November 11th, 2010
Lalique Art Glass sold extremely well in Sotheby’s London Fine 20th Century Design Sale on November 9th. This continued a trend of strong Rene Lalique auction pricing which has been ongoing for the last several years.
 Sotheby’s offered 18 attractive R Lalique pieces, with the majority being the iconic Lalique Vases, many of them colored glass. 16 of the lots sold, for a take up rate of 88%. All the lots that did sell went in or above the estimates, many times well above.
The sale totaled (including buyers premium for all prices discussed in this article) £305,625, or in dollars (at 1.68 dollars to the pound) $513.450. This works out to average sales prices of £19,102 or $32,091.
High seller was the attractive and rare Lalique Clock Le Jour et la Nuit: The Day and the Night Clock in very attractive blue glass. This clock is one of the artistic triumphs of Rene Lalique and it made a reasonable £91,250/$153,300 against an estimate of £60,000-£80,000.
 This one lot represented 30% of the total Lalique sales prices for all 16 sold lots. But this was by no means a runaway price as this model Lalique Clock in blue glass has previously sold in this price range.
Second high seller was the Lalique Vase Bellecour making £28,750/$48,300 against an estimate of £12,000 – £18,000.
A strong price indeed and a bit of a surprise as this vase outsold some strong colored vases to make its 2nd place showing. Several Bellecour vases have appeared in the past couple of years, but price wise, this one outshone them all by a substantial margin.
 Third best lot was a rare pair of the 30 cm tall Rene Lalique Table Lamps in the Poissons model. These lamps sold for £25,000/$42,000 against a spot on estimate of £20,000 – £30,000.
Fourth place was taken up by the red glass Rene Lalique Vase Escargot. Escargot vases in colored glass are getting very hard to find at public auctions. Also very scarce are true red glass Lalique Vases. These two factors no doubt helped the bidding along to the final total of £22,500/$37,800 against the pre-sale estimate of £10,000 to £15,000.
 Fifth high seller was the Lalique Poissons Vase in an attractive green color, one of the many varieties of green that this vase has been seen in. The Poissons made £20,000/$33,600 against its conservative estimate of £8,000 – £12,000.
Overall 10 of the 16 sold lots were vases, accounting for £146,875/$246,750, or just under half the Lalique sale total.
One other price worth mentioning was achieved by three different highly popular and attractive vases, all of which sold for £16,250/$27,300.
 One was a butterscotch colored (cased yellow amber and opalescent) Archers Vase, one was an opalescent Bacchantes Vase, and the third was a clear and frosted Rene Lalique Serpent Vase. While not representing a giant leap from previous sale prices, this may be the highest price ever paid at auction for a clear and frosted Serpent Vase.
The colorless Serpent Vase selling for the same price as the Butterscotch Archers and the Opalescent Bacchantes shows just how strong the demand is for rare Serpent Vases in today’s market, as even non-colored glass versions of this great Rene Lalique design can compete on price with highly popular opalescent and cased colored versions of other attractive but more plentiful Lalique Vase models.
Here are all the Rene Lalique Sales Results for this sale:
Lot 55 – ‘Anémones’ circular mirror – £8,750/$14,700
Lot 56 – ‘Bacchantes’ vase – £16,250/$27,300
Lot 57 – ‘Poissons’ pair of table lamps – £25,000/$42,000
Lot 58 – ‘Le Jour et la Nuit’ timepiece – £91,250/$153,300
Lot 112 – ‘Cigognes’ vase – £7,500/$12,600
Lot 113 – ‘Baies’ vase – £7,500/$12,600
Lot 123 – ‘Serpent’ vase – £16,250/$27,300
Lot 124 – ‘Perruches’ vase – £5,625/$9,450
Lot 124 – ‘Bellecour’ vase – £28,750/$48,300
Lot 126 – ‘Cardamine’ lamp – £12,500/$21,000
Lot 128 – ‘Escargot’ vase – £22,500/$37,800
Lot 129 – ‘Grande Nue Socle Lierre’ – £15,000/$25,200
Lot 130 – ‘Madagascar’ bowl – £6,250/$10,500
Lot 131 – ‘Poissons’ vase – £20,000/$33,600
Lot 133 – ‘Archers’ vase (amber) – £6,250/$10,500
Lot 134 – ‘Archers’ vase (butterscotch) – £16,250/$27,300
Lots 114 and 132, Antelopes and Poissons Vases respectively, did not sell
The period between November 1st and Christmas is traditionally the time of year when the highest volume of Rene Lalique works appear at auction, and this year is no exception. There are several auctions with large numbers of Lalique offerings coming up in the next several weeks. And there will be over 100 auctions with lesser numbers of R. Lalique lots as well. You can follow all the auction action and keep informed about all the upcoming Rene Lalique auction offerings in the Lalique Auctions Section at RLalique.com. And for research and information on thousands of previous Lalique auction sales, check out the Past Lalique Auctions pages as well.
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases, Rene Lalique Clocks and R Lalique Clocks
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October 15th, 2010
 R Lalique Glass has set several world record prices at auction in 2010, as strong auction sales become the norm for the works of Rene Lalique around the world. With some great sales still to come before year end, we thought we’d bring four of these auction prices to the forefront for a variety of reasons, including that as a group, these pieces sit squarely in the mainstay of R Lalique collecting.
In May in London at Christies South Kensington’s traditional semi-annual sale of R Lalique, three Perruches Vases by the great Lalique, sold for top dollar (well, top pound :). A green Perruches made £30,000 all-in, and a Blue Perruches made £32,500 as did an Amber Perruches as well.
 With some research, we were unable to find these three colored Perruches Vases ever making these prices previously at auction!
These sales prices were a bit of a jump from current trends, but they were not unexpected considering the increasing demand for quality colored vases and the short supply, as well as generally strong auction pricing throughout the last several years across nearly the entire spectrum for R Lalique works.
Then at Bonham’s usual sale of Automobilia at Quail Lodge, held this year over two days on August 12th and 13th, where they offered roughly a dozen R Lalique Car Mascots, another world record price was set!
 The high selling Lalique mascot, beating out Victoire (at $14,640 all-in), two different Vitesse (at $10,980 and $8,540 all-in), as well as a Cinq Cheveaux ($9,272), La Grenouille ($9,150), and a good selection of lesser priced mascots, was Lot 507, a dark topaz with red center Coq Nain Car Mascot. The R Lalique Coq Nain made $20,740 all-in! We are unable to find any example of this model and color that has even come close to this price at auction.
Again, not some esoteric one-off piece, but another mainstay R Lalique collectible, a colored version of a somewhat common Lalique Car Mascot. For more information on Lalique Mascots, check-out the R Lalique Car Mascots Section of the Rene Lalique Biography at RLalique.com, where you’ll find links to all the information on the website about the car mascots of Rene Lalique.
Quietly, but consistently, R Lalique has been making firm prices across the board. And in the prime and most popular areas of the collecting field, price are pushing into record territory in many instances.
 With over 60 R Lalique Auctions listed in our Worldwide Auction Section as we write this, a record of our own for auction listings in mid-October, over 1000 R Lalique Auctions listed so far this year, and likely at least a couple hundred more to come before we close out 2010, it’s shaping up to be the strongest year yet in a string of strong R Lalique Sales years that were in place before the economic crisis of the past couple of years, that continued unabated during the downturn, and that appear to be getting even stronger as the world slowly tries to put its economic house in order. And no, we are not proud that we have strung together over 100 words in one run-on sentence.
And if you run across a great R Lalique auction price as you pursue your R Lalique interests, please email and tell us about it. We’ll include great auction prices in our auction wrap-ups that we publish from time to time.
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases, Rene Lalique Car Mascots and R Lalique Car Mascots
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September 5th, 2010
Renaissance Antiques of Davenport Iowa, in the person of owner Naim Bouchareb, a regular seller on Ebay under the Ebay screen name Dounial, sells a lot of R Lalique items online. Some of these listings raise serious questions. We have been motivated to write about this R Lalique Seller for a variety of reasons including complaints and negative comments that have come in thru and because of the website, and also a recent couple of listings that squarely highlight the questions.
We have previously written in these pages, that if you are going to purchase from a dealer, that it is extremely important that your dealer be honest and competent. It’s also important that you are armed with the most information possible, which is the best defense against regrets and the various dark arts practiced throughout any collecting field.
Here we have what in our opinion is as fake a signature as can be found. The signature resides on a piece sold on Ebay by Renaissance Antiques. The piece in the cached version**** of the Dounial Ebay Listing sports the signature on the underside of the base as shown above. This item has graced the pages of the R Lalique Police Report Section for some time.
 Stranger than the signature, is its location on the underside of the base. Note in the photo the dark little pads under the piece and a signature that appears in the photo to be raised out of the glass. Of course, if you put a raised signature on the underside of a piece that has a flat bottom:
A – The signature will touch the surface of whatever it’s sitting on!
B – The piece will not sit level due to the signature being elevated from the rest of the base!
C – And the signature itself will be scraped up and maybe even off, and worn totally over time.
And there you have the little green pads, apparently to protect the signature and level the piece.
How many pieces do you have of authentic R Lalique, where the signature is raised on the flat part of the underside; an underside that by design comes in direct contact with the surface the piece is sitting on? Seriously, whoever put the signature on this piece wasn’t thinking it through, wasn’t familiar with R Lalique, or just didn’t care. Or there is a fourth possibility!
Many buyers of glass assume that a molded signature is a mark of authenticity. We have repeatedly stressed on RLalique.com that you should never buy a signature; that the signature does not authenticate the piece. In fact, the piece must authenticate the signature. In the example at hand, whether this piece is a post war Cristal Lalique reproduction or a Czech copy, the addition of the molded signature would typically be intended to give an assurance of authenticity of the piece being an original work of Rene Lalique.
But these “molded” signatures can be faked; with not too much more work than scratching in a phony signature with a sharp object. In simple terms, the forger protects with a stencil of some kind, the outline of the desired signature, and then using acid, cuts back everything else on the underside of the base a millimeter or two, leaving a raised “molded” signature that was not cut away with the acid. See Fake Lalique Signatures for other examples similar to the signature on this Coq Nain.
So here we have a regular seller of R Lalique pieces selling a piece that does not even appear right at first glance. What does the R Lalique Dealer, this regular seller of R Lalique, this Antiques Dealer, this Specialist have to say about this piece in his ad?
“AMAZING! R. LALIQUE FRANCE “COQ NAIN” CLEAR/FROSTED” and “Condition: very good condition, small chip on the base rim”
Who is the likely buyer of this piece? A beginning or novice collector that doesn’t know. Someone from the very group of collectors from which long term serious collectors emerge, assuming they don’t have the kinds of regrets to sour them on the entire collecting field that might be caused by a signature like the one on this piece.
The time spent to read up a little on Faked Lalique works and the related subjects covered by that link, may save you many regrets. And of course a little independent Lalique Consulting can go a long way toward avoiding bad experiences.
 And if you liked the Coq Nain, you’ll like this cached version**** of a second Renaissance Antiques Ebay listing just as well. A bit of a play on an old Wendy’s**** advertising slogan “Where’s the Beef?”, we are inclined to ask Renaissance Antiques, Where’s the Rim? Oh yea …. “Excellent condition” so says the seller.
Compare the Dounial Ebay Domremy Vase pictured here with the photo of the Rene Lalique Domremy Vase below that came up for auction last year.
Renaissance Antiques thru their Ebay screen name Dounial is also featured on the website TiffanyFakes.com! Hardly surprising.
Is Dounial, Mr. Naim Bouchareb, Renaissance Antiques, guilty of nothing more than ignorance? Is it omission or commission? Responsibility or irresponsibility? Regardless, the result is the same for a buyer that relies on “Amazing!” and “very good condition” and bizarre “molded” signatures blazoned across the bottom of car mascots or paperweights.
 And this is why, if you are buying from a dealer, that having a competent and honest dealer (along with getting independent advice concerning your purchases) is so important. If you know a fair amount about R Lalique, and if you are careful, and if you purchase from many sources at auctions, online, thru individuals, etc., you may make a few mistakes and have a couple of regrets. But if you are buying regularly from the same dealer, a dealer that is not competent and honest, you may end up with many, many regrets. It is for this reason that we emphasized previously (see Lalique Bacchantes article) and reiterate here the great importance to you as a buyer, that if you are buying from a dealer, you should ensure that the dealer is honest and competent.
And how much did Renaissance Antiques make on the Coq Nain sale? They sold the piece for $399, a lot less even than the few pieces of silver you hear tell about.
UPDATE October 30, 2010:
 New Dounial Ebay LIsting: R. LALIQUE FRANCE “ROSES EN RELIEF” DRESSER BOX W/ LID
Here is a link to a cached version**** of another listing from Renaissance Antiques selling as Dounial on Ebay. The actual name of the listed box, shown here on the right in a photo from the Ebay listing, is Coppelia. It is a modern post war crystal box made by Cristal Lalique. The Cristal Lalique model number is 10578, which is documented along with the name of the box in the below photo from the book Lalique Par Marie-Claude Lalique on Page 251.
A nice modern crystal item. Certainly not an R. Lalique France “Roses in Relief” Box as described in the title to the Renaissance Antiques Ebay ad. Curiously, we cannot see the signature on the Ebay box in the photos that Renaissance Antiques has used in the ad. Curioser, the ad does not state what the signature says!
UPDATE July 18, 2011: Get Your R. Lalique Perfume Bottle – It is Signed!!
 In July of 2011, Ebay Dounial put up for auction Item No. 370527285412, a modern crystal Clairefontane Perfume Bottle described by Renaissance Antiques in the Auction Title as Circa 1945 R. Lalique. Here is a link to the Cached Image Version**** of the Dounial Ebay Perfume Bottle. At least they show a (very dark) photo of the signature at the bottom of the ad; a signature that indicates it is a post war crystal reproduction Perfume Bottle by Cristal Lalique. What makes that so great is in the auction description they again say it’s an R. Lalique Perfume Bottle and add some gravitas by stating “… it is signed.” Taken by itself, that last quote is true, it’s just too bad it isn’t signed R. Lalique. We can already see the next ad: “Get your signed Picasso Painting?” And you look and see the painting is signed “Renaissance Antiques”.
UPDATE August 14, 2011: Get Your R. Lalique Drinking Glasses oops Vases!!
 In August of 2011 Dounial put up at auction two different listings for Marienthal drinking glasses but advertised them as vases! Hmmmm, wonder what the motive was for that. Get your “MAGNIFICENT 1927 R LALIQUE AMBER MARIENTHAL VASE”, and don’t worry if you have a strange urge to use it for a soda or even a mixed drink!! Here are the cached versions **** of the two listings: Dounial Ebay Vase 1 and Ebay Dounial Vase 2! What will he think of next?
Oh yea, don’t drink the flowers.
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UPDATE September 24, 2011
Get Your R. Lalique damaged perfume bottle oops Bud Vase!!
 
“SPECTACULAR R. LALIQUE BUD VASE WITH NUDES”
The Ebay item, the “BUD VASE” which is shown above and to the left, appears to be an Ambre Antique Perfume Bottle that is missing the stopper, the entire rim, the neck, and more. Compare that to the Ambre Antique Rene Lalique Perfume Bottle made for Coty on the right! Pity the unsuspecting vase buyer. Get your one of a kind, newly discovered R. Lalique Bud Vase, so rare, it’s not documented as a vase, but it is signed 🙂
UPDATE December 17, 2011
The Buffalo Bill Cody Perfume Bottle!
“MAGNIFICENT C.1920 R. LALIQUE PERFUME BOTTLE MADE FOR THE CODY COMPANY”
 Yes friends, who knew Buffalo Bill Cody was in the perfume business?
Yet another exciting discovery brought to you by Dunial of Renaissnce Antiques on Ebay! And as usual, the best thing about this bottle; the mark of authenticity is ” …… it is also signed.” Now that’s comforting. Too bad it’s not signed R. Lalique of course, but rest assured ” …… it is also signed.”
Here’s a link to the cached version of an Ebay Listing where you’ll see someone bought the thing for $199!
If anyone has any documentation that the Buffalo Bill Bottle is an authentic R. Lalique Perfume Bottle as represented in the advertisement, please forward it to us. Or if anyone has an old photo of Buffalo Bill holding this bottle, please send that to us also. 🙂
UPDATE April 28, 2012: Get Your Lalique Studios Penguin Paperweight!!
 Just when you thought you’d seen everything, here’s a link to the cached version**** of a great Naim Bouchareb listing for a penguin paperweight made by Zellique Studios. If you take a look at the listing, you’ll see it’s signed Zellique Studios! But Dounial decided to sell it as Lalique Studios! You cannot make this stuff up. We also include a link to an Ebay listing from someone that properly identified the paperweight (by reading the clear signature on the piece), sold it as Zellique, and got more money with a truthful advertisement than Mr. Bouchareb did passing the thing off as Lalique. You can draw your own conclusions about what pays and what does not pay.
And the band plays on.
*** Wendy’s was founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1969 by one of the great (and regretfully late) American Entrepreneurs, Dave Thomas. There is a persistent and widespread story going around that he named the restaurant chain after his daughter Wendy. But he didn’t have a daughter named Wendy! His daughter’s name was Melinda Lou. Of course at a young age she couldn’t pronounce her own name, and got the nickname Wendy, a name she could pronounce, which makes the whole story true enough. To think we’ve really been eating at Melinda Lou’s all this time.
****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.
October 23rd, 2010 Update: Switched Item Link To Cached Image Version
January 10, 2011 Update: Switched Roses Box Link to Cached Image Version
July 18, 2011 Update: Added paragraph to discuss current offering of a modern crystal perfume bottles as R. Lalique Circa 1945.
August 14, 2011 Update: Added paragraph to discuss offering Marienthal drinking glasses as vases.
August 15, 2011 Update: Updated links. Switched Marienthal drinking glass listings to Cached Image Versions. Both sold listings strangely disappeared from Ebay already. Dounial had also re-listed what appeared to be the same yellow amber Marienthal Glass (the “vase” that had just sold?) and that re-listing also disappeared. We also updated the Clairefontaine Perfume link to the Cached Image Version from our July update, as this listing also disappeared from Ebay along with the aforementioned other listings.
December 23, 2011 Update: Switched Bud Vase / Damaged Perfume Bottle link to Cached Image Version
April 28, 2012 Update: Added modern Zelique Studios Penguin Dounial sold as R.Lalique and switched the Wild Bill Cody Perfume Bottle link to the cached version.
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique and Rene Lalique Fakes-Copies-Frauds, R Lalique and Rene Lalique Sellers, Rene Lalique Car Mascots and R Lalique Car Mascots, Rene Lalique Paperweights - Lalique Paperweights, Suspicious RLalique-R Lalique-Rene Lalique Auctions
Posted in R Lalique - Rene Lalique Authentication Identification, R Lalique and Rene Lalique Fakes-Copies-Frauds | 1 Comment »
August 7th, 2010
EBay is a great marketplace for the works of Rene Lalique. Cool and rare objects appear out of the hinterlands and offer opportunities for collectors they would never have seen before. And just the sheer volume of daily trading of R. Lalique items creates liquidity in the market and contributes to the overall stability of the worldwide collecting field. It’s a great place to sell items with low transaction costs, and a great place to buy pieces as well.
But like all things, the story is usually not entirely one sided, and as regular visitors to RLalique.com are aware, many items are listed on Ebay under the R. Lalique banner, that are not always exactly what they seem.
 The RLalique Police Page always has a “good” selection of various problematic Ebay auctions listed for anyone that wants to take the time to investigate before bidding on something. And we can’t leave this topic without mentioning of course, that we also do offer affordable Lalique Consulting for any purchase, not just on Ebay but for any auction item (or an entire auction) or private sale worldwide.
One Ebay item in particular was brought to our attention by several alert readers in recent days and it has graced the top of the RLalique Police listings since it first appeared online. The auction was purportedly for the Rene Lalique Vase Gros Scarabees: The Lalique Beetle Vase! The auction ended today, and while we were looking at the Ebay Item Page in feigned disbelief, the refrain from the old Eagles standard kept running thru our minds:
There’s gonna be a heartache tonight,
A heartache tonight, I know.
There’s gonna be a heartache tonight, I know.
Lord, I know.
 What makes this listing so “great”, is the sheer laziness of the Ebay seller combined with the obvious warning signs. Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 190426530971 listing online***, the “Grosses Scarabees Vase”. You can’t make these names up, they just appear! How did this become the “Grosses”? Simple, the seller copied that information directly from a previous online auction listing along with the exact same three photos in that previous listing!
The original seller of this vase last year, an auction house that regularly sells R. Lalique, made a mistake in their heading when they brought the vase to auction in June of 2009 and called it the “Grosses Scarabees Vase”. The current Ebay lister just copied out the info, correct, mistaken, no matter. See the original listing for yourself here: Grosses Vase.
And the three photos? Well, they are actually just one photo that was then given different effects (lighter, darker, highlights) to make it appear to be three different photos.
Rago reports that with buyers premium the vase sold last year for $8400. Then it appears on Ebay a year later, with an $800 starting price and no reserve! And the lucky winner gets it for only $2000! Oh, and FREE shipping too! That’s a really big expense for the seller that he’s throwing in :). How great is this?
Well, we already know how this story is going to end:
There’s gonna be a heartache tonight,
A heartache tonight, I know.
There’s gonna be a heartache tonight, I know.
Lord, I know.
***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.
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique and Rene Lalique Fakes-Copies-Frauds, R Lalique and Rene Lalique on Ebay, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases, Suspicious RLalique-R Lalique-Rene Lalique Auctions
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July 14th, 2010
Rene Lalique created a “traumhafter hummer”, which in German means “fantastic lobster”, and rarely do these hummers come up for sale. Not quite as big as the traumhafter Hummers that wheel thru the streets around World Headquarters, and surely not as noisy, this particular lobster had some minor damages but was basically intact. Considering the rarity, the chipping would have likely not been any impediment to a dozen different collectors putting in a bid if they had the chance.
But it was not to be as on July 1st, two nice paperweights appeared on Ebay from the same German seller, both with Buy-It-Now prices of €650, or around $825. Needless to say, the Lobster (Lalique called it a Langoustine which is Crayfish but which also refers to a Spiny or Rock Lobster*) was a bit more of a opportunity than the Bull, Taureau Model No. 1194, which the German seller rightfully calls a “Stier”. There’s likely a story about the Ebay cruiser coming upon the Lobster auction with the low Buy-It-Now and muttering “that ain’t no bull”, but time and inclination do not permit us to digress that far afield. Nonetheless, it was reported by one of our alert readers (with regrets for not being the buyer) that over 10 people viewed the Lobster auction before someone clicked on the Buy-It-Now button. Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 150462246093 lobster listing online where you can judge for yourself.****
 Most collectors of Rene Lalique glass will go a lifetime without ever seeing one of these Lobsters in person. And similarly, the vast majority of collectors (the ones that didn’t spring for a Cat Res) will not even see a photo of one, except of course at RLalique.com. We’d observe it’s quite a rare bird**, this Lobster is, except that observation wouldn’t seem on its face to make a lot of sense (though it really does).
Apparently there is something to checking out new Ebay listings several times a day, as many active collectors and dealers have a habit of doing, because you never know when the rare bird, or the under-priced Buy-It-Now piece will appear.
 Rumor has it that this rare AND cool Lalique Lobster flew (there goes the bird thing again, let’s say crawled?) to the UK where it will live out its life at ease, and will not be cooked.
Here’s our auction page for this great Lalique Paperweight (whatever you call it), and of course, you can access this and all other auctions we’ve ever listed, in the Past Lalique Auctions section at RLalique.com.
And to all you Ebay addicts that check the listings a dozen times a day, we say Happy Hunting (or … er… hmm …. Happy Fishing?, or maybe Happy Crustating??)!
September 11, 2010 Update: Switched Item Link To Cached Image Version
* A “rare bird” is an exceptional or unique person or thing. It became somewhat commonplace as a phrase in the mid to late 1800’s. It’s a direct translation of the Latin phrase “rara avis” which itself was in use from around 1600 and is sometimes still used in certain circles to this day, circles we read about, but don’t run in:)
** Crayfish and Spiny Lobsters are a bit different to be having one word to describe both of them but what they heck, they are related, though Crayfish live in freshwater and Spiny Lobsters in saltwater. And if any American (or anyone else) is wondering what’s the difference between a Crayfish and a Crawfish, the answer is none, except the spelling and pronunciation (though knowledgeable jingoists insist Crawfish came first!). Of course they aren’t actually fish at all, they’re crustaceans! Whatever you think, keep in mind that all this information comes from a non-seafood eating writer, so if any Cajun Crawfish lovers (love to eat, not lovers in the sense like loving your kids or your dog or your girlfriend — let’s say they “love them to death”) …. if any Cajun Crawfish lovers from Louisiana beg to differ about the no-difference thing, no offense will be taken.
****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.
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique and Rene Lalique on Ebay, R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, Rene Lalique Paperweights - Lalique Paperweights
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June 27th, 2010
Rene Lalique works continued with strong pricing at the June 16th Sale of Design from 1860 held in Bonham’s New Bond Street salerooms.
 Lalique was represented by 47 lots in the auction comprised mainly of a solid mid-range group of offerings. The Lalique achieved a take-up rate of over 80% owing to the decent quality of most of the lots as well as the realistic estimates.
While Rene Lalique Vases represented over 60% of the sale with 29 items, the two high sellers were found elsewhere. Top seller, going off as Lot 367 was the “Rocky” statute, the Source De La Fontaine Statue Adriane (from the 1st Rocky Movie: “Yo Adriane!”), which made an all-in £12,600 (all prices in this article include the 20% buyers premium) against an estimate of £9,000 to £12,000.
 Runner-up was the elegant amber glass light fixture Lausanne at £6,960 selling as Lot 349. Another light fixture also did quite well, the somewhat common Coquilles hanging fixture in an uncommon amber glass making £3,360 as Lot 350.
Tied for third in price were two classic Lalique Vase models, the opalescent glass Ceylon Vase, and the Formose Vase in a rare cased opalescent and agate coloring. They sold back to back as Lots 334 and 335, both making £4,800.
Rounding out the top five sale prices were a Suzanne Statue (with serious issues) at £3,600 and a Marisa Vase in Gray Glass at £3,480.
 Departmental Director Mark Oliver* and his staff did a great job of assembling a solid set of mid-market items which got good interest from both trade and private bidders. Overall, the Rene Lalique pieces made almost exactly £77,500, with the 38 sold lots averaging over £2000, or roughly over $3000 at today’s exchange rates. The sale marked another in a long line of successful public auctions this year for the works of the great Rene Lalique.
 All auction resources at RLalique.com can be accessed from the Lalique Auctions section of the biography of Rene Lalique, where you will find links to past and future auction info, links to news and blog reports and much more. And don’t forget, when considering auction (or private) purchases, RLalique.com can help you achieve your collecting goals while minimizing the chance of regrets, through the Lalique Consulting Services offered to buyers and sellers of R. Lalique items.
*Mark Oliver can be reached at (mark.oliver@bonhams.com +44 (0) 207 468 8233).
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases, Rene Lalique Lighting: R Lalique Lighting Fixtures, Rene Lalique Statues Figurines: R Lalique Statues
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June 12th, 2010
 
New information coming out of France today reveals that Rene Lalique had a twin brother! It’s unbelievable, check it out here in a saved/cached image version of the original listing online***. The news is already rocking the art world as biographers scramble to update their books, college professors rush to update their art history course material, and major museums hurry to add this new information to their displays. The whole story of Art Nouveau to Art Deco is being re-written as art historians descend on the little Village of Ay, the birthplace of the Lalique twins, gathering any scraps of information they can find about this startling news.
It always seemed strange that one Lalique could do so much in just one lifetime. The whole jewelry thing, then the glass, all the exhibitions, etc. etc. Didn’t it seem like he had to be in two places at once? And check out the photos. Notice the differences? Yet still is a very strong family resemblance.
Now that we know there was more than one of these guys, it all makes total sense. Who knew?
If you want to learn more about Rene Lalique and the Lalique family, check out the Lalique Bio at RLalique.com.
***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.
All Articles on These Topics: Rene Lalique Biography, Rene Lalique History and R Lalique History
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June 6th, 2010
Rene Lalique glass made another strong showing at Sotheby’s London on May 19th in their sale of “Fine 20th Century Design …”
 Sotheby’s put together a strong group of rare and hard to find items that brought consistently good prices. There were a total of 8 Lalique glass items offered, and every lot exceeded its estimate, sometimes spectacularly.
The most interesting item was Lot 77, described as “A Rare and Early Anemones Coffret with an estimate of £15,000 to £20,000. This 22 centimeter long box has not been previously documented in the Catalogue Raisonne, though it is pictured in the book by Victor Arwas “Art Nouveau to Art Deco, The Art of Glass”, which is a 1990’s slimmed down version of his seminal work of similar title. But Sotheby’s included a catalogue note that they had talked with Felix Marcilhac and that the box would be included in the next Catalogue Raisonne edition. This information surely gave confidence to at least a couple of bidders, which pushed the price of the box just over the high estimate, ending at £26,250 all-in.
 The high seller for the great Lalique was Lot 78, the Camaret table lamp. Estimated at an apparently strong £10,000 to £15,000, the lamp made an all-in total of £61,250, which is surely by far a record price for this model. Interesting was the signature on the bottom of the vase turned lamp of the number 1010, which is the Model No. for the vase. This lamp model has also appeared previously with the correct Model No. 2167 signed on the base of the “vase”. Likely not an issue, but of interest.
The results for the 8 lots totaled £245,625 including the buyers premium, or an average price of nearly £31,000 per lot. These results more than doubled the total high estimates of £116,500, or an average of approximately £14,500 per lot.
 These great results are yet another in an increasingly long line of very firm pricing for rarer and hard to find works of Rene Lalique demonstrated not just by the Christies Lalique Sale which followed these offerings by a week in London, but reaching back to the year end 2009 sales such as the $48,000 price achieved for the Lalique Amber Serpent Vase at the Heritage Sale in New York. These results also comport with a significant amount of private sales activity we have seen at RLalique.com and elsewhere. It appears that the demand for the more sought after items continues to increase while the supply remains thin. Especially for rare and attractive items (such as cire perdue, unique jewelry, the coffret referenced above), attractive architectural items, quality early vases, and colored vases, there is not much on offer to meet the enthusiastic demand of a growing number of international buyers.
Complete results of this sale are reported in the Lalique Auctions Past Section of RLalique.com on the Sotheby’s Lalique Auction Results Page for this auction. They are also listed at the end of this article. Additional auction information and links to everything on RLalique.com about Lalique Auctions (upcoming, results, catalogues, articles etc.) can be found in the Lalique Auctions Section of the RLalique.com biography of Rene Lalique.
Lot 74 ‘FEUILLES DE VIGNE’: AN ICE BUCKET EST: £4,000 – £6,000 £8,125
LOT 76 ‘MADRID’: A CHANDELIER EST: £12,000 – £18,000 £39,650
LOT 77 A RARE AND EARLY ‘ANÉMONES’ COFFRET EST: £15,000 – £20,000 £26,250
LOT 78 ‘CAMARET (QUATRE RANGÉES DE POISSONS)’: A TABLE LAMP EST: £10,000 – £15,000 £61,250
LOT 79 ‘OISEAU DE FEU’: AN ILLUMINATING GLASS PANEL EST: £20,000 – £30,000 £46,850
LOT 82 ‘GRAND DEPÔT’: A PAIR OF TABLE LAMPS EST: £7,000 – £10,000 £18,125
LOT 83 ‘PROVENCE’: A LARGE PLAFONNIER EST: £1,500 – £2,500 £8,125
LOT 85 ‘JET D’EAU’: A PAIR OF WALL APPLIQUES EST: £10,000 – £15,000 £37,250
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May 30th, 2010
Rene Lalique fared quite well at the semi-annual Lalique Sale at Christies South Kensington on May 26th.
 The sale for RLalique items totaled (all prices include buyers premium, dollar conversions are approximate) £540,850 Brit Pounds, or about $782,000, with 151 RLalique lots of the 192 total RLalique lots selling, for a take up rate of approximately 79%.
The main strength was in the better items, especially colored vases and rarer pieces, with 18 lots selling for over $10,000. 7 of those 18 sales were the iconic Lalique vases, including Archers in opalescent at $14,500, three Perruches vases two of which, dark amber and blue, tied for top lot in the entire sale at $46,600 each, while the third made $43,000, a Blue Farandole that looked quite worn making $18,000, and the wonderful model Camees at $14,500, which seemed quite cheap if the condition was decent. The 7th vase over the mark was a black enameled Lagmar which made $12,600.
 The rare car mascot Epsom made $18,000 with some issues, purchased by Geoffrey Weiner and the mascot Grande Libellule made $10,800. A nice looking pair of Oiseaux Et Spirales Panels made $12,500, while four statues made it over $10,000 including a frosted Thais at $10,800, an opalescent Suzanne at $14,400, a Grande Nue Socle Lierre at $18,000, and Source De La Fontaine Echo statue at $18,000.
 Rounding out the top lots were the opalescent half bowl Plafonnier lighting fixture Lausanne at $11,700, the frosted Madagascar Monkey Bowl making $19,800, and two different Hirondelles Appliques, one of which made $17,000 while the other sent for $10,800.
These top 18 lots accounted for $358,000, or about 46% of the sale in dollars for RLalique.
Other notable prices included a smoky colored Archers vase and a clear and frosted Sauterelles Vase, each at $9900, $8000 for a frosted Poissons Vase, $5400 for an opalescent Violettes Vase, $7600 for an opalescent Prunes Vase, $6300 for the Dandy Perfume Bottle for D’orsay, $4000 for an Amber Bresse Vase.
It seemed that more common pieces continued to go for steady prices, with most of the better results (strong relative to the market) concentrated in harder to find lots and colored vases.
This sale represented another change of direction for Christies, including substantially more lots than recent Lalique sales. Much of the additional merchandise was accounted for by lower to mid range value items, but the sheer number of these lots added substantially to the sale total.
 The most striking results centered around the colored Perruches Vases, with all three making very good prices relative to recent auction sales. This undoubtedly represents both a lack of large and popular colored vases in the marketplace, and the continued appearance of new collectors for these classic Rene Lalique colored vase designs.
Buyers looking for a good selection of colored vases will find them in the Lalique Sales Section of RLalique.com. And if you are interested in more information on upcoming auction sales, we recommend you check the Lalique Auction Section of the Rene Lalique Biography on RLalique.com, where you will find links to all the auction related information on the website.
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May 2nd, 2010
 The modern Lalique Company has reproduced the Rene Lalique Bacchantes Vase in crystal basically continuously since production of Lalique crystal began after the end of World War II. These crystal reproductions have continued to bring this iconic Rene Lalique design into the homes of tens of thousands of people worldwide even to this day.
The Bacchantes Vase has been reproduced most commonly in clear and frosted crystal, but also yellow amber and gray colored crystal as well.
Unfortunately, some of these modern crystal vases have appeared with altered signatures and sometimes added patinas to be passed off as original R Lalique Bacchantes Vases. By far the most common vase seen in this altered state has been the clear and frosted version. And this has created problems for unsuspecting collectors of the works of the great Rene Lalique.
But little known is the fact that the Bacchantes was also reproduced after the death of Rene Lalique in opalescent crystal, appearing with the signature LALIQUE CRISTAL FRANCE! Pictured here is just such a vase and two photos of the signature. One of these crystal opalescent versions appeared at the U.S. Antiques Roadshow in August 2003 in Oklahoma City that aired in March of 2004, and we thought bringing this to your attention would be a good opportunity to talk about the existence of these crystal reproductions and give a little information and advice about what to look out for.
A modern opalescent Bacchantes Vase has also appeared with a typical script Lalique France signature, and bearing all the other signs of post-war production as discussed below.
The hallmark of the post-war crystal reproduction Bacchantes is that the bottom of the vase is flat and does not have the concave (indented) center section to the underside of the base that is found on original Rene Lalique Bacchantes. This is the key point to look out for. R. Lalique collectors should avoid any flat bottom Bacchantes Vase no matter what the signature says.
But the next point: It is possible to alter a flat bottom vase and polish out a concave center section to the underside of the base. It’s a lot of work and will involve some expense and some risk, but the stakes are high, with the original R Lalique vases being worth much more than the post-war crystal reproductions. At the time this article was originally written it said: “We have not seen such a vase, but technically it is possible and just something to keep in mind.” However, we have seen several such vases in the years since this article originally appeared. We have seen modern colored Bacchantes that were altered by experienced glass workers from the Alsace region of France, including making the bottoms concave and adding forged pre-war signatures. The perpetrators were apparently caught but not until after some number of forged Bacchantes had made their way to the market. Those expertly altered and forged vases are almost certainly still out there in various collections and will appear in the future.
And the fact that experienced glass workers knew to alter the bottoms to make them concave to be convincing as pre-war? That kind of proves our point.
 Once you are past the flat bottom (see photo on left for an authentic Rene Lalique Glass Bacchantes Vase concave underside), all the regular general rules of evaluation apply. Three sample criteria to keep in mind are:
1. Crystal is heavier than glass, and it feels different. Your best defense is to have handled thousands of pieces of R Lalique so you might know just by handling if you have an original glass version, or a later crystal reproduction.
2. An equally good defense, especially with the amounts of money involved, is to hire an independent reputable Rene Lalique Expert Consultant to evaluate or locate potential purchases. Getting independent advice from a reputable source flows nicely to our third sample criteria:
3. Deal with an honest and competent seller!!! Dealing with an honest and competent seller is not the end of all potential problems, but if you have a choice, an honest and competent seller is the way to go. Not starting out every purchase having to think about how the seller is trying to get one over on you* does provide some assurance and makes the collecting experience a lot more enjoyable. Of course when buying online or making one-off purchases thru similar methods, you may not know much about the seller and we highly recommend in any event getting as educated as you can and spending your time focusing on the item you plan to purchase.
But if you know your seller or dealer makes a living selling R Lalique, then you definitely want to be dealing with someone that is both honest and competent. And when you combine dealing with an honest and competent seller with getting independent expert advice from a reputable consultant, you have drastically reduced the chance to have regrets and you are much more likely to obtain high quality examples at fair prices and build a great collection in a much more pleasant way.
And if you want to know more about Lalique Crystal, the crystal items made after the death of Rene Lalique, a good starting point is the Lalique Crystal section of the Rene Lalique Biography at RLalique.com. There you’ll find links to all the information on RLalique.com about Lalique Crystal, and also a link to the website of the modern crystal maker Lalique S.A.
*to get one over on you – to try and slip something by you, to dupe, trick, fool, or deceive you. On the other side of the pond there are similar expressions with similar meanings in use in different parts of the country – “get over on you”, “to have you off”, or “to have you on” are three examples.
**strong suit – something at which one excels
All Articles on These Topics: Lalique Crystal - Cristal Lalique Company, R Lalique - Rene Lalique Authentication, R Lalique and Rene Lalique Fakes-Copies-Frauds, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases, R Lalique Videos and Rene Lalique Videos
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April 29th, 2010
Rene Lalique Auction Results have continued to show strength across the board in recent weeks, and we thought we’d point out several of the notable Lalique sales both online and at auction houses.
 First, there have been a raft* of quality offerings on Ebay as of late, with good examples of both rare and more common Lalique glass pieces selling quite well.
A Connecticut seller had a small trove of fresh to the market pieces rumored to be the property of a rather famous New York socialite. Two notable examples of the results were:
Item No. 330424969295, the rare Lalique Perfume Bottle Bouchon Fleurs De Pommier. The winning bidder for this bottle on April 22nd was an overseas dealer at a final price of $8000!
 Also of note, the opalescent Lalique Vase Bouchardon in apparently excellent condition. It sold on April 24th for a strong $7601, also selling to a dealer. There were six different bidders above $4300 on this good-looking vase. Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 330425577983 Bouchardon listing online. See cache instructions below. If the cache copy does not open fully, usually you just have to click on the small copy in your browser window and it will expand.
It’s good to see dealers jumping into the auction fray at these levels, as they presumably are buying to re-sell at a profit, which further confirms the strong prices made by these great R Lalique items.
On April 14th, a clear Tete De Paon Peacock Head Lalique Car Mascot sold for $5988 after spirited bidding. Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 400114083624 listing online. 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..
 On April 27th, a very solid looking Rene Lalique Ceylon Vase in opalescent glass and selling as Item No. 360255568526, it went for a solid $6300, having been pushed the last $2200 of the way by two apparently eager suitors.
Finally for Ebay, two different Lalique Paquerettes Perfume Bottles appeared in April, both from the UK. The first one, Item No. 270565826158 linked just above, was sold on April 26th for £1550, and the second, Item No. 150436432905 sold for £2561.11 on April 29th, the day this article was published!
April 9th in Paris at Coutau-Begarie saw the rare appearance of an original Rene Lalique handbag / purse as Lot 111. This great Lalique Purse featured an incorporated hunting scene and black leather. It sold for €42,000!
On April 29th, Woolley & Wallis got £47,800 all-in for a nice looking piece of Lalique Jewelry, the central element to a Lalique Dog Collar! This continues a string of great results for Lalique jewelry items at the Salisbury England auction house.
 Firm results were the rule of day throughout the month, with the £2300 (not including premium) paid for a Rene Lalique Beliers Opalescent Vase at TW Gaze on April 23rd in Norfolk U.K. being a good example of the solid pricing prevalent throughout all the various collecting categories of RLalique.
You can research past sales of RLalique in the new Rene Lalique Auctions Past section of RLalique.com. And you can navigate to all the auction resources at RLalique.com from the Lalique Auctions section of the website’s Rene Lalique Biography.
* raft – according to Webster a “raft” is a large collection or number
Updated: June 26, 2010 to change Ebay link to cached copy
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases, Rene Lalique Car Mascots and R Lalique Car Mascots, Rene Lalique Perfume Bottles - R Lalique Perfumes
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April 25th, 2010
 Fake Lalique is something that all collectors have to be on the lookout for. It’s something that is a problem to varying degrees in every collecting field. In the big scope of things, it’s much less of an issue with R Lalique than in many other areas of collecting, but it still is an issue to be on guard against.
Here is an Ebay listing that in a nutshell* is one of the most prevalent items passed off as the work of Rene Lalique. The stereotypical fake Sauterelles embodies not just ease of identifying fakes for a collector, but also the truth in the concept that “a little knowledge can be dangerous”**.
First, a link to the cached version of the Ebay listing: Ebay Item 140401627596. 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.. Fake as fake can be. This supposed Lalique Sauterelles Vase has all the elements. The too tall rim, the too thick rim, the crude finish, the bizarre color. And it has the added oomph of this claim “It was purchased at a Christies auction along with many other signed Lalique pieces.”
Likely, if you had this vase in hand, and you had handled thousands of pieces of R Lalique glass, you would know just from the feel when you picked it up that it’s a complete fake***. This is an easy one to spot no doubt.
 But consider the danger of knowing about this piece and thinking you know-it-all about the fake Lalique Sauterelles. Because just when you think, “Oh, I can spot that coming a mile away!” the makers may adapt their tactics and go to plans B and C. So like everything else in life, when you learn about something, you have to think about not just what you do know, but what you don’t yet know.
Plan B: Take a vase like the blue/purple Ebay one, pick a more believable color, and then polish up (well, really down) the rim, and get it in a closer and less crude shape to authentic examples. With a better color and a better rim, “first glance” and “mile away” may not put you on alert! See the photo of the Amber Sauterelles Vase above.
Plan C: Start over, use a better, closer to reality glass and finish, and adjust your mold and finish to produce from the get-go**** a better looking product that more closely matches the authentic pieces in color, size, rim, and glass composition. See the photo of the Blue Sauterelles Vase below. Now, many collectors might not know the difference even after inspection if they had not handled sufficient amounts of Lalique glass, or did not take caution in examining the vase. Compare the Blue and Amber Sauterelles photos to the blue/purple one from the Ebay listing and see the improvement in technique between models.
 While it is thought that these cruder and usually older fake Sauterelles Vases come from South America, the Plan C vases that we have seen have come from Europe! And of course, Plan B vases can come from anywhere from New York City to Buenos Aires.
So for the Ebay vase, what is one of the easiest copies to spot is also a lesson in what to think about once you have gained some knowledge. Not to bask in the glory of what you know, but to give some thought to what you don’t yet know!
As always, keep in mind that the knowledge or motive of the seller of one of these Fake Lalique items is almost totally irrelevant to you. Your concern is the piece and not the person. Don’t waste your time wondering too much about the seller. Spend your time wondering about the vase. This listing presents a great example of that. Here, the seller makes the Christies provenance representation. Even if they don’t have a receipt to prove it, even if Christies never sold a vase like this, the seller may have been told this by the person or place that they got the vase from. They might just be passing along what they believe to be true. Either way, who cares? The only issue for you as a collector is the authenticity of the vase and not the authenticity of the claims of the seller.
Also, many of these vases were not made with the intent to fool anyone. Someone may have copied the design because they liked it, not to sell it as something it is not. In the Ebay listing, the manufacturer of the vase did not sign it RLalique or whatever. It’s unsigned. So at least at that initial stage, there may have been no intent to deceive, just to copy! And today’s seller may believe everything written in the ad on Ebay. But again, your only concern is the piece in front of you, the here and now, and what you know to be the facts.
You’ll find links to all the information about Rene Lalique Fakes everywhere on RLalique.com in the Fake Lalique Section of the Rene Lalique Biography, including links to the Copies and Close Calls Section of the website where additional photos and information about Lalique Copies can be found including specific information on Fake Sauterelles Vases.
And if you need expert advice in your purchase decisions, take a look at the services offered at RLalique.com in the Lalique Expert Consulting Section of the website. Independent expert advice can and should pay huge dividends when making your purchase decisions. For typically a small percentage of what you are spending, it can prove invaluable in helping you buy with confidence and avoid regrets.
* “In a nutshell” is an old expression used by Shakespeare in the early 1600’s (“….O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell ……..” declares Hamlet) and by Pliny 1500 years before that (when he relates Cicero’s statement that the whole Iliad was written on a piece of parchment which might be put into a nutshell). It means a small space, or something small such as a concise explanation.
**”A little knowledge can be dangerous” – First used by Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) in An Essay on Criticism, 1709: “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.”
*** A “complete fake”? This begs the question: What is the difference between a complete fake and a regular fake? The answer: You’ll know it when you see it.
**** Get-go or getgo is American expression, kind of a vernacular contraction without the apostrophe. It really just shortens up the phrase “get going” or the phrase “get ready, get set, go!”. It means the start or the beginning and is usually used with in the form “from the get-go”.
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April 24th, 2010
 A great looking Rene Lalique original necklace that came up for auction as Lot 33 at Sothebys New York on April 20th sold for $77,500 including the buyers premium.
At the auction titled “Always in Style: 150 Years of Artistic Jewels” (what an appropriate title for the unique jewellery works of Lalique), Sothebys presented an elegant Rene Lalique Necklace described as follows:
“18 KARAT GOLD, ENAMEL AND FRESHWATER PEARL CHAIN NECKLACE, RENÉ LALIQUE, FRENCH, CIRCA 1900
Composed of baroque freshwater pearls, interspersed with white enamel feather links, length 58¾ inches, signed Lalique, French assay marks.
A sketch of a feather link chain is illustrated in René Lalique: Schmuck und Objets d’art 1890-1910, Monographie und Werkkatalog, Sigrid Barten, p. 256, cat. no. 398.2; and a description of this necklace (not illustrated) under cat. no. 398.1.”
A timeless and elegant Lalique design and another great auction sale result for the enduring works of the great Rene Lalique.
To learn more about the jewels of Lalique, see the Rene Lalique Jewelry section of the RLalique.com Lalique Biography.
And you can find information about this necklace, as well as every Rene Lalique past auction item previously listed on RLalique.com, in the new Lalique Auctions Past section of the website!
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April 11th, 2010
 Rene Lalique Perfume Bottles will highlight the Perfume Bottles Auction at the 22nd annual convention of the International Perfume Bottle Association (IPBA). After a successful auction at last year’s convention in Albuquerque, Ken Leach returns with a great selection of Lalique Perfume Bottles (and a few bottles by other makers as well:) bringing the total offerings to over 350 bottles, which include approximately 25 superb Rene Lalique perfume bottles.
 The auction is Friday April 30th at 5:00 P.M. in Reston Virginia, during the four day IPBA convention which runs from April 29th to May 2nd. Nick Dawes will be the auctioneer.
The highlights of the Lalique perfume bottles include the perfume bottles Lilas and Mimosa (Toutes Les Fleurs) for Gabilla with original Gabilla boxes, and an amazingly rare Worth Egg Perfume Bottle (see Lalique Perfume Bottles by Utt Page 78 or Catalogue Raisonne 2004 Page 952 Worth – 9), as well the Lalique perfume bottles Serpent, Telline, Pan, Le Jade with original box, Capricornes, Petites Feuilles, Le Parfum de Anges (made to commemorate the opening of the Oviatt Building in Los Angeles), Misti, Sous le Gui, Camille, Narcisse for Forvil, and others.
 Both the Utt Lalique Perfume Bottles book and the 2004 Catalogue Raisonne are available in the modern Lalique Books section of the Library at RLalique.com, where you will also find other books and great exhibition and auction catalogues showing the wonderful perfume bottles created by Rene Lalique. All other resources at RLalique.com related to Lalique’s perfume bottles can be accessed from the Lalique Perfume Bottles section of the Rene Lalique Biography. And finally, for more information on the relationship of James Oviatt and Rene Lalique, you can read the Oviatt Building history article here in the RLalique.com News and Blog.
You can reach Ken at 800.942.0550 or 917-881-8747, or by email to KenLeach47@aol.com.
All Articles on These Topics: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, Rene Lalique Perfume Bottles - R Lalique Perfumes
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March 27th, 2010
 The apparent Rene Lalique Cire Perdue Vase at Skinners in Boston Massachusetts, shown in the first photo, sold as Lot 289 in their sale on March 27th, 2010. Sporting a conservative estimate of $10,000 to $15,000, the vase according to Skinners was unsigned, had no numbers on the underside, had only the word France written on the bottom, had some damage including a visible small chip in their photos, and caused enough doubt in the minds of Skinners that it was catalogued as “Attributed to R. Lalique”!
The final price for the 6 and 1/2 inch vase was $105,000 plus a buyer’s premium of $19,425.
The figures on the vase according to the auction house were males, yet the vase bore a striking resemblance to CP 409, the vase Quatre Figurines Femmes Formant Soutien, a 1921 Cire Perdue that was exhibited at the 1925 Exposition des Art Decoratifs and which is shown in the second photo. The documented vase CP 409 has a clear signature visible in the photo in the R. Lalique Catalogue Raisonne. It also featured female figures according to its name and description.
 All these questions could of course have been answered by a short in-hand inspection, which we were unable to make. And the vase does look quite compelling from an authenticity standpoint in the auction house photo notwithstanding any obvious damages or concerns.
Not surprisingly, at least a couple of bidders thought it was worth a pretty good go, raising the final price to roughly 10 times the auction house estimate.
In the Lalique Biography at RLalique.com you can read all about the famous Lalique Cire Perdue pieces, and find links to all the Cire Perdue resources, articles, and information contained on the website including Cire Perdue auctions and Cire Perdue fakes.
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