Christies South Kensington’s Semi-Annual Sale of the works of the great Rene Lalique, posted a very respectable sale total of £318,450 including buyer’s premium. The sale had a catalogued 126 lots, but a couple were withdrawn and not offered. A total of 90 lots sold, for a respectable take up rate of 71%, which would be bit higher if the withdrawals were removed from consideration. High seller was of course the fresh to market R Lalique 1929 Cire Perdue Vase Feuilles Fougeres, CP551, which appears in the R Lalique Catalogue Raisonne only with information that it exists, and without even a drawing, let alone a picture. A photo of this vase has graced our home page for the better part of the past month. Measuring around 4.75 inches high (slightly smaller than a Rampillon Vase), this unique vase had a high relief design, and was in nearly original condition. The buyer was a London dealer in the room, thought by some observers to be acting on behalf of another dealer that wished to remain anonymous (intrigue). Big question – Who will step up to tell Christie’s “I saw it at RLalique.com”? These concerns aside, it sold for £32,450 including the buyer’s premium, against an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000.
Here is the video from the British Antiques Roadshow when they appraised the newly found Cire Perdue for the consignor:
For more info on the unique cire perdue creations of Rene Lalique, visit the Lalique Cire Perdue section of the Rene Lalique Bio.
Colored vases dominated the rest of the high selling list, comprising 5 of the 7 other lots to break £10,000. These included R Lalique Red Poissons, Blue Perruches, Blue Tuileries, Blue Milan, and an Green Languedoc Vases, in addition to an R Lalique Opal Bacchantes and a Boule De Gui Chandelier. A successful and solid sale with much bidding activity in the room from dealers and collectors, and phone bidders active on a very high percentage of lots.
The Georges Clairin Watercolor, approximately 12″ by 9″, inscribed with the artist’s name and the dedication “a mon ami Lalique” (to my friend Lalique), and discussed in a previous post in this R Lalique Blog, sold at Sotheby’s London today, November 12th, for £11,000 plus 25% buyer’s premium of £2750 for a total price of £13,750, or roughly $21,000 at today’s exchange rates, all against an estimate of £6,000 to £8,000. A strong result for a great looking art nouveau watercolor with an extremely close tie to the great Rene Lalique. Hopefully, the buyer let ’em know that they saw it here, at RLalique.com!
Bonhams New Bond Street in London featured 51 lots of R Lalique as the lead items up for auction in their Design 1860-1945 Sale today, November 12th. A respectable mixed offering of mainly middle market models, 40 of the lots sold for a take up rate of near 80%. While our favorite lot here at RLalique.com was a wonderful R Lalique Deux Figurines Silvered 1913 Hand Mirror selling in the original fitted case and which made £2160 including premium, there are a couple of high sellers in the range of over ten times that result. A decent looking opalescent R Lalique Bacchantes Vase on original stand made £26,400 including premium, but was nosed out as the top lot by a very attractive birds eye maple R Lalique 1914 Figurines coffret, featuring 5 glass panels and being around a foot long, which made £27,600 including the premium. If we figured it right, the total was £116,832 for all the R Lalique including the premium.
Another great Ebay lot – an RLalique Masques Decanter. Ebay item 360102807585 – Sans stopper, but cheap as chips at 162 AUS as we write this….. Maybe a great chance to pick up a Rene Lalique Decanter with a classic and popular design at a reasonable price. This is one of the popular Lalique Decanters!
A great looking RLalique Ronsard Opalescent Vase appeared out of Oklahoma on Ebay this morning. $1750, no reserve, and the ad states no damage. Lots of photos from a high volume Power Seller. Seems like it might be worth checking out before it disappears.
Our 2nd listing has appeared on Ebay. It’s a good Rene Lalique Bluets Vase, circa 1914. The vase has a starting price well below half of recent sales prices of the same model vase, and no reserve. Our Ebay User I.D, is RLaliqueSales. We’ve posted the listing in the 
The rare perfume bottle Ambre De Siam appeared at the Rago Arts and Auction Center yesterday in their two day Craftsman Auction Weekend Sale, along with around 10 other R Lalique items. The bottle, which was in very good condition except for a small chip on the bottom of the stem of the stopper, rarely appears at auction. It’s a classic and innovative R Lalique design that brings out not just the R Lalique collectors, but also the larger perfume bottle collecting crowd. In the end, the bottle surpassed its $5000-$6000 pre-sale estimate, and worked it’s way up from $5000 to $21,000, which made the premium inclusive total just over $25,000. The Oracle says that this bottle is the source of some historical confusion, originally appearing in some literature as an in-house RLalique bottle. Evidence exists that his bottle was sold by Volnay. The stopper itself exists as cachet. A good result for one of the great Rene Lalique designs in near original condition.
The small, totally cool gold, enamel, and pearl Rene Lalique brooch which has graced our home page for the past few weeks, sold yesterday as Lot No. 357 at Sothebys New York in their Important Jewels Sale for $16,000 plus a 25% buyer’s premium of $4000 for a total price of $20,000. The brooch features two sea nymphs on either side of a grotesque masque, pale green enamel and a pearl drop. An OK result for a great little item.
The great Perfume Exhibition Catalogue Book that we listed on Ebay out of the extensive 
Tonight our first Ebay listing of an 
Today at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, amongst several modern Lalique Crystal and RLalique glass items, was Lot Number 867, mundanely described as “Lalique water lily decanter vase”. This item was also listed for sale on Ebay Live as item number 140260527587. It was described as follows: “sides with frosted water lily leaves and trailing vines, base marked “Lalique”, probably early 20th century, 11-1/4 in. Mineral stains at base of interior, one leaf with chips, scratches, otherwise excellent condition.” The winning bidder paid $2400 plus an Ebay enhanced premium of 20% (versus 15% if phone bid), for a total price of $2760. I have three photos for you to look at. Check out the form, the signature, and the trailing vines running from the leaves (more evident in the larger Ebay photos linked above). What do you think?
At Christie’s New York on September 3rd, 3 wonderful original Rene Lalique drawings appeared in Christie’s 3 Day Interiors Sale. The Rene Lalique original drawings were for a Grasshopper Necklace, an Orchid Buckle, and a Swallows Necklace. The drawings, selling as three separate lots, made a total of $14,000 including buyer’s premium, against combined estimates of $6,000 to $9,000. There are a decent number of these original drawings around, but they always sell well. And of course, the real jewel is when the owner of the original jewelry item obtains the original R Lalique drawing of that specific item and reunites the pair.