In only one week, on July 2nd, the Musée Lalique will open to the public in Wingen-sur-Moder as a National Museum of France to honor the French national treasure Rene Lalique. This is the third in a series of articles about the new museum based around an interview with Museum Director Veronique Brumm. Previous articles are accessible at Musée Lalique – 1, and Musée Lalique – 2.
In our first two articles, Veronique discussed her background and how she came to be the Director of the Musée Lalique. She also told us about the background of the Musée and described its operational and organizational structure. In this third article, we focus on subjects related to the imminent opening of the Musee Lalique!
Hello Veronique. Can you tell us about the layout and structure of the museum space and grounds and how it relates to the focus and purpose of the museum? Will there be special or temporary exhibitions or just a big permanent one?
The Musée Lalique has been created on a former glassmaking site that operated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It will therefore include a renovated section but a new building is also under construction to accommodate the permanent exhibition and the equipment rooms. The permanent exhibition space will extend over 900 m² while the temporary exhibition room has a surface area of 200 m².
We will show jewels, of course but the heart of the museum will be devoted to glass because the link of Lalique with Alsace is glass. We will show perfume bottles, tableware, and we will also show the great themes that inspired René Lalique, particularly the female body and flora and fauna (birds, fish, snakes, beetles, bats). These motifs adorn vases, bowls, clocks, radiator caps and glassware for the table.
His creative genius, his industrial talent and, of course, his imagination, are all brought to the fore here. The creations of his successors, Marc and Marie-Claude Lalique, and from today’s design studio, are also on display. Finally, a special tribute is paid to the men and women who perpetuate glass-making skills at Wingen-sur-Moder today. The museum presentation aims to combine pleasure, discovery and learning. The museum is designed not just to showcase art objects, but also to teach. The pictures and audiovisual and multimedia documents that energize the sequence are also designed to help visitors relate to the artistic, cultural, social and technical context in which the works were created. It is hoped that they will arouse curiosity and open up new vistas.
Naturally, the Musée Lalique has all the facilities one would expect to find in a museum created at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In addition to spaces for permanent and temporary exhibitions and storerooms, We have planned a café and a shop where visitors will be able not only to buy postcards, books and other related products, but also items of Lalique crystal. We also have an 85-seat auditorium where we will show a film on the history of René Lalique or his expertise, as well as specific programs in line with temporary exhibitions. This auditorium will also enable us to organize cycles of conferences and symposia. In addition, we have the advantage of three rooms to host educational workshops. A broad range of activities will be offered for children.
I would also like to talk about the gardens. The museum is set in quite remarkable landscaped grounds and we have undertaken significant work with the landscape designers to ensure that the choice of species offers a reminder of the natural world that so inspired René Lalique. Two gardens have been laid out, one with a pronounced floral character, the other one more wooded. They contain a selection of plants that will help visitors see the connection between Lalique’s art and nature, which he so loved to observe. We also offer an explanatory trail that will enable visitors to understand that it is located on a former glassmaking site and link in with the local glassmaking tradition.
Will visitors be able to take a factory tour of the modern Lalique company factory to see crystal being made?
The factory is unfortunately not open to visitors.
How will the museum acquire objects in the future to add to its collection?
The Musée Lalique project is very particular in that it was born of the desire to create a museum and not a collection. This means that, in 2002, there were already plans for the museum, but no works. Bit by bit, an acquisition policy has been developed. We are trying to continue to develop our collection with the support of the Département du Bas-Rhin, Région Alsace and the State as sponsors. Our acquisition policy is based on the museum’s scientific and cultural aspirations but also depends on market opportunities. It’s important to stress that, prior to any acquisition, we undertake a price study – based on the results of sales in past years.
In our first article, you said that the Musée owns around 400 pieces and will show around 650 for the opening exhibition. Can you provide a few more details?
We bought our first item in 2002! And among the last pieces we bought were the surtout Deux Cavaliers and a lustre Passiflore. In addition to pieces we own, we will have many loans both from private collections, the Lalique Company, and also loans from other museums; especially from the Musée des Arts décoratifs de Paris.
Will you have either porcelain or crystal items from Suzanne, Marc or Marie Claude on exhibit?
Yes, we want to display the work of Suzanne, Marc and Marie-Claude in its best light. We are also planning to organize an exhibition devoted specifically to Suzanne, an exhibition that will, of course, feature her work in the field of glass and porcelain, but which will also enable us to demonstrate her contribution to the fields of textiles, painting and the theatre.
Can you preview a highlight or two of special items in your opening exhibition?
I could mention several, but I’d prefer to put the accent on two cire perdue works: the decorative Dolphin motif created in 1912, on the one hand, and the entwined Cherubs that adorn Mrs. Paquin’s dining room, on the other. I’d also like to give a special mention to a work by Marc Lalique: a monumental chandelier – almost 3 meters high and 2 meters in diameter – exhibited at the Paris Museum of Decorative Arts in 1951, which will adorn the entrance hall of our museum.
Will the museum lend its own items to exhibitions around the world in the future?
For the time being, our collections are not sufficiently large in number to allow us to part with our items, but we hope to be able to do so in the not too distant future.
How far a drive is the museum from Paris and what is the best way for a visitor to get to the museum if they are visiting from the UK, from France, or from overseas?
By car, Wingen-sur-Moder is around 4 hours from Paris. The high speed train is also an excellent way to get to Alsace – stations in Strasbourg, Saverne and Saarbrücken (D). Wingen-sur-Moder is situated on the Strasbourg-Sarreguemines-Saarbrücken railway line. There are also several airports nearby: Strasbourg, Saarbrücken, Zweibrucken and Baden-Baden.
What will be the cost of admission?
6 € for adults, 5 for group (more than 15 persons), 3 € for children.
What will be the days of the week and hours the Musée will be open?
April-September everyday from 10 am to 7 pm; from October to March from Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm; closed in January.
How much time should a visitor plan to spend on the site?
The tour of the museum itself should take around one and a half to two hours. But thanks to the full service that we offer – gardens, café, etc. – we hope that the visitor will spend more time with us. We are also working with other sites in the area to offer collective tickets, passports, etc. to encourage the visitor to explore and spend time in our beautiful region.
If someone wanted to make a donation of any item to the museum, whom would they contact?
We are quite happy to accept loans, deposits and donations. I can be reached by e-mail: veronique.brumm@musee-lalique.com, telephone: 00 33 3 88 89 08 14 or by post: Musée Lalique – 29, rue de Zittersheim – 67290 Wingen-sur-Moder – France.
Is there any information not covered by our questions that you would like to convey?
We hope to reach lovers and collectors of Lalique works through comprehensive scientific work, but we also hope to bring them to the largest possible audience. To do so, we offer various levels of lectures and diverse mediation tools. Although we will pay particular attention to the quality of the display cabinets and the lighting, we will also be using modern museum techniques: video guide, multimedia, large format photography etc.
In addition, we want to welcome an international audience: our texts will therefore be not only in French, but also in German and English. Likewise for the video guide.
As far as content is concerned, I also find it important to stress that we will be very keen to situate Lalique’s work in its context – Art Nouveau, Art Deco Movement etc. Manufacturing techniques also will be discussed and homage will be paid to the men and women who still today, perpetuate the know-how in Wingen-sur-Moder.
Veronique, we appreciate your time in answering our questions and sharing your expertise with our readers, and we wish you well in this great endeavor. Hopefully you will get some sleep in the week leading up to the opening.
We will talk again with Veronique just after the Musée opens to the public and we’ll plan to follow-up with a final Musée Grand Opening article, discussing the opening and possibly additional travel and area details for visitors.
* Editor’s Note: On July 1st, the day before the official opening to the public, there is inaugural opening for invited guests. We managed to wrangle one of those invitations from a serious mucky-muck ** VIP on the down-low ***, so that we could photograph it and our readers could see one for themselves. That is the invitation pictured above.
** The urban dictionary defines mucky-muck as: A pompous person of importance! Of course, it can be real or imagined self-importance. Which of those fits the person we got the invite from? Opinions vary.
*** down-low is an American slang describing an activity that is kept discreet. Often shortened to “DL”.
Photo Credits:
Veronique Brumm: David Desaleux
Architect’s Concept: Wilmotte- Artefactory
Invitation to VIP Opening: Downlow
Map of France: Wikipedia – Eric Gaba
Musee Construction: David Desaleux
The Country of France is set to honor the Great Lalique with the opening of the new Musée Lalique to the public on July 2nd. This is the second in a series of articles about the new Lalique Museum structured around a long running interview with the Director of the new Museum, Veronique Brumm. Lalique Museum Opening will take you to the first article in this series! As you will learn below, the new Musée Lalique is not just a Lalique Museum in France. It is a Lalique Museum of France.
In our first article, we presented some photos of the site that would become the new Musée Lalique, and the architect’s concept of what the final project would look like. We accompany this article with photos of the Musée in progress as it moves from that original site toward the architectural plan. This is basically our “nuts and bolts” article, where we show the nuts and bolts of the construction of the Museum, and where we talk with Veronique about the nuts and bolts of the organization that created the Museum.
We left off the introduction to the interview in our first article with Veronique explaining that she is an historian by training, with a specialty in glassmaking in the very region where Rene Lalique established his glass factory after World War 1.
Veronique, can you tell us more about your background?
In my training, I was not only interested in the history of glassmaking in Wingen-sur-Moder, where the Lalique factory is still operating today, but also in that of Saint-Louis whose reputation speaks for itself; Meisenthal, known for having worked for Emile Gallé; and Goetzenbruck, which specialised in watch glasses and later in optical glass.
I then did a masters on the professions of cultural development and tourism. In this context, I undertook an internship at the Glass Centre at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, an internship that confirmed my interest in glass.
I complemented this professional masters with a masters oriented towards research. It covered the development of the glass and crystal making heritage in Lorraine. I then chose to do a doctorate in information and communication sciences focusing on museology and cultural mediation. The subject of my thesis was the development of the heritage of the glass and crystal making industry in Europe. In this context, I looked into what makes us come to consider an industry, in this instance glass and crystal making, as a form of heritage and the way this manifests itself.
After completing my studies, I had the opportunity to work with the Conseil Général du Bas-Rhin. In the context of this mission, I was the curator of a Lalique exhibition held during the summer of 2006 at the Château de Lichtenberg, a few kilometres from Wingen-sur-Moder. I then had the good luck to cultivate an interest in the scientific aspects of the museum project. Gradually, my tasks have become more diversified.
Veronique, what have been your duties in conjunction with the Musee up until this time (June 2011)?
As project leader, my tasks are particularly varied. I continue to work on the scientific aspects: putting the collection together, research on René, Suzanne, Marc and Marie-Claude Lalique, on techniques, definition of the museum tour, writing the texts for the museum and more.
In addition, I’m very involved with the building site and work closely with the architects in order that the museum makes it possible not only to display Lalique’s works in the best light possible, but is also functional.
I’m also busy with the administrative and financial aspects of the project. This means, for example, that I prepare and monitor all decisions taken by the Board of Directors, that I prepare the budget, handle requests for subsidies, and other similar matters.
The question of partnerships is also one of my major concerns, whether these are partnerships with the project’s backers, the Lalique Company, the lenders, etc.
How is the museum structured for operations? Do you report to a board of directors? Do you have a staff? Are there public officials involved? Is it a non-profit organization? How is the museum funded?
The Musée Lalique is a public project, supported by the local authorities: Région Alsace, Département du Bas-Rhin, Communauté de Communes du Pays de La Petite Pierre and Commune de Wingen-sur-Moder.
These authorities have joined forces to create the Syndicat Mixte du Musée Lalique. Today, this is the client for the project and, in the future, it will be responsible for its management.
These authorities handle funding for the project of 11.3 million euros with support from the State and from Europe. Therefore, although we have an excellent relationship with the Lalique Company, we are not a company museum.
Our organisation is non-profit making. The authorities mentioned previously have even put their heads together to ascertain on which cost allocation base it would fund a possible operating shortfall.
For the administrative organisation of the Syndicat Mixte, I should say that it’s managed by a Board of Directors composed of eleven members representing the four financial backers. It is chaired by a President, Mr Gaston Dann, and two Vice-Presidents. It is to them who I report on my work.
Regarding the team, there are four of us at the present time (February 2010): two part-time staff in the secretariat, a conservation assistant and a person in charge of tourist promotion and communication.
Is the Musée Lalique a National Museum sanctioned by the French government? And if so, what benefits does the National Museum status provide?
The Musée Lalique was awarded the “Musée de France” appellation (name or title) in 2007. Therefore, it isn’t a National Museum administered directly by the State, but the “Musée de France” label testifies to the quality of the project, both from the point of view of its collections and the conditions of preventive conservation and security. In France, this label is the sine qua non for securing loans or deposits from other museums.
The “Musée de France” appellation also enables us to take advantage of financial support from the Fonds Régional d’Acquisition pour les Musées, in other words State subsidies for acquisitions.
Veronique, so that our readers will understand the importance of the “Musée de France” designation, can you tell us the names of some of the other Musées de France?
Among the other museums with the “Musée de France” label, we should mention the Louvre, the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Musée d’Orsay and the Quai Branly museum in Paris.
An interviewer’s note that it was the Museum of Decorative Arts which purchased several works directly from Rene Lalique himself in the early 1900’s; its curators having the foresight to recognize the great treasure of France even 100 years ago. And it is with Veronique’s mention of the lofty company of the world class museums in which the Musée Lalique finds itself, that we depart this interview for now, until the publication of the next article in this series (article 3) which will appear shortly.
Photo Credits:
Snow Photo: Musée Lalique
Scaffold Photo: Communauté de Communes du Pays de La Petite Pierre
Inside Photo: Musée Lalique
Crane Photo 1: Stadler
Crane Photo 2: Musée Lalique
Courtyard Photo: Musée Lalique
Overhead View Photo: Stadler
Lalique Museum Becomes A Reality: A Musée de France dedicated to Rene Lalique to Open July 2nd!
It was over two years ago that we reported the news on these pages that the long-awaited ground breaking ceremony for the new Musée Lalique had taken place on November 8th, 2008. How long-awaited? Here is a photo* from 2003 of the site which 8 years later is the location for the new Lalique Museum.
We put forth our view in that early 2009 article that an official museum in France dedicated to Rene Lalique would be great news for all R Lalique and Rene Lalique Enthusiasts and Collectors.
Well readers, good news is upon us. For after nearly 2 and 1/2 years of construction, and many more years of planning even before that time, the new Musée Lalique will open its doors to the public on July 2nd, 2011 in the small town of Wingen Sur Moder in the historic glassmaking region of Alsace.
Wingen Sur Moder, located in the northeastern part of France near the border with Germany, is also the home of the great Lalique glassmaking factory opened by Rene Lalique in 1921. This factory survived German occupation in World War II, and it still operates today making leaded crystal for the modern Cristal Lalique Company, a company officially called Lalique SA. Just above is a 2007 photo of the future site, this time with a building that has a roof :).**
And during these last couple of years while construction progressed, many supporters, contributors and readers of this website have jumped-in to assist the Musée in various ways as it built its collection, its research library, and its opening exhibition inventory. You can read about a few of the R.Lalique enthusiasts who worked with the Musée on the About Us page at RLalique.com.
Following is a pre-construction design concept for the Musée on the site shown in the two preceding photos. The concept appears to be true to the architecture and history of the area, and to the beauty and rural nature of the natural surroundings. ***
We will publish more information about the Musée Lalique between now and the early part of July. And we thought it would be a good idea in conjunction with this announcement to give you a short introduction to an interview which will form the basis for those upcoming articles.
It was over a year and a half ago, in the cold of winter (not really too cold at World Headquarters, but cold in a lot of other places according to news reports :), that we began interviewing Veronique Brumm, the Project Leader who began working on the Musée Lalique many years ago.
Veronique’s involvement with almost all facets of the creation of the Musée over an extended time period made her the best choice for us to bring detailed, informative, and up-to-date information and news to you concerning the Musée now that the opening is imminent. Note that Veronique answered our most recently submitted questions just two weeks ago!
Keep in mind as we go forward the next several weeks that the interview has been slightly edited for all the typical reasons including the flow of the articles, combining answers, and accounting for the different times the questions were asked. However, no facts have been altered. Here is the short intro:
Veronique, what is your official title now (2010) and what will it be when the Musée opens?
Project Leader is my official title, and when the Musée opens, my title and responsibility will be Director.
How long have you been working on the Musée Lalique project?
I’ve been working on the Musée Lalique project since 2004.
Can you tell us about your professional background and how you came to your current role with the museum?
A historian by training, I have focused my research on the history of glassmaking in the Northern Vosges, the region where René Lalique decided to build the Verrerie d’Alsace just after the First World War.
Veronique, can you talk a little about the pieces owned by the Musée and also the items in the opening exhibition?
We now own more or less 400 pieces, and for the opening, we will show more or less 650 items.
The second article in this series will appear in coming days.
* Photo Credit: Communauté de Communes du Pays de La Petite Pierre
** Photo Credit: Communauté de Communes du Pays de La Petite Pierre
*** Photo Credit: Wilmotte – Artefactory
**** Photo of Veronique Brumm, Musée Lalique Director
***** Photo Credit of Car Mascot Display: David Desaleux
Rene Lalique Car Mascots at Le Mans! Who would have thought the sentimental home of European auto racing (and a very sentimental place to the great Texas racer Carroll Shelby) would have a handful of Lalique Mascots on display at the local car museum?
Here is a 5 minute video with a 10 second glimpse at a half dozen hood ornaments designed by Rene Lalique amongst the vintage race (and other) cars.
You can learn more about the Sarthe Auto Museum by checking out the museum website. And the really inquisitive types can learn a lot more about Carroll Shelby at wikipedia! Also, if you are interested in seeing where else in the world the works of Rene Lalique can be found in museums, check out our list of Lalique Museum Collections with links to each museum.
Finally, if you know of any local or other museums that have RLalique items in their collections that are not listed on the Museum page, please let us know and we’ll ad them to the list.
Hi. I have a bridge to sell you. It’s a wonderful bridge clearly marked “Golden Gate”. It’s in excellent condition. I inherited it from my uncle who loved bridges and had a bridge collection. My uncle told me it’s a valuable and important bridge, and I have great respect for my uncle. I don’t know anything about bridges or the value of bridges, but out of respect for my uncle and the high esteem in which he held this bridge, I have put a price on it to honor his memory. Oh, the bridge sells “as is”, payment by wire transfer, no guarantees, no refunds, no returns.
And when the deed is done the bridge seller will shout to the rafters as Iago observes to Cassio in Shakespeare’s Othello: “As I am an honest man ..!” Maybe he is, who cares (see seller motivation discussion below).
We have received half a dozen inquiries here at World Headquarters about this crafty listing. Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 370308740347 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. You have got to love some of this stuff; you have to love it!
So keeping in mind that an analysis from photos is no substitute for having the piece in hand, here it is:
The vase does not appear to exhibit the variability of finish typically found in Cire Perdue. It seems frosted either with acid or sand, instead of being Cire Perdue glass. Look at the design close up in the photo of the signature.
The underside of the base is polished and flat. Everything from fingerprints to imperfections, to almost a look of glass flow in some areas, incorporated shards and other issues that you typically see when looking thru the base of a Cire Perdue vase are not evident in the photos of the polished solid base shown in the ad.
So this is two different flags. We can’t say that no cire perdue vase would have a polished and flat underside as even the Oracle has not seen every last one of them. But totally polished and flat is not a hallmark of a Lalique Cire Perdue Vase base. Of course, if you had not ever had one in your hand, and were only working from a photo, how would you know what the underside of the vase should look like?
The extended base itself is not coherent with the vase, or typical of how Rene Lalique Cire Perdues are normally designed.
The signature from the photo is not typical of the period Cire Perdue signatures we have observed in person. It also differs from the signature on the known authentic original discussed below that is in the collection of the Musee des art decoratifs in Paris. And again, if you have not had Cire Perdue in your hand, you may not have access to what the signatures look like.
The signature appears frosted-over in the photo. This would not be typical with Cire Perdue.
The vase appears in shape and in reality to be a mold pressed vase. Briefly, in a mold pressed vase such as Ceylon, or Rampillon or Bacchantes, the inside is normally nearly smooth, as the plunger under high pressure presses molten glass into the relief design and the area between the plunger and the metal mold also has glass in it, else there would not be contact to have the pressure on the glass to push it into the relief design part of the mold.
Also, the plunger has to come out of the mold after pressing, so mold pressed vases are typically shaped wider at the top than at the bottom in a tapered looking way. Of course, it is possible to have offshoots in the mold where glass can flow in solid, and you can even have a wider base, such as with the press mold vase Danaides.
In a mold blown vase, like a Cire Perdue vase, the glass blows out into the high relief areas, and they are generally “hollow” would be a good way to describe the inside of the relief design, with the shape of the inside of the vase mirroring the shape of the design of the outside. Put your fingers into any blown vase such as Six Figurines et Masques, or Sauterelles, and feel the design from the inside, something that you can’t typically do in a press mold vase. One other example to point you to on mold-blown vases is the famous Cire Perdue Exhibition Vase Huit Perruches that is shown in part in the Rene Lalique Bio here on the site. You can put your fingers into the birds from the inside of the vase, they are hollow not solid.
Now, there can be what we’ll call dimples on the inside of design elements in a press mold vase with high relief, little dips behind high relief design elements. From surmise and not glassmaking experience, these little dimples could be caused by the extra thickness of the glass where the high relief design element is, that is thicker than the surrounding wall area of the vase. When the vase is taken from the mold at the proper time, the thick design area will be a bit hotter than the wall, and there can be a little bit of a dimple created by very minor glass flow in the hotter area. But this is not the same as basically hollow where you can feel the design from the inside.
The vase in the ad has basically solid relief design elements typical of a mold pressed vase.
And think about the purpose of press molding, high pressure in a metal mold. Not in a clay or plaster mold used for Cire Perdue, where the pressure would typically blow the mold apart.
The design of the vase in the ad appears to be a loose copy of the vase design from the Lalique Cire Perdue Vase Quatre Feuilles De Rhubarbe, CP14, that is at the Musee des arts decoratifs in Paris. This famous vase was bought by the museum directly from Rene Lalique in 1913. According to the 1991 Rene Lalique Exhibition Catalogue from the Musee that is available here in the Rene Lalique Books and Library Section on Lalique Exhibition and Museum Books, on the museum’s inventory documentation it is noted their vase is a “Unique Piece”. Hard to believe that Rene Lalique would sell this as a unique vase to the curators of the Musee des arts decoratifs, and then make a copy or near copy to sell to someone else.
Note that we have this great museum book available in hardback, softback, English or French, new and nearly new. This book also has the included great photo of the famous authentic CP14 vase which you see here.
Obviously, analyses can differ, especially from photos. But between the great “bridge” language in the advertisement and the 10 or 12 points above, you should avoid the vase.
In the end, keep two things in focus. First, the motivation of the seller is irrelevant to you as a potential buyer. You only care what you know and what you get, not what the seller thinks or knows. It’s too much of a waste of time to worry about the motives or lack of motives of the seller. Worry about the piece! And two, in this instance the seller is not even claiming the vase is an RLalique vase, or that it’s a cire perdue vase, let alone an RLalique Cire Perdue vase. Maybe the ad is supposed to get you to make that conclusion on your own. Maybe not. Either way, we’ve concluded that the vase should be avoided!
UPDATE 12-23-09 and 2/1/10: The sellers canceled their listing after the appearance of this News and Blog article, removing all their photos and substituting bridge photos! Bridge photos! Guess which bridge! You have to love it! But they have now removed the bridge photos as well, so the only thing left is the Uncle story! END OF UPDATE
February 26th, 2010 Update: Switched Item Link To Cached Image Version
Rene Lalique Jewelry is leading the Imperishable Beauty exhibition of art nouveau jewelry at the Cincinnati Art Museum on view thru January 17th, 2010.
The exhibition in Cincinnati Ohio contains over 100 pieces from a single private collection, of which the most significant numbers are the works of Rene Lalique. Other contemporaries from around the world that are represented include Louis Aucoc, who was an early employer of Rene Laiique, Boucheron, Descomps, Angenot, Edmond-Henri Becker, Paul-Emile Brandt, Charles Desrosiers, Faberge, Fouquet, Lucien Gaillard, F. Walter Lawrence, Paul and Henri Vever, Vladimir Soloviev, Philippe Wolfers, Victor Gerard, Frank Gardner Hale, Louis Zorra and others. The works of 34 art nouveau jewelers in total are on display.
This is the same art nouveau jewelry exhibition that was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA) that was the subject of a previous Lalique Jewellery Exhibition article in this Blog.
Here is a link to general exhibition information at the Cincinnati Art Museum where you can also find the hours and dates the great jewelry is on display.
One theme is evident throughout Lalique’s jewelry in the exhibition. His turn towards jewelry as art and not just a valuable setting for gemstones, freed him to create unique objects that only included gems for what they added to the art of the piece, and not because the gem by itself was of high value. Lalique’s innovation in valuing the entire object as artwork, allowed him to incorporate a large number of ancillary materials not commonly used in the day, and it elevated him beyond the 19th century jewelers that were basically building holders for valuable stones, and not attractive objects d’art in their own right.
If you want to learn more about the man that glassmaker Emile Galle referred to as “The Inventor of Modern Jewelry”, visit the Rene Lalique Biography page here at RLalique.com.
Of course, the hardbound catalog of the exhibition, conveniently titled “Imperishable Beauty”, is available here at RLalique.com in the Rene Lalique Books and Library Section containing Museum and Exhibition Books and Catalogues. The exhibition book is 176 pages and a total of over 100 great color photographs of Rene Lalique jewelry and other art nouveau jewelry in the exhibition. The three photos shown here are small samples of the Rene Lalique jewelry on display, and of the content of the great exhibition book, which is published and copyright by the MFA. The book also contains scholarly analysis of the motifs and the development of the art nouveau jewelry movement.
And in case you need more of an incentive to visit the exhibition, the museum location is another reason to make the trip! Cincinnati is a lively and charming Midwestern town. Jerry Springer, yes, TV show Jerry Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati around 40 years ago! There is plenty to keep a tourist busy including the great waterfront and riverboats on the Ohio River, major league sports, a regional amusement park, and a pretty good night life. But just a few minutes outside of town, you will find yourself in a rich and rolling rural countryside with a quieter and slower Midwest family atmosphere, and just a stone’s throw from Kentucky bluegrass country.
This is a world-class exhibition in a great river city, and a wonderful chance to see a large number of unique works of Rene Lalique alongside the products of his contemporaries.
Rene Lalique Jewelry: In the top tier of Lalique’s jewelry creations, made before his turn to mass production of glass, are the Rene Lalique unique Serpents motif objects. Two great variations of this striking R Lalique Jewelry design are in world-class museums and their survival provides a great chance to compare and contrast follow-on implementations by Lalique of one of his most amazing design ideas.
The piece most often appearing in exhibitions and photos around the world (including the accompanying photo from Wikipedia Commons) is the 9 Serpents pectoral* owned by the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. This amazing piece was acquired by Calouste Gulbenkian directly from Rene Lalique in 1908 and it resides in the museum specifically built to house the collections he amassed during his lifetime, including his collection of over 100 of the works of Rene Lalique. The Gulbenkian Serpents creation is classified as a pectoral instead of a brooch due to its amazing size of 21 cm, or over 8 inches long. A similar piece to the Gulbenkian’s was exhibited in 1900 with strings of pearls hanging from the mouths of the serpents.
But another great Serpents motif jewelry piece also appears at exhibition from time to time, this one owned by the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg Russia. The Hermitage is housed in the former Winter Palace of the Czars, and contains over three million art objects in its collections including several works of Rene Lalique. The Hermitage Serpents design takes the form of a pendant, and features 6 Serpents, two of which retain the natural pearl in their mouths, so often used by Lalique in his jewelry. This pendant form Serpents design is roughly half the size of the Gulbenkian’s Serpents pectoral, measuring only 11 cm long. It recently was on loan to the Artistic Luxury Exhibition which appeared both in Cleveland and San Francisco and which ended in May.
Lalique would often make variations of his great jewelry designs, using and re-using similar implementations of the same motif to create unique objects. In this example, Lalique created objects with different uses and size, but both retain the look and feel so to speak, of the original artistic creation. A study of these two great objects shows not just the influence of Art Nouveau on Lalique’s jewelry, but also how the same basic design was adapted by Lalique to different purposes, not just of use, but also of effect.
Here are two short videos, one taken at the Gulbenkian showing some of the works of Lalique on exhibit there, and another taken at an exhibition of some of the Art Nouveau masterpieces of the Hermitage. Both videos show the Lalique Serpents Jewelry owned by the respective museum.
The Bible of Lalique’s Jewelry, Rene Lalique Schmuck und Objects d’art 1890-1910 by Sigrid Barten shows several variations of this great Serpents design. It’s of course available in our Rene Lalique Books and Library Section on modern books about Rene Lalique and his R Lalique works. In this Library section and others, you will also find various books and catalogues on Lalique’s jewelry, the hardback edition of the great Artistic Luxury Exhibition book, as well as several different publications documenting the Gulbenkian’s RLalique collection.
*Pectoral really means breast-plate, and is used to describe what in effect is a really big brooch. Think brooch on steroids!
Rene Lalique and his R Lalique glass, jewelry and other creations, are being highlighted this year at a Rene Lalique Retrospective Exhibition in Tokyo Japan celebrating the 150 year anniversary of his birth.
We previously wrote about this great Rene Lalique Museum Exhibition back in April, before its opening in late June, and now it is in full swing. The Exhibition will be at the National Art Center in Tokyo until September 7th, and then moves to the MOA Museum of Art from September 15th to November 23rd. The Exhibition features over 400 works of the great Rene Lalique contributed to the Exhibition by museums and collectors worldwide. These works encompass the entire range of his output from cire perdue and unique objects, to jewelry, vases, car mascots, boxes, seals, perfume bottles, and more. It’s a great overall look at the designs and accomplishments of this amazing man.
Here is a video of the exhibition that is put to music. You can click the box in the lower right of the video screen below and it will put the video in full screen mode!
If you are traveling Japan in the next several months, this Exhibition is a fabulous opportunity to see so many of the great works of Rene Lalique, so much R Lalique, in once place, including many unique items that you may never have another chance to see in person.
We also have obtained a small number of Catalogues of the Exhibition. These great catalogues, titled Rene Lalique A Retrospective, are over 250 pages long and contain over 400 photos of the items in the Exhibition. You can find these for sale in the Rene Lalique Books and Library area of the website in the Rene Lalique Museum and Exhibition Books and Catalogues section.
And of course, this will take you to a detailed history and biography of the great Rene Lalique!
The short version is, they were shipped by boat:), but as usual the whole story is a bit more complicated! We’ll try and keep it brief as usual.
In 1852, Meiji the Great, destined to be the 122nd Emperor of Japan was born with the name Mutsuhito. His birth was less than a year before Admiral Perry would arrive on the scene. In 1867 at the age of 14, he became Emperor of Japan. He had no children with his wife, but had 15 kids with 5 different official consorts. Only five of his children survived childhood. The one of the five we are interested in is Princess Nobuko, the eighth daughter of the Emperor. In 1910 she married the royal Prince Yasuhiko, also an eighth child, who four years earlier had established the Imperial Family of Asaka!
In the early 1920’s, the Prince headed off to Paris for military studies. There he was seriously injured in a car accident in 1923. His wife came to Paris to help nurse him back to health, and they both were still in Paris in 1925 when the 1925 Exposition Internationale Des Arts Decoratifs took the world by storm. Apparently, it took the Asaka family by storm as well, and the new art deco style, decoratif art in everyday life, caught their fancy.
In 1929, they began work on an Art Deco residence in Tokyo that was completed in 1933. While the Ministry of Imperial Household oversaw the design and construction, the input of several of the great French decorative arts practitioners, notably Rene Lalique, and to a larger degree Henri Rapin (to whom the Prince entrusted the interior design of 7 of the rooms), made the house a model of modernist art deco restraint and style. The architectural contributions of Rene Lalique included the glass panel doors, and the chandeliers in the dining hall and grand guest room.
Fast forward through a war, the Asaka Family in 1947 lost it’s membership in the Imperial Household, the residence was taken over by the government and put to various government uses, and finally, it was turned over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation For History and Culture, which opened the doors of the Asaka residence as the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum in 1983. The Asaka residence had wonderful grounds surrounding it, hence the addition of the word “Teien”, meaning park or gardens, to the name of the museum.
And that is why the great doors and chandeliers of Rene Lalique still exist in their original home today, along with other decorative R Lalique objects, all preserved in the museum.
Over the years, the museum has held many exhibitions, including a great Rene Lalique exhibition in 1988 that is documented extensively in the catalogue book of the exhibition containing about 200 very high quality R Lalique photos. A copy of this rare catalogue book from the exhibition at the former Asaka residence is available in the Rene Lalique Books and Library Section.
What happened to Prince Asaka, the creator of the great art deco residence? He served in the military during World War II (not without some controversy), making the rank of General. After the war he moved to the small city of Atami south of Tokyo where he became an avid golfer. He lived to the age of 93, passing away in 1981!
And why are we telling you all this now? Well, it’s great R Lalique history, and more importantly, we stumbled across a great video of the museum, which takes you thru a personal video tour, including looks at some of the works of Rene Lalique which are installed and housed at the former Asaka residence. An in situ look at period works of the great Rene Lalique at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.
Lalique Hood Ornaments -Lalique Car Mascots in Hickory Corners: How did that happen?
In July 1966, the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners Michigan opened to the public. It was the love affair of Michiganders (that’s right, they’re called Michiganders*) Don Gilmore and his wife Genevieve. Where is Hickory Corners you might ask? Well, it’s kind of midway between the Michigan Cities of Battle Creek (think cereal – cold breakfast cereal was invented here by Dr. John Harvey Kellog and it is still the headquarters of the company founded by his brother that bears his name, and Post Cereals is headquartered there as well), Lansing (Michigan State University and the childhood and football home of President Gerald Ford, who played on two Michigan State National Championship Football teams, before the big war of course), Grand Rapids (Autos and Furniture: Austin Automobile Company started there in 1901 and lasted near 20 years), and Kalamazoo (Gibson Guitars was founded here, as was the pharmaceutical giant Upjohn, and it’s still home to Checker Motors Company, who used to make the Checker Cab!).
Basically the former heartland of the industrial Midwest during the salad days of U.S. manufacturing! A lot of money was made here and stayed here in the form of public projects by wealthy people and companies. The Gilmores established a foundation that owns the museum and carries on, despite the passing of both Gilmores several decades ago.
So, what does the Gilmore Car Museum have? Where to begin, hmmm. Let’s start with the Blue Moon Diner, a real 1941 diner, picked up in toto from Meridian Connecticut, and moved here to the Michigan countryside! And yes, they serve pecan pie and frozen custard. Over 200 autos, from a 1948 “Waltz Blue” Tucker (number 47 out of a total production of only 51), to a Dusenberg! There’s a re-created 1930’s Shell gas station (including memorabilia from a Shell station just 3 miles from the Gilmore that closed during WWII), a small town train station, nine antique Michigan barns, and three miles of paved roads, as well as a huge collection of vintage pedal cars and miniatures. You may see their authentic London Double Decker bus tooling around the property when you visit, and it’s rumored (though not advertised) that a ride in a cool old vehicle might be had from time to time!
The museum is important in many other respects. For example, The Pierce-Arrow Society (the Roadshow video linked below features a Pierce-Arrow with the Rene Lalique Car Mascot Archers) established its museum at The Gilmore. As a result there are a wide array of Pierce-Arrows on display, one of the coolest of which is a 1912 motorcycle. Note that the entire museum grew out of a gift from Mrs. to Mr. Gilmore of a Pierce-Arrow project car needing renovation. Also, the Tucker Historical Collection and Library, a project of the Tucker Automobile Club of America (the “Car of the Future”) is at the Gilmore. Heck, they even have a Chrysler Turbine Car!
Why do we R.Lalique types care about all this? Well, because they also have one of the largest hood ornament/car mascot/auto badge collections in the United States. It contains over 1600 items, some of which are Rene Lalique Car Mascots!
And why are we writing about this now? Well, because in August 2008, the U.S. Antiques Roadshow was in Grand Rapids and made a little trip down memory lane to Hickory Corners for a short Video Special at the Gilmore. In the video, Eric Silver (formerly of the auction house Doyle New York, and now with Lillian Nassau LLC) and Antiques Roadshow Host Mark Walberg spent a few minutes talking car mascots, including a little Rene Lalique Car Mascot talk, with some good video to go along with the chitchat.
So check out the Museum Website, where you’ll find a ton of great info and cool photos in addition to the ones here. And if you’re ever in Kalamazoo, take a pleasant half-day, put the top down and head over to Hickory Corners, where you’ll cruise into American Automobile and Rene Lalique History!
* The demonym (that’s a word used to describe local people which uses some local stuff in the word) Michigander is credited to Abraham Lincoln! Yes, The Abraham Lincoln! On July 27, 1848, Lincoln was making a speech in the U.S. Congress as a member of the Whig Party and a representative from Illinois, when he made of fun of Lewis Cass, the Governor of the Michigan Territory, by calling him “The Great Michigander!” If Lincoln only knew how well it would stick! What the heck, he carried Michigan in both his Presidential elections.
Rene Lalique Jewelry and Unique R Lalique Objects from 1900 and earlier are the focus of the Lalique Exhibition (and a couple of other guys stuff as well) titled Artistic Luxury, which we have written about several times previously in this R Lalique Blog (Lalique Exhibitions). This great Lalique Exhibition started out in Cleveland at the world class Cleveland Museum of Art, and moved earlier this year to the Legion of Honor Museum near the Bay in San Francisco where it will remain on view until May 31st.
What a great opportunity on so many levels. First and foremost was the chance to see some amazing unique R.Lalique objects that we may never have a chance to see again. And conveniently, we have been promising the whole staff here at RLalique.com some well earned all expense paid travel, for the great work on the website. Even more conveniently, San Francisco is but a short flight from the Arizona desert, but a world away in too many ways to recount fully in this article. A great vibrant City with hustle and bustle, crowds, traffic, noise, high rise buildings, and a really big body of water close at hand. None of these things are associated too often with our usual surroundings; the Sonoran Desert. All things considered, we had a trifecta of great excuses to shut things down for a week, and head to the hills (literally and figuratively).
So, RLalique.com journeyed en masse and incognito (that’s right – incognito – so no press conferences, no scholarly lectures, no private tours, no autographs, no glad handing of Museum personnel, no local TV appearances, and no photos of our wonderful staff, 🙂 for a great tourist visit to the exhibition.
We encamped in toto at the first great hotel in the heart of the City that was able to set aside, in spite of our last minute request, the floor of view rooms we needed (see photo from the floor window). And in moments, RLalique.com World Headquarters West was rolling. With the flip of just one electronic switch, the mountain of Lalique information from thousands of places around the globe that daily pours into the desert oasis that we usually call home, was re-routed across hill and valley, freeway, lake, and mountain, and dumped onto the top floor of our new temporary lodgings. And of course, in between 10 miles a day of walking, 50 cable car rides, a highlight tour of San Francisco Steakhouses (well, the tour was one stop per day at the dinner hour and was self conducted), as well as Muir Woods, Napa, Sonoma, Fisherman’s Wharf, Knob Hill, Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury (yes, there is still the smell of marijuana in the street),
Golden Gate Park (who says the homeless have no home… they are at home – in Golden Gate Park, and we spent a lot more time talking to the people in the park than to anyone else on the trip with the exception of a nice couple from Devon England discussed below), the Japanese Gardens (green tea with sweet and spicy treats in the finest outdoor garden atmosphere), Castro Street and Alcatraz (expected to see some people we know there, but turns out they closed the prison a while back and don’t have any criminals there anymore), and other activities that are but a San Francisco foggy memory in the blur of an insane tourist adventure, we managed to spend several hours at the exhibition. And yes, that is the longest run-on sentence we could construct.
Of course we didn’t forget that we walked the Golden Gate Bridge one end to the other and back, our group joined by a honeymooning couple from Devon England that we met while hanging out on the pier. Above is a photo of Mr. Incognito himself, contemplating the distant Golden Gate Bridge from his perch on the Alcatraz Ferry in San Francisco Bay while pondering the upcoming traverse!
A small side note to the Fisherman’s Wharf visit. Our newest intern, a refugee from an east coast institution of higher learning (higher on what we have know idea), smarmily whispered to another staff member upon arrival at the Wharf: “Now I know why we’re here, those must be Lalique Seals!” Will Rogers famously remarked that it takes most people at least five years to get over a college education. NI (newest intern) might take a bit longer!
Which brings us to the first mistake of trip. Landing in typical San Francisco bad weather on a Tuesday morning (see the accompanying photo of the Golden Gate Bridge – OH! You can’t see the bridge? That’s because it’s totally foggy, a rather persistent condition apparently in SF, and to be fair to the weather, maybe cold, wet and foggy is considered good weather up there, don’t really know), we headed over to the exhibition after a great lunch in a small neighborhood establishment in one of the run down areas of town where the locals are great and the food is better, AND we were the only tourists in sight. Of course, in a re-enactment of a longstanding San Francisco tradition, it took longer to find parking spaces for the RLalique.com convoy than to eat lunch. But it was worth it. The sun broke thru the clouds for 7 minutes and 46 seconds as we enjoyed sidewalk dining (well, technically we were eating off of tables and not the actual sidewalk) at its finest. Seriously, a few small tables, great food and great service. Sorry, but the restaurant is so small we cannot give out the name here, as with our extensive worldwide audience, the place would be over-run in days, all the locals and regulars would be crowded out, and when the excitement died down, the owners would have a bunch of mad locals that found somewhere else to hang out and our endorsement would be a curse instead of a blessing. And most importantly, when we make our way back up north for SF II, sequel to the movie, at some point in the next decade or two, the restaurant might not be there anymore for our encore appearance if all of the above occurred! So we promised the owners that we would not spill the beans.
Anyway, off to the Legion of Honor Museum we go, the entire RLalique.com caravan sans police escort (think incognito), making only one detour along the way to peruse the lodgings at some upscale little housing development along the water. We arrive in the drizzle of course, only to find out that Tuesday is FREE admittance day to the museum. That is the good news. The bad news was a bit bigger. First, FREE museum does not mean FREE exhibition! Apparently, the basement of the museum is not part of the FREE area. OK, the $10 “Special Exhibition” charge was obviously no big deal and was half what we expected to spend on each ticket, BUT it turns out that to save the regular museum charge of $10, which would have been on top of the Special Exhibition charge of $10, a lot of San Francisco people go to the Exhibition on FREE Tuesday to pay half the normal total price of admission. So it was crowded. Which is a good thing in the big R Lalique picture, but which caused some minor inconvenience in viewing each of the great items close up and in the preferred casual and relaxed manner. And to think they had other people there! Hmmmmmm! At first, we thought the crowd was there because word of our visit had leaked, and the staff opinion is still split 50/50 about whether a leak occurred or not. It’s still one of the many great unknowns of the trip.
Notwithstanding the mob scene and the true reasons for the huge crowd, it was a great assemblage of amazing R.Lalique objects, which half the staff feels is probably why there was mob scene! And here is a photo of your humble correspondent in deep thought over this whole perplexing “Leak or Lalique” situation (as it came to be known by our security staff), while sitting in front of the Legion of Honor Entrance!
Ignoring those other guys whose stuff was on exhibit, the Rene Lalique items were GREAT! What can you say about the apparently unique black glass scarab vase with the rust red coating lent to the exhibition by the Musee des Art Decoratifs in Paris, which acquired it directly from Rene Lalique in 1911 for 1000 French Francs? Which was sitting right there next to the unique Grenouilles Et Nenuphars Vase recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum for it’s permanent collection (having sold at Christies New York in December 2006 on a very cold New York day)!
The coolest and most striking Rene Lalique object was the “sugar bowl” owned by the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. The body is constructed of writhing serpents, with glass blown inside the open serpent framework, and sporting an incorporated lid. The entire staff of RLalique.com unanimously voted this to be the one object most needed to compliment our World Headquarters Tea Set. No sugar, no tea you know. Of course we would purchase this great Lalique unique object in two seconds if it came up for sale, which is easy to say in the most braggadocio fashion because the Gulbenkian doesn’t sell it’s works of Rene Lalique! 🙂
The Lalique Jewelry (yes, and the Lalique jewellery) was fantastic as well, and there was a lot more Rene Lalique unique jewelry than unique objects. Amazing items, delicate in a way that Lalique’s contemporaries did not match, and stylish and refined in a way no one has ever equaled! Fabulous all ’round. And we all still want to meet a beautiful woman wearing a large and unique Rene Lalique ‘bodice ornament”.
If you have time before the 31st, it’s a wonderful trip and a great opportunity to view some of the finest output of the great Rene Lalique. Where else do you see the lily of the valley at the museum and at the Japanese Garden on the same day?
And of course, if you want to purchase the catalogue book of the Exhibition, the amazing 372 page complete hardback version with great color illustrations and some highly insightful commentary, just visit the Rene Lalique Books Library right here at RLalique.com and check it out, along with the other fabulous Rene Lalique exhibition books and catalogues we have assembled and made available to you from around the world.
Rene Lalique: A Retrospective Exhibition of the works of Lalique Opens in Tokyo on June 24th: The National Art Center in Tokyo Japan is the first of two stops for a great exhibition of the R.Lalique works of Rene Lalique. The exhibition features rare Lalique glass items including important Cire Perdues, unique Lalique jewelry, and other works contributed by many Japanese and international museums including the Kitazawa Museum of Art, the Izu Glass and Craft Museum, the Omura Art Museum, Kobe Fashion Museum, the Toyota Automobile Museum, the Shonan Enoshima Perfume Bottle Museum, the Narita Museum, the Gulbenkian (see pictured Cire Perdue), the Musee D’Orsay (see pictured hat pin) and others. The exhibition will be at the National Art Center in Tokyo thru September 7th, when it will move to the MOA Museum of Art in Japan from September 15th to November 23rd. We will bring you more news and details as they become available.
Note that many of the museums that will contribute to this great Lalique Exhibition, have wonderful museum books or catalogues containing their collections of Rene Lalique works. A good number of these out of print books and catalogues cannot be found anywhere in the world except in the R Lalique Exhibition Books and Catalogues Section of the R Lalique Library here at RLalique.com. We expect that we will be adding the Rene Lalique catalogue book of this great Lalique Exhibition to our extensive inventory when it’s available.
Rene Lalique Museum Exhibition Video Tour: Here is a great Rene Lalique Exhibition Video Tour in French, of the works of the great Rene Lalique from Luxe TV. The video documents the fabulous L’Exposition Lalique held in 2007 in Paris at the Musee du Luxembourg and in Berlin at the Brohan Museum in late 2007 and early 2008. The Lalique Exhibition, titled Rene Lalique Exceptional Jewellery 1890-1912 contained not just great and unique Lalique jewelry, but also some unique and other early glass works and objects including a couple amazing unique Rene Lalique Vases. The total number of Rene Lalique objects in the Exhbition was over 300. The video features Olivier Mauny, who at the time was the President Director General of The Lalique Crystal Company, and Yvonne Brunhammer, author and editor of several books and catalogs on the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods including several on Rene Lalique. She is the editor of the Official Exhibition Catalogue Book: Rene Lalique Exceptional Jewellery 1890-1912, which is a profusely illustrated oversized reference book concerning the Lalique Exhibition, as well as a substantial commentary and history about Rene Lalique and his works. There are several versions of this book with different amounts of content. The largest and the complete version (in English) which is 286 pages, is available in the Lalique Library here at RLalique.com in the section on Rene Lalique Museum and Exhibition Books. You can find out a lot more about Rene Lalique and his works in the Rene Lalique Biography Section here at RLalique.com.
Lalique Exhibition in San Francisco: The fabulous Exhibition “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique”, which was at the Cleveland Museum of Art for many months, opened on February 7th at the San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum. The Exhibition will run thru May 31st, and we highly recommend that every Rene Lalique collector that didn’t see the Exhibition in Cleveland make a visit if possible. There are many unique R Lalique objects on display. You don’t get to handle them, but there are Rene Lalique vases, jewelry and other one-of-kind items on exhibit that you may never have a chance to view again. Here is a link to our previous post from the middle of last year announcing this wonderful Exhibition of Lalique!
Visiting the Legion of Honor
The Legion of Honor displays a collection of over 4,000 years of ancient and European art and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a Beaux-Arts style building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Address: Lincoln Park, 34th Avenue and Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94121, 415-750-3600
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 9:30 am–5:15 pm; closed on Monday
Admission: $20 – Adults $17 – Seniors
$16 – Youths 13–17 and Students with college I.D.
Members and children 12 and under are free.
($10 admission for permanent collection only)
General admission is free the first Tuesday of every month ($10 surcharge for Artistic Luxury still applies). Information: legionofhonor.org
Lalique Museum Groundbreaking Ceremony: On November 8th, 2008, the unveiling of the cornerstone for the new Musee Lalique occurred at Wingen-su-Moder in the north of Alsace near the site of one of the glass factories of the great Rene Lalique. Partners in the project, which is expected to open in 2010 include the town of Wingen-sur-Moder, the Lalique Crystal Company, the Department of Bas-Rhin, and the Alsace Region. The museum will have official Museum status with the French government. This status will enable the Lalique Museum to accept deposits or loans of works from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Musée d’Orsay. The Museum will also have the right of preemption to acquire works in France, and it will be eligible for funding of acquisitions through a government fund for acquisitions by official Museums. This tribute to Rene Lalique, and what in effect will be a French National repository for his works for public display, has been a long time coming, and will provide a focal point not just in France, but also worldwide, for honoring the man who was not just the father of modern jewelry, but was also so important to the artistic and industrial development, implementation and adoption of decorative design in the first half of the 20th century with his fabulous glass creations. The museum will feature not just an exhibition hall, but also a garden and cafeteria, as well as an auditorium, a gift shop, and a teaching center. There will also be a place in the Museum for the works of Marc Lalique, as well space for temporary exhibitions. The Museum will apparently receive a good size group of around 200 items and 2000 original Rene Lalique drawings from the Lalique Crystal Company for exhibit, as well as items from the personal collection of Silvio Denz, the head of the Perfume and Fragrance Company, which owns just over 50% of the Lalique Crystal Company.
Readers, this is great news for R Lalique and Rene Lalique enthusiasts and collectors! A world class museum dedicated to Rene Lalique! All of the people, agencies, and companies involved in the Lalique Museum project are owed a debt of gratitude by R Lalique collectors worldwide. We will keep you updated as the project progresses and additional news becomes available.
The Lalique Museum:
Architects: Wilmotte, Paris, France
Scenographer: dUCKS scéno (photo credit)
Hello Veronique. Can you tell us about the layout and structure of the museum space and grounds and how it relates to the focus and purpose of the museum? Will there be special or temporary exhibitions or just a big permanent one?
Naturally, the Musée Lalique has all the facilities one would expect to find in a museum created at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In addition to spaces for permanent and temporary exhibitions and storerooms, We have planned a café and a shop where visitors will be able not only to buy postcards, books and other related products, but also items of Lalique crystal. We also have an 85-seat auditorium where we will show a film on the history of René Lalique or his expertise, as well as specific programs in line with temporary exhibitions. This auditorium will also enable us to organize cycles of conferences and symposia. In addition, we have the advantage of three rooms to host educational workshops. A broad range of activities will be offered for children.
How far a drive is the museum from Paris and what is the best way for a visitor to get to the museum if they are visiting from the UK, from France, or from overseas?
Is there any information not covered by our questions that you would like to convey?
In our first article, we presented some photos of the site that would become the new Musée Lalique, and the architect’s concept of what the final project would look like. We accompany this article with photos of the Musée in progress as it moves from that original site toward the architectural plan. This is basically our “nuts and bolts” article, where we show the nuts and bolts of the construction of the Museum, and where we talk with Veronique about the nuts and bolts of the organization that created the Museum.
In my training, I was not only interested in the history of glassmaking in Wingen-sur-Moder, where the Lalique factory is still operating today, but also in that of Saint-Louis whose reputation speaks for itself; Meisenthal, known for having worked for Emile Gallé; and Goetzenbruck, which specialised in watch glasses and later in optical glass.
After completing my studies, I had the opportunity to work with the Conseil Général du Bas-Rhin. In the context of this mission, I was the curator of a Lalique exhibition held during the summer of 2006 at the Château de Lichtenberg, a few kilometres from Wingen-sur-Moder. I then had the good luck to cultivate an interest in the scientific aspects of the museum project. Gradually, my tasks have become more diversified.
I’m also busy with the administrative and financial aspects of the project. This means, for example, that I prepare and monitor all decisions taken by the Board of Directors, that I prepare the budget, handle requests for subsidies, and other similar matters.
The Musée Lalique is a public project, supported by the local authorities: Région Alsace, Département du Bas-Rhin, Communauté de Communes du Pays de La Petite Pierre and Commune de Wingen-sur-Moder.
For the administrative organisation of the Syndicat Mixte, I should say that it’s managed by a Board of Directors composed of eleven members representing the four financial backers. It is chaired by a President, Mr Gaston Dann, and two Vice-Presidents. It is to them who I report on my work.
Veronique, so that our readers will understand the importance of the “Musée de France” designation, can you tell us the names of some of the other Musées de France?
It was over two years ago that we reported the news on these pages that the long-awaited ground breaking ceremony for the new 
Wingen Sur Moder, located in the northeastern part of France near the border with Germany, is also the home of the great 
Veronique’s involvement with almost all facets of the creation of the Musée over an extended time period made her the best choice for us to bring detailed, informative, and up-to-date information and news to you concerning the Musée now that the opening is imminent. Note that Veronique answered our most recently submitted questions just two weeks ago!
Can you tell us about your professional background and how you came to your current role with the museum?
So keeping in mind that an analysis from photos is no substitute for having the piece in hand, here it is:
So this is two different flags. We can’t say that no cire perdue vase would have a polished and flat underside as even the Oracle has not seen every last one of them. But totally polished and flat is not a hallmark of a Lalique Cire Perdue Vase base. Of course, if you had not ever had one in your hand, and were only working from a photo, how would you know what the underside of the vase should look like?
The signature appears frosted-over in the photo. This would not be typical with Cire Perdue.
Now, there can be what we’ll call dimples on the inside of design elements in a press mold vase with high relief, little dips behind high relief design elements. From surmise and not glassmaking experience, these little dimples could be caused by the extra thickness of the glass where the high relief design element is, that is thicker than the surrounding wall area of the vase. When the vase is taken from the mold at the proper time, the thick design area will be a bit hotter than the wall, and there can be a little bit of a dimple created by very minor glass flow in the hotter area. But this is not the same as basically hollow where you can feel the design from the inside.
Note that we have this great museum book available in hardback, softback, English or French, new and nearly new. This book also has the included great photo of the famous authentic CP14 vase which you see here.
This is the same art nouveau jewelry exhibition that was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (MFA) that was the subject of a previous 
Of course, the hardbound catalog of the exhibition, conveniently titled “Imperishable Beauty”, is available here at RLalique.com in the 
And in case you need more of an incentive to visit the exhibition, the museum location is another reason to make the trip! Cincinnati is a lively and charming Midwestern town. Jerry Springer, yes, TV show Jerry Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati around 40 years ago! There is plenty to keep a tourist busy including the great waterfront and riverboats on the Ohio River, major league sports, a regional amusement park, and a pretty good night life. But just a few minutes outside of town, you will find yourself in a rich and rolling rural countryside with a quieter and slower Midwest family atmosphere, and just a stone’s throw from Kentucky bluegrass country.
The piece most often appearing in exhibitions and photos around the world (including the accompanying photo from Wikipedia Commons) is the 9 Serpents pectoral* owned by the 
But another great Serpents motif jewelry piece also appears at exhibition from time to time, this one owned by the 
We previously wrote about this great 
In the early 1920’s, the Prince headed off to Paris for military studies. There he was seriously injured in a car accident in 1923. His wife came to Paris to help nurse him back to health, and they both were still in Paris in 1925 when the 1925 Exposition Internationale Des Arts Decoratifs took the world by storm. Apparently, it took the Asaka family by storm as well, and the new art deco style, decoratif art in everyday life, caught their fancy.
In 1929, they began work on an Art Deco residence in Tokyo that was completed in 1933. While the Ministry of Imperial Household oversaw the design and construction, the input of several of the great French decorative arts practitioners, notably Rene Lalique, and to a larger degree Henri Rapin (to whom the Prince entrusted the interior design of 7 of the rooms), made the house a model of modernist art deco restraint and style. The architectural contributions of Rene Lalique included the glass panel doors, and the chandeliers in the dining hall and grand guest room.
In July 1966, the 
Basically the former heartland of the industrial Midwest during the salad days of U.S. manufacturing! A lot of money was made here and stayed here in the form of public projects by wealthy people and companies. The Gilmores established a foundation that owns the museum and carries on, despite the passing of both Gilmores several decades ago.
So, what does the Gilmore Car Museum have? Where to begin, hmmm. Let’s start with the Blue Moon Diner, a real 1941 diner, picked up in toto from Meridian Connecticut, and moved here to the Michigan countryside! And yes, they serve pecan pie and frozen custard. Over 200 autos, from a 1948 “Waltz Blue” Tucker (number 47 out of a total production of only 51), to a Dusenberg! There’s a re-created 1930’s Shell gas station (including memorabilia from a Shell station just 3 miles from the Gilmore that closed during WWII), a small town train station, nine antique Michigan barns, and three miles of paved roads, as well as a huge collection of vintage pedal cars and miniatures. You may see their authentic London Double Decker bus tooling around the property when you visit, and it’s rumored (though not advertised) that a ride in a cool old vehicle might be had from time to time!
The museum is important in many other respects. For example, The Pierce-Arrow Society (the Roadshow video linked below features a Pierce-Arrow with the Rene Lalique Car Mascot Archers) established its museum at The Gilmore. As a result there are a wide array of Pierce-Arrows on display, one of the coolest of which is a 1912 motorcycle. Note that the entire museum grew out of a gift from Mrs. to Mr. Gilmore of a Pierce-Arrow project car needing renovation. Also, the Tucker Historical Collection and Library, a project of the Tucker Automobile Club of America (the “Car of the Future”) is at the Gilmore. Heck, they even have a Chrysler Turbine Car!
Rene Lalique Jewelry and Unique R Lalique Objects from 1900 and earlier are the focus of the Lalique Exhibition (and a couple of other guys stuff as well) titled Artistic Luxury, which we have written about several times previously in this R Lalique Blog (
Which brings us to the first mistake of trip. Landing in typical San Francisco bad weather on a Tuesday morning (see the accompanying photo of the Golden Gate Bridge – OH! You can’t see the bridge? That’s because it’s totally foggy, a rather persistent condition apparently in SF, and to be fair to the weather, maybe cold, wet and foggy is considered good weather up there, don’t really know), we headed over to the exhibition after a great lunch in a small neighborhood establishment in one of the run down areas of town where the locals are great and the food is better, AND we were the only tourists in sight. Of course, in a re-enactment of a longstanding San Francisco tradition, it took longer to find parking spaces for the RLalique.com convoy than to eat lunch. But it was worth it. The sun broke thru the clouds for 7 minutes and 46 seconds as we enjoyed sidewalk dining (well, technically we were eating off of tables and not the actual sidewalk) at its finest. Seriously, a few small tables, great food and great service. Sorry, but the restaurant is so small we cannot give out the name here, as with our extensive worldwide audience, the place would be over-run in days, all the locals and regulars would be crowded out, and when the excitement died down, the owners would have a bunch of mad locals that found somewhere else to hang out and our endorsement would be a curse instead of a blessing. And most importantly, when we make our way back up north for SF II, sequel to the movie, at some point in the next decade or two, the restaurant might not be there anymore for our encore appearance if all of the above occurred! So we promised the owners that we would not spill the beans.
Notwithstanding the mob scene and the true reasons for the huge crowd, it was a great assemblage of amazing R.Lalique objects, which half the staff feels is probably why there was mob scene! And here is a photo of your humble correspondent in deep thought over this whole perplexing “Leak or Lalique” situation (as it came to be known by our security staff), while sitting in front of the Legion of Honor Entrance!
The Lalique Jewelry (yes, and the Lalique jewellery) was fantastic as well, and there was a lot more Rene Lalique unique jewelry than unique objects. Amazing items, delicate in a way that Lalique’s contemporaries did not match, and stylish and refined in a way no one has ever equaled! Fabulous all ’round. And we all still want to meet a beautiful woman wearing a large and unique Rene Lalique ‘bodice ornament”.
If you have time before the 31st, it’s a wonderful trip and a great opportunity to view some of the finest output of the great Rene Lalique. Where else do you see the lily of the valley at the museum and at the Japanese Garden on the same day?
Rene Lalique: A Retrospective Exhibition of the works of Lalique Opens in Tokyo on June 24th: The National Art Center in Tokyo Japan is the first of two stops for a great exhibition of the R.Lalique works of Rene Lalique. The exhibition features rare Lalique glass items including important Cire Perdues, unique Lalique jewelry, and other works contributed by many Japanese and international museums including the Kitazawa Museum of Art, the Izu Glass and Craft Museum, the Omura Art Museum, Kobe Fashion Museum, the Toyota Automobile Museum, the Shonan Enoshima Perfume Bottle Museum, the Narita Museum, the Gulbenkian (see pictured Cire Perdue), the Musee D’Orsay (see pictured hat pin) and others. The exhibition will be at the National Art Center in Tokyo thru September 7th, when it will move to the MOA Museum of Art in Japan from September 15th to November 23rd. We will bring you more news and details as they become available. 
Note that many of the museums that will contribute to this great Lalique Exhibition, have wonderful museum books or catalogues containing their collections of Rene Lalique works. A good number of these out of print books and catalogues cannot be found anywhere in the world except in the 
Lalique Exhibition in San Francisco: The fabulous Exhibition “Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique”, which was at the Cleveland Museum of Art for many months, opened on February 7th at the 
