THE career of René Lalique (1860–1945) could almost have been crafted for collectors. He first made his reputation as a jeweller, supplying, among others, Siegfried Bing, whose shop, La Maison de l’Art Nouveau, gave the style its name, and his designs owed much to his apprenticeship with Louis Aucoc, who was already working in that manner. Glass always played a part and one wonders whether Lalique’s fascination with the material may not have owed something to his surroundings during two years of training at the Crystal Palace School of Art. Together with the work of the Belgian Philippe Wolfers, Lalique’s brooches, hair combs, pendants and necklaces, which are often unique pieces, are the most striking in the style.
As Art Nouveau waned following its short dominance of Euro-pean fashion, Lalique transitioned into the foremost Art Deco glassmaker, best known for his iridescent vases, bowls and dishes, as well as for carbonnet mascots, but he also made impressive architectural pieces for hotels, Atlantic liners, including SS Normandie, and a church in Jersey. Some pieces were one-offs and even the commercial runs came in differing colours or tones. After his death, the business continued under his son Marc and granddaughter Marie-Claude, until it was sold in 1994. However, it no longer produced ‘Lalique glass’, turning instead to lead crystal.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 01, 2023-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
