R Lalique Repairs & Alterations!

Glass Breaks - It's just one of those things. People Make Changes - Another one of those things! But given a choice, and all other things being equal, most collectors would prefer a piece of R Lalique that isn't broken or altered. Of course, for the money, there are sometimes good reasons to purchase a piece that has had some damage or alterations. For example, if you are a museum, and you can buy the R Lalique Red Acanthes with the hole in the bottom (it was drilled for a lamp back in the day) for 10 cents on the dollar, and that hole does not affect your display in any way, you might say to yourself, hey, we can buy 10 R Lalique vases to display instead of one if we buy the holy vases! If you are chasing a rare R Lalique piece that you are unlikely to find again, and the example you come across has some damage, depending on the piece, the damage, and your own inclinations, you might go for it. So broken or altered R Lalique glass is not necessarily a bad thing, it is what it is. And that brings us to the point of this R Lalique Repairs and Alterations Section. To help you know "what it is", so that you can factor the alteration into your purchase decision.

For simplicity and educational sake, we are restricting R Lalique Alterations to ones that fit all four of the following criteria. First, they have to be able to be explained easily. Second, we have to be able to demonstrate the alteration we are discussing through the use of photos , so that you can see what to look out for. Third, we will only discuss alterations that we think are relatively common; ones that we have seen several times. And fourth, the alterations we are discussing here are physical alterations that change the shape of the glass, replace glass, or reduce the amount of glass. Stuff like forged signatures and color changing are covered in our Fake Lalique Section.

One important final point. Many of these alterations are not done with the intent to fool anyone. An R Lalique item with a big chunk missing may look kind of rough, and an owner wanting to clean a piece up so that it looks good, may undertake any number of alterations in good faith. The issue arises when the piece comes up for sale. It is then that disclosure is important. And by the time a piece goes thru an estate sale, a garage sale, or what have you, the person that bought it may not even know there has been an alteration. So the important thing here is not the motive of the seller, which is sometimes very hard to discern. It's only the fact of the alteration that should be of the most concern to the educated buyer and the readers of this website.

The R Lalique Repairs and Alterations Section will grow as time goes by. To start, we present two common R Lalique alterations. Your ideas, comments, added photos of existing alterations you see here, and suggestions for future alterations are welcome and appreciated. Please email any and all observations to Info@RLalique.com. Please review the Photo Submissions Guidelines when emailing us any photos.

The R Lalique Alterations

Missing Material	Ashtrays To Seals

	Rescues And Assemblies	Added and Swapped Pieces

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