts.