Posts Tagged ‘R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results’
Rene Lalique Poissons Vase in Blue Glass Leads R.Lalique Prices As Records Fall At Christie’s Lalique Sale
June 1st, 2012
“Close but no cigar” is an American expression that likely originated at carnivals where cigars were given away as prizes at the various games of chance. Some early slot machines also awarded cigars to winners and may have contributed to the spread of this expression
 Well, at Christie’s South Kensington’s Semi-Annual Lalique Sale, the high seller was Lot 143, a nice looking electric blue glass R. Lalique Poissons Vase. Against an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000 or about $48,000 to $80,000 (at the estimated 1.6 U.S. dollars to a British pound used throughout this article), the vase made £65,000/$104,000, and with the buyers premium, an all-in total of £79,250/$126,800.
A record price at auction for a Lalique Poissons Vase! A record price at auction for a Lalique blue glass vase! But the total price (which does not include possible other charges) was just shy of what they might call in the American Southwest, the Big Enchilada; the record high price at auction for a colored glass Lalique production vase. Not quite the turkey** we were hoping but a great Rene Lalique result nonetheless.
 This is of course only minor consolation for the buyer who if rumor is correct, hailed from across the channel, and may therefore be responsible for as much as $10,000 to $13,000 or so of added charges related to either VAT or Import Duties or both, which when combined with the reported result, would make for a record payment if not a record price:). Basically, send the cigar ….. and the turkey.
Notably, two other R. Lalique Poissons Vases were offered up as Lots 124 and 142, with the prior, an amber glass example making all-in (as are all further prices in this article unless stated otherwise) £32,450/$51,920, and the later cased red glass example hitting a bit more at £34,850/$55,760. Though less than half the high selling Poissons Vase price, these represented the 3rd and 4th high selling lots in the auction. Nothing fishy here. Notably the result for Lot 142 was roughly equal to the record price at auction for a Red Poissons Vase achieved just last month.
 2nd high seller was another colored glass vase, Lot 141, a Perruches Vase in amber glass that sold for £36,050/$57,680.
And rounding out the top five was a nice looking press molded opalescent glass Bacchantes Vase selling as Lot 125 for £30,000/$48,000.
Some lots (among others) which seemed to make seriously strong and likely record prices include Lot 140, the cased opalescent Perruches Vase at £30,000/$48,000, the cased opalescent Alicante Vase Lot 126 at £25,000/$40,000, and the Muguet Bowl in opalescent glass as Lot 32 for £6,875/$11,000.
 All in all, for Christie’s a sale total of £591,050/$945,580 for 105 sold lots or an average of about £5,629/9,006 of which the R. Lalique glass was 90 lots making £564,524/$903,210 or an average for each Rene Lalique item of about £6,272/$10,036. See all the results on the Christie’s website.
If you are interested in more information about Lalique Auctions visit the Rene Lalique Biography Lalique Auctions section from which you can access all the great auction resources here at the Worldwide Gathering Place for Everything R.Lalique!
** Turkey: In American bowling three strikes in a row were called a “triple”. But around the turn of 20th Century, at a time when the game was more difficult, a tradition arose where a player making three strikes in row on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day would get a live turkey as a prize. Today, no live turkey, but the appellation has stuck and is now colloquially used to describe almost any three successes in row, bowling or otherwise.
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Rene Lalique Perfume Bottle Jasmin For Isabey: Rare R.Lalique Bottle Makes $100,000 In Paris – Another Great Lalique Sale!
May 12th, 2012
$100,000 for an R. Lalique Perfume Bottle! How many times have you heard that?
 On March 26th, at the Paris auction house of Olivier Coutau-Bégarie, on offer were about a dozen R.Lalique Perfume Bottles and Boxes. It was a nice selection of perfume bottles and included Le Jade for Roger & Gallet in the well known jade green glass, Fleurs D’Amour, Narkiss and Cigalia for the same perfumer, a nice black Ambre D’Orsay Perfume Bottle, also a clear Ambre bottle, the bottle Camelias, the bottle Le Lys, the perfume bottle Fleurs De France, and the bottle Violette also for D’Orsay, Marjolaine for D’Heraud, Bouquet de Faune for Guerlain, the perfume tester La Renommee again for D’Orsay, and to take the D’Orsay cake, the rare and wonderful Grace Perfume Bottle in original box, which made €17,000 hammer plus 23% buyers charges**, or a total of €20,910 or about $28,000 at the approximate exchange rate of 1.3325 on that day. On most R.Lalique Perfume Bottle days, the great Grace would carry the day in the high price department.
 But on this day, Coutau-Bégarie had one more bottle up their sleeve. Lot 138, estimated below the Grace at €10,000 – €15,000 was a 8.5 centimeters tall soft triangular shaped bottle on low oval base, the bottle ingrained with a light almost ribbed design, topped by a pearl shaped stopper with a contrasting swirl motif on each side. This bottle, previously known to have been produced experimentally but not commercially, is shown in the R. Lalique Catalogue Raisonne on Page 947 under the name Striures (striations) in the section for perfume bottles that may have been produced, but for unknown perfume companies. As we now know from the appearance of this Lot 138, the bottle was used for the perfumer Isabey’s Jasmin scent.
 Isabey was founded in 1924, and the design of this bottle is from 1925. The company was named for an early 19th century artist. Isabey was owned (or financed) by Baron Henri James de Rothschild who was married to Mathilde Sophie Henriette von Weissweiller. Mathilde died at the age of 54 in 1926, while Henri (who was a playwright under the name Andre Pascal) lived thru the end of World War II and died in 1947 at the age of 75. Isabey was acquired in 1941 by Marcel Guerlain.
The rare Jasmin Perfume Bottle with its original box and label crushed the pre-sale estimate making a hammer price of €61,000 and with the 23% listed in the catalogue for buyer’s expenses**, made a total of about €75,000 or approximately $100,000 based on the day’s exchange rate. In a well-stocked sale of around 250 lots, it accounted for 1/3 of the sale total and was obviously the high seller of what was another great day for the great Rene Lalique and his wonderful R.Lalique glass.
If you want to know more about perfume bottles and Rene Lalique, head straight to the R.Lalique Perfume Bottles section of the Lalique Bio here at RLalique.com, where you’ll find information and links to all the resources about Lalique’s great perfume bottles here at THE Worldwide Gathering Place for R.Lalique collectors.
** The buyers charge of 23% in addition to the hammer price) is an estimate.
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Lalique Poissons Vase in Red Rene Lalique Glass Makes Another R. Lalique Record Price At Auction
April 24th, 2012
 Rene Lalique items continue to get strong prices throughout the world at auction, a good-looking Red Poissons Vase on April 4th in Paris being no exception. Aguttes auction house offered a nice selection of around 15 R. Lalique items at their sale of 20th Century Decorative Arts that day, with the high seller being a Console Table made by Charles Bernel from drawings by Rene Lalique for the Lalique Pavilion at the 1925 Art Deco Exposition In Paris. The rectangular marble table with carved supports made just over €50,000 all in.
 But it’s the next high seller, at €41,628 all-in against a pre-sale estimate of €16,000 – €18,000 that is most interesting in terms of the current market. That price was paid for Lot 67, the patinated red glass Lalique Vase covered with fish. The price for the Poissons Vase translates into about $55,000 which is almost certainly a record price for a Red Poissons at auction. The Lalique signature shown here was inscribed on the vase.
 Third high seller in this same sale was a great looking rare candelabra pair in the model Trois Branches Raisins, selling for €31,627 all-in.
The sale of the good looking R. Lalique Poissons Vase makes yet another mark on the trail of higher and higher prices. We’ve written previously about the demand and pricing for Rene Lalique glass when Lalique buyers see red, but this price strength, fueled by worldwide bidding interest at auctions, is evident across much of the collecting field. Once again, another great result and a great day for the great Rene Lalique.
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R.Lalique Car Mascot Collection Sells: Lalique Mascots Are Highest Priced Rene Lalique Auction Lot Year To Date!
March 15th, 2012
 A complete collection of the 30 Lalique Mascots *** sold at RM Auctions on March 10th for $700,000 plus a buyer’s premium of 15% or $105,000 for a total sale price for the great Lalique Glass Collection of $805,000. In addition to the mascots, Lot 111 at the auction also included two custom made cabinets specially configured to display the collection. The lot was offered without reserve as part of the regular Amelia Island Florida collector cars auction put on by RM Auctions.
The appearance at auction and the history of this particular Lalique Collection are discussed in a previous news article at Lalique Mascots!
 At an auction of over 100 high end collector cars, Rene Lalique managed to outsell all but 8 of the other lots in the auction, including squeaking by the 10th highest seller, Lot 168, a great looking Duesenberg Model J Convertible Berline by LeBaron with a storied and detailed provenance dating back to its original owner. It was truly a “Doozie” **** and it made just $2000 less than the Lalique, coming all-in at $803,000.
The stunning wrap up: What Rene Lalique created in glass as artful accessories, have now become more valuable than many of the very autos that his mascots were intended to accessorize! 🙂
You can find links to all of the mascot resources here at THE Worldwide Gathering Place for R.Lalique Enthusiasts by visiting the Lalique Car Mascots section of the Rene Lalique Biography.
*** 30 mascots is considered a complete collection. See the linked article above, as well as the linked Mascot section of the Rene Lalique Bio for details.
**** “It’s a doozie!” is a roughly 100 year old expression of debated origin. However, after the appearance of the Duesenberg Automobiles, it’s use and meaning to designate anything remarkable, one of kind, or the unusual, was cemented into the American lexicon as the phrase became associated with the great motorcars. Today it’s sometimes spelled Duesy, Doosy and Doozy in addition to the spelling we use here.
Photos: Michael Furman courtesy of RM Auctions
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Lalique Car Mascots: Complete R. Lalique Mascot Collection At Auction March 10th!
February 23rd, 2012
Rene Lalique Car Mascots are among the glass maker’s most sought after artful objects.
 It all started in 1925 with several mascots including the R. Lalique Cinq Chevaux Car Mascot, a mascot you can read a little bit about in the linked Blog article, and it ended just 6 years later as the spreading global depression changed the buying habits of both decorative glass and automobile buyers.
Lalique mascot collectors today that are attempting to assemble a complete collection, generally try to acquire 30 items, to include the Naiade paperweight along with the 29 objects that were marketed as car mascots. Note that some of those 29 objects were dual marketed as paperweights.
 And there actually is a 31st Lalique Car Mascot, the mascot Levrier-1, believed to have been made as a non-commercial model for Prince George, the younger brother to Prince Edward (later King Edward VIII, and Prince Albert (later King George VI). This mascot is extremely hard to find.
In French, Lalique was selling Bouchons De Radiateur; radiator caps. Today they are referred to not just as Car Mascots, Bouchons De Radiateur, and Radiator Caps, but also Mascots, Mascottes, Hood Ornaments, and Figureheads.
A brief history of R. Lalique Car Mascots appears in the Biography of Rene Lalique here at RLalique.com, where you’ll also find useful links to all the Car Mascot resources and information on the website.
 The R. Lalique collector market is only a part of the demand for these great art glass mascots. Car collectors comprise a huge part of the market, car mascot collectors are also a big part of the demand, and to a lesser extent there is museum interest as well.
As is true in several other collecting areas (such as perfume bottles and opalescent art glass to name a couple), if you are a collector of Hood Ornaments, the most sought after are the ones from the great Rene Lalique.
 Complete R. Lalique Mascot collections rarely appear at auction.
There are only two in recent memory, one of which was part of the amazing Gerald Pulver R. Lalique collection. Before he passed away. Gerry lived in Key Biscayne Florida and at one time may have had the greatest collection of R. Lalique in the world. He was also a great guy and did a couple of great (unsung) things for the whole collecting field. A complete set picked from Gerry’s mascots was offered by Bonhams on May 1st, 2004 at their sale in Brookline Massachusetts along with additional lots of individual mascots from his deep collection. The catalog from that auction is available in the Lalique Library. It can be found in the Library section on modern auction catalogues that partially contain R. Lalique. It has photographs of the entire collection as well as all of the individual lots and the sales results. The catalog stock number is 657 and we only have two left to sell.
The other complete collection, and the one we are most interested in, appeared at RM Auctions in September 2000.
It was said to be one of two complete collections owned by Marvin Tamaroff, and it sold at that auction for $550,000.
 We are reliably informed that the collection coming up for auction on March 10th at RM Auctions in Florida is that same collection.
The pre-sale estimate is $800,000 – $1,200,000 but the collection is offered with NO RESERVE!
The collection on offer is currently owned by Ele Chesny.
She is known throughout the antique auto world as one of the great car collectors, and she may be the foremost female collector in the field.
Without reserve and therefore definitely selling, it should be an interesting and exciting sale day for the works of Rene Lalique.
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R. Lalique Courges Vase in Red Lalique Glass Makes A World Record Price In Detroit
February 15th, 2012
 Rene Lalique Red Vases do extremely well at auction, as evidenced by a string of world record prices for different R.Lalique Vase models in red glass over the last few years. Recent examples include a red glass Perruches Vase which sold at Bonhams in London on November 16th, 2011 as Lot 157 in their sale, “Rene Lalique: Designs in Glass” for £42,050 (about $68,000 at that time), as well as the red glass Rene Lalique Hirondelles Vase which famously made a world record auction hammer price for any R. Lalique colored glass production vase in November of 2010. And also on December 9th, 2010 a Red Ronces Vase selling as Lot 56 made £10,000 British Pounds at Christie’s South Kensington (about $16,000 at the time); also a likely world record price at auction for the Ronces Vase model.
And while red glass vases have done extremely well as of late, the world records have not been limited to either red or rare, as shown by the opalescent glass Rennes Vase, which made a world record price for that model selling as Lot 10-875 on November 17th, 2011 at Christies South Kensington in London for £18,750 or about $30,000 at the time! A person (and a hat-tip to our confederate “Pol” from south of the equator for being that person and bringing this to our attention) could make the case that in some respects, the relatively common Rennes Vase making that kind of price is more impressive than any of the red stuff.
 But be that as it may, the numbers are much bigger when bidders see red; red and rare being an explosive combination in the price department. February 11th, 2012 in Detroit at Dumouchelles auction house was no exception. For on that day, an R. Lalique Courges Vase appeared in Lalique’s red glass. Introduced in 1914, the Courges Vase is one of Lalique’s earliest production vases. Red Courges are rarely seen at auction, the last time being the Red Courges at Davidson Auctions in Australia on August 8th, 2008 where it sold for AUD41,940 all-in against a pre-sale estimate of AUD9,000 to AUD11,000. The final price was about $38,000 U.S. at that time.
And note that there is an active private market as well for all models and colors of R. Lalique, the red Courges being no exception (well activity is limited a bit by rarity:). We placed a red Courges Vase through the Lalique Wanted section here at RLalique.com near the end of 2011 in a transaction between clients of two different countries. That placement came after over 2 years of searching for one of course.
The Courges is one of Rene Lalique earliest vases, with both the shape of the vase and the design on the vase being in harmony with the vase’s gourd motif.
 Another great thing about the Courges is that it many times has multiple interesting signatures, owing to the manufacturing techniques of the period; the Dumouchelles example being no exception as shown in the accompanying photo. Other Courges multi-signature examples can be seen in the linked article on authentic R Lalique Signatures here on the website.
The auction house reports that there were at least 8 serious bidders, with a handful still bidding near the end.
 We talked to some of those interested parties and they all had great things to say about the professionalism and excellent service they found at Dumouchelles, something we at World Headquarters have also experienced in our contacts with everyone at Dumouchelles. The active bidders included collectors and dealers from continental Europe, England, the U.S. and at least one other continent. Hopefully, several of the bidders will have remembered to tell Dumouchelles what auction houses around the world have been hearing for years on their R.Lalique items; “I saw it at RLalique.com!”.
One final note from the auction house: On Wednesdays, Dumouchelles holds open consignment days, where people just walk-in with what they have to offer, and the auction house never knows what might appear. Well, the great Red Courges Vase walked-in on a Wednesday (and flew out on a Saturday). Go figure.
Against a pre-sale estimate of $3000 to $6000, the final price was $47,500, and with the buyers 20% premium, $57,000. The world record for this vase model, and a great R. Lalique result.
How rare is the red glass Courges Vase? Well, after leaving the factory and the retailers back in the day, it’s unlikely that two of these vases have ever been together in the same room again …… until recently. The accompanying Two Red Courges photo shows a pair of the great and rare vases sitting together on a window shelf. They are part of an extensive current collection of R. Lalique items. One of the two pictured Courges is the vase acquired thru the Lalique Wanted section here at RLalique.com, having appeared quite literally out the blue (out of the red?) in an email a while back that began; “I am in possession of a vase that appears in your Wanted Section …. “. True enough the writer was.
And yes we know; several of the underbidders this week on the Dumouchelles Red Courges are seeing double red themselves after viewing this great double Courges photo!
A red hot market for the great Rene Lalique.
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Lalique Jewelry: Unique R. Lalique Art Nouveau Jewels Sparkle At Sotheby’s New York
February 11th, 2012
Rene Lalique Jewelry hit another auction sales home run at Sotheby’s Important Jewels auction on February 9th, 2012 in New York City. Tucked into the middle of the two session sale were four R. Lalique jewelry items, all thought to be unique pieces from the period before 1905.
 In summary, the four lots were estimated in total at $255,000 to $340,000. Against this estimate, the four made $652,000, or over 2 and 1/2 times the low estimate and nearly double the high one.
Lot 253 was the high seller of the group; a wonderful combination Lalique pendant-brooch, with a small watch where you might typically find the trademark suspended natural pearl.
Two coherent pieces, finished well both back and front, they made $188,500 against and estimated $75,000 – $100,000.
2nd high seller and a personal favorite of this writer was Lot 252, a typically designed and presented Lalique Pendant with an off-white enamel face, blue enamel poppies, yellow-green enamel leaves, and sporting a gray-lavender drop pearl. This wonderful Lalique Jewel is shown in a drawing on Page 274 in the seminal work by Sigrid Barten titled Rene Lalique Schmuck und Objects d’art which is available in the Lalique Books section here at RLalique.com.
This amazing piece of R. Lalique artwork made $176,500 against an estimate of $60,000 – $80,000.
 3rd place went to the Dragonfly Pendant-Brooch selling as Lot 254 and featuring two facing dragonflies done up in blue, teal, white, and plate blue plique-a-jour enamel, and having a central oval cabochon opal, white opal spindleberries, and stems enameled in white.
The missing pin did not deter bidders from pushing it up to $170,500 against an estimate of $60,000 – $80,000.
4th in price, was Lot 255, a two part offering consisting of a matching Lalique Brooch and Lalique Clasp. Each piece had a central amethyst, each featured white, cream and pink enamel work, each had a well worked mirrored gold patterned back, and the Brooch additionally showed clusters of iridescent glass raspberries.
The nice matched pair made $116,500 again the thrice low $60,000 – $80,000 estimate.
The nearly 400 lot sale at the company’s York Avenue salesrooms totaled just over $10,000,000, with the Lalique Jewelry comprising but 1% of the offered items, yet making over 6% of the sale total.
Once again, the market continues strong as more buyers recognize not just the attractiveness of the works of Rene Lalique, but also Lalique’s importance in art history and the art nouveau and art deco movements. You can find out more about Rene Lalique Jewelry and entire amazing story about the life of the great man by visiting the Rene Lalique Biography, here at RLalique.com: THE Worldwide Gathering Place For Rene Lalique Collectors and R. Lalique Enthusiasts!
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Rene Lalique Pendant Owned By Elizabeth Taylor Sells For $566,500: A Great R. Lalique Sales Result!
December 18th, 2011
 Richard Burton, perhaps the most well known among the 8 husbands and other loves of Elizabeth Taylor, was apparently the most prolific jewelry buyer in her life. Burton gave Taylor some incredible pieces of jewelry including for example a pearl (NOT the drop pearl with this pendant) from the 1500’s once owned by England’s Mary Tudor and for which Burton paid $37,000 in 1969. This pearl was found in the Gulf of Panama in the early 16th century at a time when Spain was exploring and colonizing the new world. At the time, it was the biggest pearl known, being 56 carats!
It was taken to Spain by Don Pedro de Temez, the administrator of the Panama Colony and presented to King Philip. Philip gave the “La Peregrina Pearl” (la peregrina means the pilgrim or the wanderer) to Queen Mary as a wedding present when they got married in 1544, and it appears in a portrait from that same year of Queen Mary The 1st, painted by Hans Eworth; a painting that Taylor and Burton helped the National Portrait Gallery in Great Britain to acquire in 1972. This pearl reverted to King Philip on Mary’s death, and was part of the Crown Jewels of Spain for around 250 years. Several portraits exist of royalty wearing this pearl including portraits painted by Diego Velazquez. In 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte put his brother Joseph (Giuseppe) on the Spanish throne, but Joe’s time as King of Spain lasted just 5 years due to some setbacks for the Bonaparte crowd and the Spanish not taking too kindly to an imposed French King. Being a first class guy, Joe grabbed the pearl (and a lot of other jewelry) on the way out the door as he fled.
Joseph ended up living in the United States for roughly 15 years from about 1817 to 1832, mainly in New Jersey, where among his other activities he had two American daughters by a mistress. When Joseph died he left the pearl to his nephew Charles Louis Bonaparte, who later was Emperor Bonaparte. Charles sold the pearl while exiled in England to James Hamilton, who would become the Duke of Abercorn (an interesting guy that fathered 14 kids by one wife and who among other things was the Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland!). The pearl stayed in his family until 1969 when it was auctioned at Sotheby’s to Burton, who gave it to Taylor as a present! Can you imagine a better or longer provenance? The pearl sold this week for near $12 million! You can watch a video of the sale of this pearl (and a couple other lots from this auction) at the Christie’s website here.
But the Richard Burton gift of interest to us is the blue and green glass R. Lalique Pendant *** featuring a medusa head in a frame of three gold serpents with blue and green enamel and having the Lalique trademark single suspended pearl. A much smaller pearl than the one previously discussed. 🙂
Why three snakes? They’re symbolic of the fact that Medusa was one of three Gorgons!
This wonderful Lalique Pendant appeared in New York in the sale of the Collection of Elizabeth Taylor Jewelry as Lot Number 281 estimated at $40,000 – $60,000; a not so hidden gem amongst the raft of big gemstone offerings. When the hammer came down, the total sale price including buyers premium was an over 10 times estimate $566,500.
A pearl of a result for a great example of the art that is Rene Lalique jewelry.
If you want to learn more about the great jewelry of Lalique, you’ll find insightful reporting and links to the extensive information at RLalique.com in the R.Lalique Biography section for Lalique’s Jewelry!
*** Christie’s has identified this great object as a brooch. The form of this object appears to us to more closely resemble an R. Lalique pendant than a brooch. An inspection of whatever pin is on the back of the piece, which we have not seen, would settle the question from among the various possibilities.
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R. Lalique Fox Mascot Appears in Hunt Country And Lalique Buyers Chase It To A Rene Lalique Car Mascot Record Price!
November 28th, 2011
Likely a world record price for any Lalique Car Mascot at auction was achieved on Saturday November 26th in Chester Springs Pennsylvania, smack in the middle of old Hunt Country west of Philadelphia. The unsigned R. Lalique Renard Hood Ornament appeared at Wiederseim Associates Inc. Auction House, run by Ted And Jill Wiederseim, just a stone’s throw *** from Rhoads Auction House which sold the great Red Hirondelles Vase in November 2010.
Because the rare mascot was not signed and was amongst hundreds of porcelain and other decorative foxes all out of the same house, it was understandably not catalogued as a period R. Lalique glass mascot. It was sold as part of Lot 515 shown above, with four other decorative foxes all for the single estimate of $100-$150. An alert staffer here at RLalique.com spotted the above photo amongst the thousands of auction reports that pour into World Headquarters on a daily basis, and recognized the rare R.Lalique Renard (the French word for fox), likely the rarest and most valuable of all commercial Rene Lalique Car Mascot models. We promptly informed the auction house of the likely amazing treasure they had hidden in plain sight, and placed the great fox in the Worldwide Auction Listings here on the website. This triggered immediate inquiries into Wiederseim from all over the world.
Much was made in certain circles about the lack of signature on the great fox. But as readers of this website are aware, R. Lalique pieces are not authenticated by their signatures. They speak for themselves.
The certain circles we refer to are a couple of R Lalique dealers one of which has disparaged the mascot in what we consider outrageous circumstances, while the other dealer was apparently just completely making stuff up. Both circulated information to the effect that this great item was possibly a “factory reject” (how many of you have seen an R Lalique “factory reject”, or heard that term used in reference to R. Lalique?), and both have also inferred at times that it might not be a genuine R. Lalique car mascot.
Strangely, while knocking down the piece (and maybe by happenstance knocking down the number of bidders and the price the remaining bidders might be willing to pay :), both dealers reserved phone lines for phone bidding!!!! You cannot make this stuff up.
One of these dealers, let’s call this person “Hound Dog”, went so far as to post commentary on the internet even the day after the sale, questioning if the piece was even genuine, disparaging the condition and the price paid, and suggesting it might be a modern copy of some sort. This again, was after reserving a phone bid line and being on the phone with the auction house during the bidding.
The second dealer, let’s call this person “Humpty Dumpty” has seemingly made up the fact that the mascot was broken apart in a significant way in at least a couple of places and glued back together! And he sent emails out to this effect prior to the auction, along with a scandalous theory of a Lalique factory worker picking the parts of the rejected piece out of a trash bin at the factory and taking them home to put them back together again as best he could! Friends, it’s story time in Fantasy Land.
 Oh, Humpty Dumpty also stated as fact in his emails that all R. Lalique pieces were signed before leaving the factory. This is obviously incorrect, and we would refer Mr. Dumpty and all readers to the article here at RLalique.com discussing Authentic Rene Lalique Signatures and to the page on Authentic R Lalique Signatures as well for more information on this point.
So while the yelping from the sideshow was a bit of a distraction leading up to the sale, it did nothing to curb the enthusiasm of bidders from all over the world as many collectors lined up to try and acquire this seldom seen mascot.
The auction house, having only two international capable phones, had to acquire additional phones for the worldwide bidding scramble that ensued upon our listing the fox here! U.S. phone bidders were also heard from, as were a couple of bidders in the room during the sale, including one well known long time dealer who personally inspected the fox before wading into the bidding.
In the end, with the price starting at $25,000 and moving up quickly from there, two phone bidders both from the UK, left the competition behind, reportedly at around $140,000 to $150,000, and took it up to $175,000 ($204,750 with the buyers premium) before the hammer came down on this historic sale of the unassuming, unsigned, but no longer unsung Lalique Hood Ornament.
If you are wondering how the Renard Mascot came to Wiederseim, here is the short version:
 Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours came from France to the United States in 1800 with his two sons Victor Marie du Pont and Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. Eleuthère started up a little company called E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (most people today just say DuPont). At the start, they made gunpowder. No need to discuss the entire history of the duPont Family in America, but several generations removed from the auspicious start as gunpowder makers, a descendant, John Eleuthère duPont was born in 1938 in Philadelphia. He was the son of William duPont Jr., who among other things, imported from England the famous racehorse The Satrap, winner of the Chesham Stakes at Ascot, the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood, and at Newmarket both the Chesterfield Stakes and the July Stakes. In 1996, John tragically shot and killed (yes, using gunpowder) a U.S. Olympic Gold Medal Wrestler named Dave Shultz who was living on his Foxcatcher Farm estate, a property John had taken over after the death of his mother and which he had named Foxcatcher after his father’s famous horse racing stable. John was found guilty of murder in 1997 and died in prison in 2010.
John collected decorative foxes, lots of them. And after his death, and after the house had been swept through by a major New York City based auction house to have their pick of the most valuable items (oops, they missed something), a slew of decorative foxes along with a ton of other stuff were turned over to Wiederseim for auction. Among the relatively low value foxes was the great R. Lalique Renard Car Mascot about which we write today; missed once but not twice, now with the duPont provenance, and headed off to the UK with a world record price tag.
For more information about Lalique’s car mascots including links to all mascot resources on the website, visit the Rene Lalique Biography Car Mascots section here at THE address on the web for everything R. Lalique.
***Stone’s Throw – slang for a short distance (heck, how far can you throw a stone?)
Tags: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, Rene Lalique Car Mascots and R Lalique Car Mascots
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Rene Lalique Doors: World Record Price For Lalique at Auction! R. Lalique Sales Knock Down Doors And Records!
November 23rd, 2011
The great R. Lalique Moineaux Chambranle Crante Doors from Villa Millbrook, the Jersey home of Lady Trent sold as Lot 131 on November 22nd at Sotheby’s in Paris at their sale Arts Décoratifs du XXe siècle & Design Contemporain. Against a pre-sale estimate of €400,000 – €600,00, the final hammer price was €1,750,000 which totaled €2,024,750 including buyers premium, or approximately $2,750,000 at today’s exchange rates. This great R Lalique result is a world record price for a single Rene Lalique work at auction!
 The wonderful glass and nickel plated steel frame double doors were exhibited in 1929 both at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Décorateurs in Paris, and also at Breves Galleries the same year. They were then installed in the home of Lady Trent, the patron for the famous Lalique Glass Church of Jersey architectural commission which stands to this day as a monument to the great Lalique!
To find out more about Rene Lalique and his architectural creations, from the following link you can access all of the Rene Lalique Architectural content here at RLalique.com including past Lalique Architectural auction results as well as news and reference articles.
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R Lalique Express Rolls On: Rene Lalique Train Panels Track Well In Paris With Great Lalique Results
October 1st, 2011
 Rene Lalique results at Christie’s Paris “L’âge d’or du rail – Souvenirs de la Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-lits” were oriented towards the high end, continuing a long string of generally very strong sales prices at auction for the works of the Great Lalique. This strong price trend has been in place for several years, and the rare Lalique items in this train related sale conducted by Christie’s followed and extended that trend.
Christie’s offered up 12 late 1920’s designed Rene Lalique Architectural Panel Lots and one related lot of a pair of the model of armchairs used for train compartments with fabric by Suzanne Lalique (which made €11,250 all-in, or “all-aboard” *** one might say, which is the case for all prices mentioned in this article). The armchair Lot and Lot 147, the maquette for a compartment for a sleeping car with mahogany and decorative inset panels, both sold to the new Musee Lalique, the latter being pre-empted by the Musee at the low estimate.
The wonderful Rene Lalique wood and glass panels rarely come up at auction, and are usually fiercely competed for when they appear. Sept 27th, 2011 was no exception.
 The intrigue amongst the various competing interested parties for rare and high quality R Lalique at auction is often worthy of Orient Express plot status. In this rare instance some of the offered items themselves can also be said to have reached that plot level as well.
The Lalique train lots were 143 thru 155, and things got rolling right out of the station with Lot 143 (pictured), the 9 piece glass panel Figurines Et Raisins making the high R. Lalique sale price of €133,000. This would prove to be the high price not just of any R Lalique panel in the sale, but the high selling lot of the auction as well.
 This was followed by the decorated wood with glass inserts panel Bouquet De Fleurs which at roughly 32 inches by 15 inches, made €67,000. Lot 148, another slightly different 9 piece Figurines Et Raisins Panel, got what would turn out to be 2nd place in the Lalique high sales compartment at €91,000, and the third high selling lot of the entire auction. Fourth place for R Lalique went to Lot 147 (pictured), a restored maquette for a compartment featuring R. Lalique panels, which made €53,800.
Also pictured is Lot 151, another Bouquet De Fleurs panel version, roughly 3 feet by 1 foot, which sold for €11,875.
In total the 12 Rene Lalique panel lots made €472,225 (roughly $640,000). This was about 40% above the total high estimates of €344,700, with a 100% sales rate, as all 12 lots sold. The average price per lot was €39,352. These totals and averages exclude Lot 145, the pair of related armchairs mentioned above.
Kudos to Christie’s Paris for engineering another great RLalique sales offering!
*** The phrase “all aboard” originated as a train conductor “get on the train, we’re leaving” warning in the United States. The phrase has nautical origins (which makes sense because in the early 19th century, the majority of the European population in the new world likely arrived by boat :), but was first recorded as being used on trains in 1837 in America, and its use has since spread to other forms of transportation.
Tags: R Lalique Architecture - Rene Lalique Architecture, R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results
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Rene Lalique Perruches Vase – A Lalique Copy That Is A Copy And Paste Of Lalique Photos And Description
June 7th, 2011
A real Lalique Ebay Eye Roller – Item No. 200616966765, an R-Lalique-Yellow-Perruches-10-Vase. A Rene Lalique Cased Yellow Perruches Vase brought to our attention by alert readers of this website. $1200 no reserve. Great pictures and great description:
R. Lalique Yellow Perruches 10″ “Vase. A translucent yellow glass vase, lightly frosted; relief molded with multiple parakeet couples perched in the trees. A bulbous form tapering towards the base with a thin raised rim at the top. Signed “R. Lalique”; no chips breaks, cracks or repairs. 10″H.
Let’s go back to May 2010, just a short year or so ago. Fontaines Auction Gallery in Pittsfield Massachusetts offers a great looking Perruches Vase! Great pictures can be seen at their online listing. Those photos look awful familiar. The vase sold for $12,000 hammer price. Here is the description from 2010:
 R. Lalique Yellow Perruches 10″ “Vase. A translucent yellow glass vase, lightly frosted; relief molded with multiple parakeet couples perched in the trees. A bulbous form tapering towards the base with a thin raised rim at the top. Signed “R. Lalique”; no chips breaks, cracks or repairs. 10″H.
Does this description sound somewhat similar to the current Ebay listing?
So this is not the kind of Perruches Vase Copy we discuss in the Copies and Close Calls Section of the website. No, it’s the Copy and Paste type copy we put on the R. Lalique Police Page! Let’s face it, it is kind of suspicious.
 But where is the initiative with people today, not even bothering to write a new description? At least correct the typos in the thing if nothing else. Of course the lister had the good sense and free time to cut the watermark off of the bottom of the photos from last year’s listing, which is why some of the Ebay photos seem like the bottom of the vase is cut-off :). And talk about lack of ambition, the old listing had 10 different photos, but for reasons we can only guess at (and we will shortly), the seller on Ebay is using just 9 of them. Here is the missing photo that maybe someone figured with the writing and marks around the signature it can be matched up kind of easy to another photo or a vase. Just an assumption, but whatever the reason it’s missing from the current auction, we supply it here for all our readers to draw their own conclusions!
Get your bids in early and often for the 90% price drop Perruches Vase! Oh, and you get FREE SHIPPING if you are the lucky winner! Local pick-up in Cleveland obviously not an option of course.
Lest anyone wonder if buyers get fooled, it was late last Fall if memory serves us well, that a longtime East Coast U.S. dealer was rumored to have gotten caught as the winning bidder for a Red Poissons Vase on Ebay which turned out to exist only in the photos from a previous auction sale. The red vase photos sold for the too good to be true price of around $7,000!
Now that’s just a rumor of course, but a word to the wise nonetheless: Be careful out there.
Tags: R Lalique and Rene Lalique Fakes-Copies-Frauds, R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases
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R.Lalique Sales Records Fall: Lalique Glass Shines At Christies South Kensington Lalique Sale
May 30th, 2011
 R. Lalique Glass chalked up another outstanding sales performance on May 26th at the mainstay semi-annual Lalique Sale held at Christies South Kensington in London. The sale has become a focal point for collectors and dealers around the world, and the last several showings have been quite strong, this rendition being no exception.
The sale featured 127 R. Lalique works. 19 of those 127 lots failed to sell, leaving a take-up rate of over 85%, a great result by any measurement. The R. Lalique sales totaled £585,620** including the buyers premium for the 108 sold lots, for an average price per lot of £5,422. Figuring an exchange rate of 1.63 dollars to the British Pound, the sale total was $954,561 and the average price per lot was $8,839.
 The sale started out well enough with a good run of Lalique’s Formose Vases comprising 9 of the first 12 lots. Joy McCall, the knowledgeable 20th Century Department Head at South Ken had a phone bidder who according to our man in the room bought 8 of those 9 vases! The prices on the 9 Formoses ranged from a low of £2,250 to a high of £12,500, with four of the Formoses making over £10,000. Lot 11, the agate colored Formose Vase (a cased somewhat gray opalescent shown here) was the high Formose seller and almost certainly a world record price for that color of this model vase.
This solid start set the tone for the rest of the session, with colored and other rare vases leading the way, but by no means the only strong sellers.
 High selling lot was tie between two vases, Lot 40 a good looking cased green Alicante Vase, and the final Lot 139, the opalescent Terpsichore Vase, both making £39,650. This is likely a world record price for the Terpsichore, this author knowing of no other example of this model having made over $60,000; this one hitting roughly $64,500.
Also breaking the £30,000 level was Lot 22, an amber Serpent Vase which made £34,850, just exceeding the former world record price for an Amber Serpent Vase set last December in New York City by Heritage Auctions of $56,673.
 Surpassing the £20,000 mark were Lot 138, a frosted Bacchantes Vase on bronze stand which made £22,500 and was arguably the strongest result of the entire sale and at over $38,000 a possible world record price for a frosted Bacchantes Vase. In addition Lot 18 a black Lezards et Bluets Vase made £22,500, and the ever popular art deco frosted with black enamel combination drew £23,750 for Lot 20, the Oranges Vase, and a strong £22,500 for Lot 23, the Tourbillons Vase.
Among strong results of note was £7,500 for Lot 37, the opalescent Danaides Vase, £8,125 for Lot 46 the blue Gui Vase, £5,000 for Lot 78 the Inseparables Clock, and £7,500 for the opalescent Borromee Vase selling as Lot 127.
Also of note was Lot 85, the Armes D’Angleterre Seal that made £8,750 from an Internet bidder, who was up against a young woman in the room. This seldom seen seal graced the pages of the Lalique Auction Listings here at the website for several weeks prior to the sale.
 With the auctioneer taking bids from around the globe including South Africa, Hong Kong, Bahrain and elsewhere (thankfully he didn’t mention Arizona), the depth and expanse of interest left smiles on the faces of the entire Christie’s staff but also left much of the regular crowd in the audience scrambling mainly for plates and bowls.
Price wise, the trend has certainly been the friend of all enthusiasts of the great Lalique as of late, and this sale showcased the across the board strength that has been the hallmark of the market for RLalique for several years now. Further consistent with recent experience, there were not a bunch of lots making runaway prices. Rather, the general tone has been solid and steady strong prices with increases in many items, and high absorption rates for quality items at anything resembling recent market pricing. A word to the wise of course is that the trend is your friend, until it isn’t!
Finally, this R Lalique News would not be complete without recording the several comments from participants concerning the professionalism and competence of the Christies staff. On the phone for inquiries or bidding, in correspondence, or on site at the previews or on sale day, our man at the auction and other daily followers of this website have consistently reported a high quality experience at Christies South Ken.
** All totals, averages, and currency conversions are approximate.
Tags: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, R Lalique Rene Lalique Seals Cachets, R Lalique Vases and Rene Lalique Vases
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Lalique Pendants: Rene Lalique Ivory Maiden Pendant Obtains a Jewel of an R. Lalique Result
May 25th, 2011
 Rene Lalique could not have a better representative to carry the water of his great art nouveau production than the wonderful Ivory Maiden Lalique Pendant that appeared as Lot 405 in Geneva Switzerland on May 17th as the single Rene Lalique unique jewelry piece in the Sotheby’s sale of “Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels”.
And this particular Lalique Pendant in this type of sale setting, provided as good an example as any to compare and contrast the jewelry artwork of Rene Lalique and its typical restrained use of valuable gems, with the large precious gemstone jewelry pieces so prevalent at top jewelry sales.
The pendant features a subdued carved female figure made from ivory, standing on a pedestal framed in a blue and lavender enameled floral art nouveau surround. The pendant is suspended from an enameled chain of rod or baton shaped links. And the presentation is finished with the classic Lalique Pearl Drop suspended from the bottom of the piece by a mount of small diamonds.
It is an amazing representative of the many incredible artful jewelry objects created by Lalique at the top of his artistic jewelry skills just after the turn of the century. This piece, created in the middle of the first decade after 1900, was destined to be one of the pieces that represent the end years of Lalique’s concentration on individual and unique objects.
It would not be long after the creation of this gem that fate would bring Lalique and Francois Coty together, and sweep them both up in the spreading industrial revolution of mass production, mass marketing, invention, and economies of scale.
 Helping things along at the auction was the fact that this pendant is shown in an original Rene Lalique Drawing reproduced in the seminal Sigrid Barten book on Lalique’s Jewelry and Unique Objects, Rene Lalique, Schmuck und Objet’s d’art 1890-1910 where it appears on Page 330; a little documentation never hurting a final price of course.
Against an estimate of CHF80,000 – CHF105,000 (roughly $92,000 to $120,000), the fabulous pendant was sold for CHF218,500 (about $250,000) to include the buyer’s premium.
The final price was over three times the low estimate and nearly 2 and 1/2 times the high estimate, an achievement not entirely unfamiliar of late to followers of this website.
Another jewel of a result for the great Lalique!
Tags: R Lalique Rene Lalique Auctions News and Results, Rene Lalique Jewelry and R Lalique Jewelry
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Lalique Necklace: Rene Lalique Longchain Necklace Makes $32,500. An Elegant Lalique Jewelry Result In New York!
May 1st, 2011
Rene Lalique Jewelry came thru once again with another firm sales result at Sotheby’s New York on April 14th. The only R. Lalique item in their Sale of Magnificent Jewels, Lot 277 was a nearly three foot long Longchain Necklace which featured four basically identical design elements of green enameled and gold leaves decorated with a half pearl on each side of each leaf. These four elements were interspersed between green enamel rods.
 Against an estimate of $20,000 to $30,00, it came right in the mid-range for a hammer price of $26,000, with the 25% buyers premium pushing the final all-in total sale price to $32,500.
Longchain necklaces are uniquely suited to modern fashion because elegant examples not overloaded with design elements can be worn to accompany both more formal or informal dress. But with the size of Lalique’s design work on the elements being small in relation to the overall scope of the piece, a necklace such as this one might not garner the kind of price that a unique Lalique brooch or other item would demand.
Of course, there is the whole “un-flashy” look about a piece such as this one. And this necklace at this price is actually wearable in ways that some of the higher priced Rene Lalique Jewellery might not be. This Longchain also has the wonderful flexibility of being suitable for the roaring 20’s flapper** long chain look, or it can be worn with an extra wrap around the neck to shorten it up. Either way, it’s an accoutrement and not the center of attention.
Elegant and restrained are the two words that come to mind when seeing a Lalique necklace such as this in person. And while it is far from the most expensive Lalique Jewelry item to cross the block recently, it has an appeal at least as great today as when it was created over 100 years ago.
For more information about the great jewelry of Rene Lalique, head over to the Lalique Jewelry section of the Rene Lalique Bio, where you’ll find links to all the vast jewelry resources on RLalique.com. Or Lalique Longchain Necklace will take you straight to our original auction listing.
** Flapper is word used to describe young women that ignored social norms in the first few decades of the 1900’s. Put together thoughts like Jazz, prohibition in the U.S., dancing, smoking, drinking, short skirts, makeup, and driving a car (heaven forfend :), and you begin to get the stereotypical picture of an emerging liberal counterculture represented by the “flappers” in the more stern social setting of 100 years ago. Of course getting the vote for women was also a liberal counterculture idea in the earliest part of the 20th century!
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