Rene Lalique

One of the Founders of two great Periods -
Art Nouveau and Art Deco. Two Revolutions in Art and Design that brought forth highly successful artists and sculptors to the delight of the world.

Rene was the foremost Jeweller and Glassmaker of both Periods.
Lalique Glass is highly collectible.
It includes Bowls,Vases,Figurines,Perfume Bottles and trinkets.

His necklaces are some of the most collectible jewellery on Earth.

When we think of Art Nouveau Jewellery or Art Nouveau Glass the first name that comes to mind is Rene Lalique Jewelery.

Although Lalique was primarily a Glass Designer he was equally known for his beautiful Jewels.

He began as a jeweller and developed into glassmaking.

He is particularly renowned for his designs of Lalique Crystal Vases,Chandeliers,perfume bottles and art nouveau jewellery.

Rene was born in Ay in Marne,France in 1860, throughout his childhood he loved nature and in his early teens he began to paint and the flowing forms of nature.

At the College Turgot. Rene Studied Drawing and Design and used his love of nature to develop a unique style of his own.

Renes mother realised how much he loved painting and design and apprenticed him to Louis Aucoc a Jeweller in Paris.

Rene was always a hard worker and a good student eager to learn.

At the same time He also studied at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in the evenings and later subsequently studied at Sydenham College in London England at a very fortunate time.

In England it was the time of the birth of the Arts and Crafts movement and Lalique would have been very interested in their designs .

During his holidays back in Ay he drew sketches of nature and wildlife and this influenced his work throughout his life.

England was the the very centre of the Arts and Crafts movement and he was inspired not only by the artists of that movement but also by what he saw at the Crystal Palace Exhibition.

In 1880 he returned to Paris where he studied Jewellery manufacturing and then sculpture under Justin Lequien at the Ecole Bernard Palissy.

This time influenced his later work as much of Palissy Pottery was relief decorated and had realistically modelled fish,lizards,snakes and plants.

From this background of Art and Design, he evolved flowing and often erotic designs and the influence of Palissy is shown in his vases such as the Sauterelles and Martin Pecheurs designs .

His most famous single work of the time is probably the Perruches bowl from the 1920s which had a frieze of beautiful moulded parakeets on Opalescent Glass.
Lalique Crystal has become synonymous with high quality figurines and vases.

In later years he became famous not only for art nouveau Glass but also for Art Nouveau Jewellery.

One of the most famous of the pieces of that time is the Bacchantes Bowl which is still in production today.

He has also been called the Art nouveau Glassmeister. He was truly the master of Art Nouveau and Art Deco Glass and Jewellery.
Here are a few Lalique Links from our store :

The Bacchantes Vase - A veritable Frenzy of Passion
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/lalique/bacchantes-vase

Lalique Big Cats - stunning sinuous big cats by Lalique
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/lalique/Lalique-bigcats

Lalique Perfume Bottles -Coty are the most collectible ones.
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/lalique/lalique-perfume

Lalique Dragonflies - wonderful observation

http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/lalique/lalique-dragonfly

(C) 2008 Keith Jones www.greatfrenchglass.com

A Similar Article about Rene Lalique also appears on our other French Glass site at :
http://www.laliqueartnouveau.com

Meisenthal Glassworks

Meiesenthal is an Historic Glassmaking Village where Emile Galle studied and worked.
The Meisenthal Glassworks was founded in 1704 and is a historical site in the region of Lorraine.

It was a major part of the birth of the Art Nouveau Movement in Glass with the works of art in glass produced by Emile Galle between 1867 and 1894.

Sadly the Glassworks of Meisenthal closed its doors in 1969.

The factory faced an uncertain future despite the expert knowledge retained by its workers.

The site rapidly began to look abandoned .
This was a similar fate to the factories of other Glassworks of the region.Already the factory of Montbronn had closed in 1957,

Cristallerie Lorraine de Lemberg in 1997,Cristallerie de Harttzviller in 2004 anhen the optical glassmakers Goetzenbruck in 2005.

Now though the larger Glass Makers are beginning to fight back with Lalique and Cristalleries de St Louis producing original designs for the worldwide market.

In 1978 an exhibition was held in Meisenthal with the copoperation of a number of Historians and experts in Glass together with the friends of the Museum of Glass.

A Centre for Research into glassmaking was founded with the co-operation 0f the Townsfolk of Meisenthal and the seven villages nearby in the glassmaking area.

The Centre CIAV International Centre of Art Glass of Meisenthal) was founded in the old Glassworks of the Glassworks of Meisenthal.

Apart from displays of Glassmaking techniques, there is a historical research department and of the foremost glassware produced at Meisenthal.

There is of course a large display of Art Nouveau Glass.

The C.I.A.V. has an interesting website with information and lots of interesting videos.

It is in French and well displayed and worth visiting for any Glass Collector.

The website is at http://www.ciav-meisenthal.fr/site.html

The website does require you to have FLASH installed and its a very glitzy interactive website with quite a lot more information than it would appear on the surface.
The videos are very interesting but some are aimed at the French market and require payment by Telecharger (a sort of payment by phone popular in France)

There were details of a Brocante (a kind of fleamarket come antiques Fair) in the streets of Meisenthal (this was in July 2008.)

Brocantes are excellent sources of original French Art Nouveau and Art Deco glassware. A Magazine call Aladdin in France lists the more regular Brocantes to visit. Get there early for bargains !

I hope this will be an annual event as it looks well worth visiting.

It would certainly be necessary to visit the tourism links before visiting to ascertain opening hours and local resources like antique markets.

There were very interesting Links -

http://www.cc-verre-cristal.fr/

http://www.halle-verriere.fr/

http://www.ot-paysdebitche.com

http://www.parc-vosges-nord.fr/

email address : mailto:ciav@wanadoo.fr

Tourism Links :

http://www.moselle-tourisme.com

http://www.tourisme-lorraine.fr/

Modern Paperweights

These are often made by artisans working on their own rather than for a glass factory.
They are often of very high quality especially by those glass makers making limited editions.
Paul Stankard is famous for his paperweights with beautifully realistic flowers.

Other Famous Paperweight makers of the 20th Century are :
Lundberg Studios
Correia Art Glass
Orient and Flume
Loton
Parablle Glass
Charles Kazuin
Paul Ysart
William Manson
Peter McDougall
Peter Holmes
John Deacons
Jim DOnofrio
Chris Buzzini
Delmo Tarsitano
Debby Tarsitano
Victor Trabucco
Gordon Smith
Rick Ayotte
Melissa Dayotte
Bob Banford
Ray Banford

There are many new High Quality glassmakers producing original and lovely paperweights right up to the present day.
Some glassmakers produce an everyday range and a more intricate range of Collector grade paperweights.

Glass Paperweights were originally designed to stop papers blowing away off desks.
In former times papers just blew away in the wind or were blown away by room or desk fans.
Manufacturers rapidly saw the potential in attractive Glass Paperweights and produced elegant
and lovely ones for sale as decorative items or as gifts.
These are still made today but the modern trend is towards acrylic paperweights which usually look pretty awful when placed beside a real glass paperweight.

Paperweights usually have a flat base to stop them from rolling off your desk and many have faceted tops to display the contents more easily.
Domed tops are still however the favourites.

While Baccarat was the best known French Paperweight maker (and still is), Clichy and St Louis were the other two main manufacturers in France in the 19th Century.All of these glassmakers paperweights are avidly collected.
Pantin also made a smaller range of beautiful paperweights.

In Britain a company called Bacchus produced paperweights of high quality and so did the New England Glass Company in the USA.
Paperweights from these companies are also very collectable.

St Louis is also still an active paperweight maker.

Paperweights are often thought of as just the Millefiori (from the Italian for 1000 flowers)
and these are indeed quite collectable (the ones to look for are the Baccarat ones which have the letter b in the middle of one of the glass rods)
Millefiori paperweights are composed of dozens or hundreds of glass rods which usually have pretty designs or flower patterns inside them and they are grouped together within a clear glass dome.

There are also a group of paperweights called Lampwork and these have a glass figure within them shaped within them by a glassmaker using glass tubes and a gas torch.

These often have delightful figurines of animals or other nature subjects within them.

Swirl Paperweights have a central millefiori floret from which lots of coloured opaque rods spiral around.
Victorian Paperweights featuring people or scenes also exist and these were made from milk glass discs and incoprporated within the Dome.They were often made from photos of loved ones.
These are quite rare and most of them are in museums.
Sulfide Paperweights have 3-D portraits or portrait plaques within them - they are also quite rare.
Other collectable paperweights include those with embroidered or woven images embedded.
Rarer still are early paperweights that incorporate early Victorian Advertising slogans .
Paperweights in PERFECT condition are what every collector desires.
Factorslike colour casts, bubles within the dome,striations or scratches will reduce the value.

A good PRICE Guide is essential if you are buying expensive Paperweights.
Apart from Auctions,the best places to look for old paperweights are thrift shops,fleamarkets and antique stores.
Beware of modern imitations of Victorian paperweights made in Hungary,Czech Repulic or Taiwan.
Some of these are quite good copies and you should handle real paperweights before looking at these so that you can judge by weight - copies are usually much lighter in weight and have no signs of wear on the flat base.

Modern Paperweights are also collectable and I have a separate article on those.
The most widely collected paperweights are the Walt Disney range of Paperweights featuring Disney characters - some of their early paperweights are surprisingly expensive.

More about Paperweights:
Paperweights

Lalique Paperweights

Baccarat Paperweights

Books on Baccarat (lots of paperweight information)

Andre Delatte

At first glance Delatte Cameo Glass can be confused with Daum.
Amdre Delatte started in 1921 in Nancy.
A Specialist French Glassmaker who worked mostly with Cameo Glass from his Glass works in Nancy France.
Delatte specialised in acid etched cameo glass but got into several lawsuits after he produced
a number of cameo pieces with a remarkable similarity to those of Daum .
At that time each glassmaker vied to produced new pieces and to pick up the latest trend of what customers were buying.

Most of Delattes pieces are acid etched rather than the usual wheel cut or carved pieces houses like Daum produced.
He did however make lovely later sand blasted monochrome pieces and some rather appealing bowls and vases that have excellent Art Deco enamels.
Delatte also made lighting fixtures and Bohemian-style opaline glass pieces.
He also made work including dragonflies and pastoral vases and bowls similar to Daum ones .

Early Delatte was always signed either with ADelatte or ADelatte Nancy but may be mistaken for Daum.
His monochrome vases have the mark Javril.

I think this is a great tip for the future and prices are fairly low when considered against Daum

Our Andre Delatte pieces for sale are HERE:
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/andre-delatte

Current Lalique Figurine Bargains from eBay

Excellent video about Rene Lalique

Has some superb perfume bottles and installations of Rene Laliques work together with

seome interesting facts about early Lalique Glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ8Dg7-gK0A

Thanks to Youtube and exero13 for the video

Video of the history and artistic work of Daum Glassmakers

The fascination of glassmaking  - sculptures in Glass

How Crystal Glass is made and a demonstration of the Lost Wax method of production.

Well worth watching video for any Glass Collector

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0L10eQINSo

We hope you enjoyed this video
Daum Glassware is indeed unforgettable

Edmond Glass have this great video on their Engrave Glass

Thanks to Edmond Glass and Youtube for the video

 

I particularly liked the youg owl and the dogs - that must have taken AGES to do ..

 

Edmonds Glass Engraving

Yes its Lalique !

(you KNOW I love Lalique !)

I came back from Paris with a Bird and a St Cloud Bowl from a Brocante

Here are some of my other favourites :

Frogs (I get silly over Lalique Frogs)

Currently there is a limited edition Decanter available from Lalique specifically for fine wines in Crystal Glass.
This is a delightful piece with dragonflies mounted on  the stopper.

(I know what I would like for Christmas now !)

A  Charming figurine of a Sitting Tiger

The Thistle Crystal vase with stark contrasts in the design.

(It does seem hard to get though)

The Panther Paperweight - harking back to the style of the car mascots.
A New Bacchantes Vase in Black looks very sensuous
The Mossi Vase in black looks to be a new style icon .
The Hommage vase is a traditional vase with delightful nudes in relief.
Sparrows vase has some really cute sparrows and is definitely in the grand Lalique Tradition.
Poseidon Vase is another iconic design with wondrous seahorse handle
I was taken by the Abundance Bowl which had a very 18th century feel about it.
The Champs ELysees Bowl in Green is a real stunner with a lovely green.
A superb Nude Figurine and one of my favourites is Aphrodite.
A kneeling nude called Venus in frosted glass has sold out so if you see one it would be a wise investment.
Oceanide is a nude sea nymph rising from the waves and is quite delightful.
The Lalique Trophy is a stunning and stark desin in black and sure to be a stylemaker.
Lastly but not least is the Zeila Panther in amber - a magnificent panther in motion.

Our Paperweight Sections :
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/baccarat/baccarat-paperweight
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/clichy-paperweights
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/crystal-paperweights
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/daum-Paperweights
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/french-paperweights
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/lalique-paperweight
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/millefiore-paperweight
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/pantin-paperweights
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/paperweight
http://www.greatfrenchglass.com/Store/st-louis-paperweight