Rene Lalique Vases have been listed at auctions online that appear to be good opportunities for R Lalique collectors. We thought we’d steer you to a few of the most prominent of these good looking Lalique auction offerings, which of course you should fully investigate on your own. In that regard, you may want to review the Rene Lalique Buying Guide online at RLalique.com. And as always, you can see all of these vases in the Lalique Auctions section of the website.
One seller has put up a few nice looking Lalique vases: A Grenade vase in Amber Glass, a Domremy Vase in Green Glass, and a Rampillon Vase in Opalescent. All three started out a few days ago at $0.99 no reserve, and have a couple of days to go, expiring on January 20th. The Des Moines Iowa seller has good photos showing the vases in detail, along with whatever wear and tear has occurred over time.
Here are links to a saved/cached image version of the original listings 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.
The Green Domremy Vase is Ebay Item No. 180457081735
The Amber Grenade Vase is Ebay Item No. 180457079508
The Opalescent Rampillon Vase is Ebay Item No. 180457074457
Another nice looking opportunity is the Rene Lalique Vase Nefliers which appeared online, with a $24.88 starting price and no reserve. This circa 1923 vase is in San Francisco and the auction for it ends on January 26th. Again, several photos showing all the details and good description.
A nice looking Rambouillet covered box popped up online late yesterday at auction. This circa 1924 Lalique box features a Lalique design of two herons on the cover. Both the box top and bottom sport molded R. Lalique signatures. It’s model No. 60 in the R.Lalique Catalogue Raisonne appearing on page 233 of the 2004 Edition.
The seller states the box is “damage free” and there are a dozen photos in the listing for your detailed inspection. The starting price is $199 and there is no reserve. And more good news: in the U.S. it’s only $7.50 to ship from the Escondido California seller. The seller added information to the listing that they will accept bids and ship overseas except for mainland China. See the listing for details.
Seems like a good Lalique auction opportunity on a fresh to market Rene Lalique box in apparently good condition. The auction goes to January 20th. Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 370320212283 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 can see this box in the Rene Lalique Auction Section on RLalique.com, and you can see other News and Blog box articles at this link for Rene Lalique Boxes.
Finally, if you are looking for the out-of-print and hard to find 2004 Catalogue Raisonne, check the modern Rene Lalique Books category of the Lalique Books and Library Section at RLalique.com where you’ll find the 2004 Catalogue Raisonne in stock as well as nearly 1000 other titles throughout the Library related to the great Rene Lalique.
Rene Lalique created a wonderful fountain for the 1925 Paris Exposition Des Arts Décoratifs, the Art Deco Exposition. And full size Source De La Fontaine Lalique statues of the designs that were incorporated into that fountain sell for many thousands of dollars. In creating his great fountain, Les Sources De France, Rene Lalique was following in the footsteps of the tradition in Paris of the great French fountain builders dating back to the middle ages when fountains were first constructed to provide drinking water to the people of Paris!
Lalique knew he had conceived a great design, not just for the fountain in its entirety, but also in the style and motif of the large glass statues which were the fountain elements. As a result, he also made a miniature statuette model in the style of the fountain statues set in his classic round cendrier with centerpiece. In this case, the centerpiece is the Statuette De La Fontaine.
Today, this style cendrier in all its forms is commonly called a ring dish by sellers either because they don’t know, or because “ashtray” is not usually the best selling point.
A nice looking example of the Rene Lalique Cendrier Statuette De La Fontaine has appeared at auction, in apparently great condition with a starting price of just $99 and no reserve. The seller states there is no damage.
Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 130357207907 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.
This ashtray is listed in the Lalique Auctions Section at RLalique.com.
And you can learn more about Rene Lalique’s contributions to the 1925 Paris Expo and the international acclaim he achieved by his accomplishments there, in the Lalique Books and Library Section! Most of the Lalique biography books available there cover the subject in some detail.
The Statuette De La Fontaine Cendrier: A clean design, a no-reserve auction, and a relatively inexpensive memento of the great Lalique Art Deco Fountain.
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
A bit late in the season, but a Halloween ashtray on all levels!
And this from the 100% Positive Feedback “Cowtown USA” seller’s description:” …. THE DISH HAS A CHIP ON THE TOP OF THE LAPINS HEAD …..HARDLY NOTICEABLE WHEN DISPLAYED…… ”
Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 160387582298 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.
What a great color! For more information, visit the Rene Lalique Tailor Shop where you’ll find other common R Lalique alterations or damages to look out for.
Oh yea, we almost forgot. If anyone has any comments about this piece, we’re all ears!
February 26th, 2010 Update: Switched Item Link To Cached Image Version
Rene Lalique Auction results were strong once again, this time at Heritage Auctions In New York City on November 10th.
The Rene Lalique lots in the Heritage Sale (which also included some modern Lalique Crystal pieces) totaled 108 items, of which 90 sold, for a take-up rate of 83%. Total sales for R Lalique including the 19.5% buyer’s premium were $487,410, making the average sold lot price $5,416. This total includes two lots of R Lalique and related books and other publications, which bring the average down slightly.
As is typical, the great Rene Lalique Vases led the way both for high prices and for total dollar sales. High seller by nearly a 50% margin over the 2nd place lot(s), was the stunning Rene Lalique Deco Vase Serpent in Amber Glass, which brought a premium inclusive price of $47,800.
Four other vases tied for 2nd place at $31,070 all-in: Borromee in Blue Glass, the large Palestre Vase in clear and frosted glass covered with gray patina, and the deco black enameled vases Tourbillons and Oranges, both in clear and frosted glass. 6th place in the money department went to the Rene Lalique Car Mascot Victoire that made $26,290 including the premium.
Things dropped off a bit after that, with the next 5 high sellers making between $13,000 and $15,000 all-in. This group was a mixed bunch consisting of the vases Milan in Green Glass and Aigrettes in Olive Green Glass, the car mascot Longchamps A, the luminaire Tulipes (a lighted plaque on a metal stand), and the statue Grand Nue Longue Cheveux Socle Lierre (Grand Nue).
All told and all-in there were 12 lots above $10,000 accounting for $278,435 or about 56 percent of the total dollars for the 92 sold lots, with the 12th high seller being Lot No. 1, the rare Lezards Perfume bottle, which made $11,950.
The sale total for Rene Lalique at this Heritage Sale would place this auction third in the year 2009 for total R Lalique sales at a single auction. First place goes to the Lalique Jewelry (and Lalique Chalice) sold at Christies New York on October 21st where just six lots made about $1,778,000. Second place would be the November 11th Lalique Auction at Christies South Kensington in London where 120 lots (of which 11 did not sell) made a sale total for R Lalique of about $750,000.
All-in-all a great result and another in a long string of strong Rene Lalique Auction results showing the depth of popularity for the works of Rene Lalique as they continue to perform well worldwide at auction.
Rene Lalique Jewelry continued its trend of strong auction sales prices yesterday in the November 9, 2009 Magnificent Jewels Sale at Sothebys New York. The wonderful Lalique Roses Brooch made from diamonds, pearls, glass, and enamel, and which has graced the home page of RLalique.com for the last several weeks, sold as Lot 88 for $86,500 all-in against a pre-sale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000! This continues the estimate crushing trend of auction prices garnered by unique Rene Lalique jewelry and other unique works created in the late 19th Century and early in the 20th Century.
Further details concerning this jewel of a brooch can be found in the RLalique.com Rene Lalique Auction Results page for the brooch, or by first going to the Lalique Auctions Past section of the website. Additionally, Rene Lalique Jewelry will take you to all articles in the RLalique.com News and Blog which relate to the unique jewelry creations of Rene Lalique, and Rene Lalique Biography will get you detailed information about the rise of Rene Lalique in the late 1800’s to become the world’s most celebrated jeweler.
Finally, you’ll find in our Rene Lalique Auctions Section that more unique jewellery of Rene Lalique, including the wonderful gold and enamel figural brooch pictured here, is on tap for late January in the UK.
Rene Lalique made extensive use of Flora and Fauna in his famous Lalique Jewelry, and in the majority of his Lalique Glass designs. Nicholas Dawes, noted Rene Lalique personality, Antiques Roadshow Appraiser, and author of the seminal 1986 work “Lalique Glass“, is giving a lecture today in New York City analyzing the historical use of Flora and Fauna as art forms by Rene Lalique.
Mr. Dawes is in New York this week in his role as a consignment director for Heritage Auctions where he is overseeing this year’s largest Rene Lalique Auction on Thursday December 10th. We have previously written about this exciting Lalique Auction and have also included details in the Rene Lalique Auctions Worldwide Section here at RLalique.com!
This scholarly and informative lecture will be in Manhattan at 104 East 25th just off Park Avenue on the 3rd Floor at 4:00 PM. Readers of RLalique.com that will be in New York City today are invited to attend. There is no charge, and there will be a cocktail reception following the 1 hour lecture where attendees will also be able to view the many R Lalique items in Thursday’s auction. If you tell Mr Dawes you read about the lecture here at RLalique.com, he’ll buy you a drink at the reception! But even if you don’t tell him you saw it here, cocktails are free 🙂 and you will get a chance to talk to Nick and other Rene Lalique enthusiasts and collectors in attendance.
A wonderful opportunity to learn more about the talent and creativity of the great Rene Lalique.
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.
As of this writing 82 different auction sales around the world featuring the work of Rene Lalique are listed in the Rene Lalique Auctions Worldwide Section of the site to occur between now and year-end. The largest of these upcoming sales is by far the sale of Rene Lalique glass and other objects put together by Lalique Expert Nicholas Dawes in his new role as a consignment director for Heritage Auctions of Dallas, which is now the third largest auction house in the world (measured by sales volume).
Heritage and Mr. Dawes have put together a wide-ranging selection of Rene Lalique pieces represented by 100 RLalique lots to be auctioned in a New York City sale on December 10th.
Notable among the offerings are the famous Rene Lalique Vases that make up nearly half the lots. The Heritage sampling includes 3 colored Perruches Vases (the great looking red one is pictured here in case you missed it :), a Borromee Vase in the highly desirable “Borromee Blue” color, two colored Archers Vases, the stunning Amber Serpent Vase, and matched pair of the rare 1911 designed vase Frise Aigles. There is also a great selection of smaller colored vases including a teal Gui, a deep green Courlis, and two different colored Moissac vases.
Rene Lalique Statues is another strong section of the sale, featuring both yellow and opalescent Suzannes, an Opalescent Thais, an opalescent Moyenne Voilee, a Grand Nue Lierre and others.
Rene Lalique Perfume Bottles include a rare Lezards bottle, and Lalique’s Car Mascots include a good-looking pair of Longchamps (one of each version) and a Vitesse.
Rene Lalique Clocks are represented by the clock Inseparables, and there are also drawings, jewelry, tableware, boxes, seals, ashtrays, and an inkwell. There is something for just about every different collecting area of the works of the great Rene Lalique.
One notable tableware item is the rare Coupe Sirenes. This is great design that most collectors will not see in their lifetime. As always though, carefully check out the condition of any item, including this one, before bidding.
All told, a near tour de force of the commercial production works of Rene Lalique with a high percentage of rare colored pieces, highly desirable collector lots, some hard to find items, and a few unique drawings and a great mirror in the mix to complete a well rounded and high quality sale.
Contact information for the sale and a link to the Heritage website can be found in our Rene Lalique Auctions Section.
What do RLalique.com and The 1957 Musical Play “The Music Man” have in common today? Well, we’ve set a record with 76 current Rene Lalique Auction Listings Worldwide today, November 19th, easily surpassing last year’s record of 68 auctions listed at any one time! Our current listings dropped off by several auctions that occurred yesterday, but today we added a record 14 upcoming Lalique auctions to the list! There are untold hundreds of great Rene Lalique Auction items to peruse, with auction listings from many continents and countries as far flung as China, Italy, Australia, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, France and the U.S. Eerily, one of those auctions (Jacksons) is very close to the home town setting for the play, which as everyone knows (well, everyone where we live knows), is River City, Iowa.
And how you might ask; how does this all relate to Meridith Wilson’s great musical play featuring an amazingly long lived and popular American song? Well, check out the video below of the Finale from The Music Man and think about how we are trumpeting our own success!
And on a more serious note (OK, not that serious but follow along anyway), those of you that know the story know that Professor Harold Hill, the Music Man, changed his world by bringing a band to River City of course :). That might tie in a bit as well!
No, we are not starting a band. But nowhere, and at no time in the history of the planet could you find information in one place, or in any place, on 76 upcoming auctions featuring the works of the great Rene Lalique! That is of course, until today!
And if you’re wondering, the great song in the video is how we plan to remember the new record when next year rolls around, unless of course we add a net of 6 more Rene Lalique auctions tomorrow, which would mean we’d have to find a song that has an 82 in it and which is performed by the brass section of a marching band! 🙂 Tough act to follow.
If we could ever get up to 110 listings, then those of you that know the words to the music, know we can stick with the same song. For those of you that had this particular song and story omitted from your upbringing, here are the words to the song. Feel free to sing along in the privacy of your own home when no one else is listening.
Seventy six trombones led the big parade,
With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand.
They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos,
the cream of ev’ry famous band.
Seventy six trombones caught the morning sun,
With a hundred and ten cornets right behind.
There were more than a thousand reeds springing up like weeds,
there were horns of ev’ry shape and kind.
There were copper bottom tympani in horse platoons,
thundering, thundering, all along the way.
Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons,
each bassoon having his big fat say.
There were fifty mounted cannon in the battery,
Thundering, thundering, louder than before.
Clarinets of eve’ry size and trumpeters who’d improvise
a full octave higher than the score.
Seventy six trombones led the big parade,
when the order to march rang out loud and clear.
Starting off with a big bang bong on a Chinese gong,
by a big bang bonger at the rear.
Seventy six trombones hit the counter point,
while a hundred and ten cornets played the air.
Then I modestly took my place as the one and only bass,
and I oompahed up and down the square.
UPDATE: November 20th – We’re at 77 Auctions! Anyone have a song? 🙂
UPDATE: November 21st – We’re at 83 Auctions! Anyone have a song? 🙂
UPDATE: November 26th – We’re at 83 Auctions! Still hunting for a new song 🙂
Rene Lalique Jewelry at Auction continues it’s string of strong sales performances with a couple of nice Rene Lalique jewelry items at Sothebys Geneva putting in another strong showing for Lalique auction sales.
Sothebys had two Lalique jewellery “gems” in their November 17th sale of Magnificent Jewels. Frenzied bidding from an overflow crowd and busy phone lines were the rule of day for this sale of great jewellery, and the works of Rene Lalique were no exception!
The first Lalique offering, selling as Lot 368, was the Lalique pansy motif Sautior, consisting of 15 pansy decorations, separated by white enamel and yellow gold baton links. This elegant Lalique Sautior held a detachable pocket watch decorated on the bezel with foliate plique à jour, and on the back with pansy flowers. The Sautior is pictured in the 1987 exhibition book The Jewellery of Rene Lalique**. Against a rather wide but spot-on estimate of CHF 100,000 to 150,000, this great Rene Lalique jewellery object made an all-in price of CHF 152,500, or about $151,000 U.S. Dollars.
Equally cool, though not as unique or as valuable, the circa 1911 production brooch Grenouilles appeared as Lot 369. This is a typical glass brooch from the time of larger production of Lalique’s glass decorative and useful items. Its Catalogue Raisonne number is 1357. The brooch was estimated at CHF 6,000 to 9,000, and made an all-in price of CHF 10,000, or nearly the same in U.S. Dollars. A great result for a production brooch, and anyway you look at it, a strong and high auction price for a strikingly designed object.
You can learn more about Rene Lalique and his rise to become the most celebrated jeweler of his day, at our Rene Lalique biography page, or by going to the Rene Lalique Jewelry tag here in the Blog, where you will find all the informative and well illustrated articles we have written which relate to the great Lalique’s jewelry creations.
** You can also find the rare and fascinating 1987 exhibition book The Jewellery of Rene Lalique in the Rene Lalique Exhibition Books and Catalogues Section of the Rene Lalique Library here at RLalique.com. The catalogue is in English, is near 200 pages, and has approximately 235 great photos of Rene Lalique Jewelry and of Lalique’s Drawings. A great resource for both wonderful photos and detailed information about Rene Lalique and his jewellery.
What place unites a Rene Lalique Cire Perdue Vase, old British Pounds, LaCoste clothing, Roman roads, medieval measuring, Thomas Jefferson, the French Revolution, and Peter the Great? Huh?
Here is a brief historical review!
Before the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, one British Pound Sterling equaled 20 Shillings composed of 12 Pence each, or a total of 240 Pence to the Pound. OK, you might be thinking, what does this have to do with a Lalique Cire Perdue Vase appearing in France? Well, we have to digress a bit.
The historical origin of the old British currency was the fact that the weight of a British Penny was 1/240th of a Troy pound of sterling silver. This measuring system of the weight of a penny, or Pennyweight, which is abbreviated as dwt (the d in dwt stands for the old Roman silver coin Denarius) traces its origin to medieval times, and to this day a Troy Ounce contains 20 dwt. There being 12 Troy Ounces to an old Troy pound, that would make 240 dwt or pennies to the pound. And there you have a bit of the origin of the pre-decimal British currency; Troy pounds and Troy ounces!
Now sadly, the Troy pound has fallen out of use* as a measurement factor, giving way to the globalization (before the term even existed) of currency units to the monetary equivalent of the library book organization system of Melvil Dewey (the Dewey Decimal System) wherein units of 100 are of prime importance. Monetarily, there are no countries left in the world that have not gone “currency decimal” **. If only Peter The Great had known what he was starting in 1710 when he set the value of a Russian Ruble at 100 Kopecks!
But while the Troy Pound has been tossed on the dust heap of history (the Troy Pound was booted in England in 1878), the Troy Ounce survives, mainly used today for measuring the weight of precious metals and gemstones. In the UK for example, the Troy Ounce measuring system is exempt from the wave of metrification that has swept away the old measuring systems on the islands. Apparently dentists and jewelers (and central bank types:) have some political pull in the UK!
And why do we care even a “plugged nickel’s” *** worth about all this currency business? Because the namesake of the Troy measuring system is an old Roman crossroads town and trading center in northeastern France, about 100 miles from Paris, where the Troy measuring system had its earliest known use. The name of this small city which today is comprised of around 60,000 people? Troyes! What a coincidence! And it is there, dear readers, in the hometown of the great French alligator fashion house LaCoste, in Troyes France, that the Rene Lalique Cire Perdue Vase which is the subject of this story, has appeared!
One more short step backwards in time: In 1930, Rene Lalique created two similar Lalique Cire Perdue Vases in succession, CP 566 Feuilles De Lierre Dentelees, and CP 567, Feuilles De Lierre Pointues. Both these cire perdue vases were exhibited in October 1931 at Galarie Rouard in Paris. CP 566 appeared almost exactly 6 years ago, on November 24th, 2003 at the Tajan auction house in Paris. It was listed by Tajan as being 18 cm tall and it’s pictured here. It sold as Lot 3 in their sale for €73,403 all-in, several times the estimate of €20,000-€25,000. Note that in November 2003, €73,000 was around $100,000. It’s also rumored authoritatively that the runner-up bid on CP 566 was placed from a phone in the desert, just a few miles from RLalique.com World Headquarters!
CP 567, the pointed leafed mate of the softer designed CP 566 is the lalique cire perdue vase that is being offered in Troyes on November 22nd!
A bit worse for the wear, CP 567, shown in the large photo at the beginning of this article, has had a few hard knocks in life. It’s missing some pieces, including a large chunk of glass out of the top rim, and the ends of some leaves. And there are other miscellaneous condition issues. The vase is 17.2 cm tall, with comparable width, which gives it a decent scope as far as Lalique’s Cire Perdue is concerned. The estimate on this vase is only €2,000-€2,500 a mere 1/10 the estimate of it’s mate. The estimate seems a tad on the low side, even considering the extensive condition issues. But of course, if you are considering bidding, as always, you should investigate all relevant matters directly.
Might be a great opportunity to acquire a good sized piece of usually very expensive Cire Perdue glass for any collector wanting to at least have an example of Cire Perdue in their collection.
The seller of the vase is the auction house Boisseau & Pomez. Their phone number in Troyes is +33.03.25.73.34.07
Of course, this Lalique Cire Perdue Vase is listed in our Lalique at Auction section here at RLalique.com. And you can see other examples of Rene Lalique Cire Perdue by visiting our biography of Lalique, or by clicking on the Cire Perdue tag at the end of this article to see other articles relating to the Cire Perdue works of Rene Lalique.
* France was the third large country in the world to dump the Troy measuring system! After the 1710 Russian currency changes, it would be over 80 years until another large country followed suit when the Americans established their currency on a decimal basis in 1792 (the Thomas Jefferson thing). Three years later, in the turmoil of the French Revolution, France revamped its own currency to decimal format in 1795. It would be roughly another 80 years before the British in 1878, dumped what was in reality, a traditional French measuring system that had already been abandoned by the French!
** We’re ignoring the handful of countries that have increments of 1000 and not 100 (decimal on steroids?), and also the possible couple of countries with just one currency unit that is not divided by anything!
*** The expression “plugged nickel” originates in the American West in the late 1800’s (the Wild West era). It refers to the practice of extracting metal from coins by punching out a hole and then filling or plugging the hole with some worthless material so the coin could still be used (this from the days of course when coins actually contained valuable metals :). So a plugged nickel, being only a nickel to begin with, and not being even legal tender once defaced, would be worthless. The expression lives on to this day to denote something that has no value or is not worth anything. It’s the best we could do to work a monetary expression into to this story!
Rene Lalique Auction Results for Christies South Kensington’s Semi-Annual Lalique Sale were very strong! Lalique auction items exceeded estimates and once again marked another in a string of very strong auction sales for the works of the great Rene Lalique.
The Lalique sale totaled ₤450,012 or approximately $750,000 U.S. including buyer’s premiums. Note that all prices mentioned in this article include the buyer’s premium, and all dollar conversions are approximate.
Our man in the room reported that bidding was fast and furious on most lots, with the highly estimated pieces attracting the most attention from a trio of different phone bidders. Trade and collectors in the room competed heavily on the mid and low estimated items, but found the phone bidding competition, which ran many of the most expensive items past their high estimates, to be too much to compete with as prices soared. When all was said and done, many participants left with tired arms and no purchases!
Here is a summary of the 17 R Lalique auction lots that made $10,000 or more:
The first lot to go over $10,000 was Lot 6, the large Sirene Opalescent Bowl. It sold for ₤7,500 ($12,500) against a pre-sale estimate of ₤3,500 to ₤4,500. The vase Salmonides was the next RLalique item to go over 10K. Selling as Lot 17, it made ₤32,450 or about $54,500 against a pre-sale estimate of ₤15,000 to ₤20,000. This would be the second Opalescent Salmonides in as many years to make over $50,000 at South Kensington. A fitting price redux for a striking high relief vase model. It was also the high selling RLalique lot in the sale.
The vase Archers in clear and frosted glass, surprised the crowd as Lot 33, making ₤7,250 or about $12,000 against a pre-sale estimate of ₤3,000 to ₤5,000. It was quickly followed by Lot 34, the Rene Lalique Vase Dryades, which made ₤6,875 or approximately $11,500, exceeding the pre-sale estimate of ₤3,000 to ₤5,000. For “three in a row” over the $10,000 figure, Lot 35, a frosted Bacchantes Vase matched the Archers at ₤7,250 ($12,000).
Two Penthievres were offered as Lots 46 and 47; one amber glass and the other gray glass. They made ₤17,500 ($29,500) and ₤13,750 ($23,000) respectively.
The Rene Lalique Vase Sauterelles, the Grasshopper Vase in Opalescent Glass, always a popular saleroom model when it appears in good order, sold for ₤9,375 ($16,000) against a conservative estimate of ₤4,000 to ₤5,000. A solid result for a classic Rene Lalique Vase design.
Lot 68, the frosted Escargot Vase made ₤6,000 or almost exactly $10,000. The rare Myosotis Vase (#10-918) sold for ₤17,500 ($29,500) as Lot 72, and the Lalique Lamp Paons, Lot 93, sold for ₤28,750, or about $48,000, marking the third highest Lalique sales price.
Lot 101 was the rare Lalique Statue Voilee Mains Jointes in Opalescent Glass (#828). It sold for ₤16,250 ($27,000) against a very low estimate of ₤2,000 to ₤3,000, followed quickly in succession by the frosted Lot 102 Suzanne Statue at ₤6,000 ($10,000) and the Dragonfly Lalique Car Mascot Libellule (#1145) which made ₤10,625 ($18,000) as Lot 103.
Two other notable results preceded the last lot; a Milan Vase in green glass, Lot 112, which made ₤10,625 ($18,000) and a cased yellow Sauge Vase, Lot 115, which sold for ₤10,000 ($17,000).
The last item in the sale was also the 2nd highest R Lalique seller, edging out the Paons Lamp for the runner-up price. It was the R Lalique Vase Languedoc in green glass, which made an all in round number of ₤30,000, or just over $50,000.
If our counting by fingers is correct :), the sale featured a total of 120 Lots, of which only 11 failed to sell. All the passed lots were on the low end of the sale estimates, the highest estimate for any of the passed items being ₤2,500 to ₤3,000, for a take up rate of near 92%. A great sales percentage combined with very strong prices!
The knowledgeable and experienced staff at Christies South Ken did a great job by all reports in selecting and presenting the sale, which could not help but have contributed to the outstanding results. Many times, high take-up rates indicate low estimated goods, but this was not generally the case for this auction. Highly competitive collector bidding for the majority of the expensive lots, and solid trade and local participation throughout, combined to push both the sales percentage and the sales totals to highly successful levels.
Overall, another very bright spot in the increasingly strong performance of the works of Lalique at Auction!
Rene Lalique Vases have been listed at auctions online that appear to be good opportunities for R Lalique collectors. We thought we’d steer you to a few of the most prominent of these good looking Lalique auction offerings, which of course you should fully investigate on your own. In that regard, you may want to review the Rene Lalique Buying Guide online at RLalique.com. And as always, you can see all of these vases in the Lalique Auctions section of the website.
The Green Domremy Vase is Ebay Item No. 180457081735
A nice looking Rambouillet covered box popped up online late yesterday at auction. This circa 1924 Lalique box features a Lalique design of two herons on the cover. Both the box top and bottom sport molded R. Lalique signatures. It’s model No. 60 in the R.Lalique Catalogue Raisonne appearing on page 233 of the 2004 Edition.
Seems like a good Lalique auction opportunity on a fresh to market Rene Lalique box in apparently good condition. The auction goes to January 20th. Here is a link to a saved/cached image version of the original 
Finally, if you are looking for the out-of-print and hard to find 2004 Catalogue Raisonne, check the modern 
Rene Lalique created a wonderful fountain for the 1925 Paris Exposition Des Arts Décoratifs, the Art Deco Exposition. And full size Source De La Fontaine Lalique statues of the designs that were incorporated into that fountain sell for many thousands of dollars. In creating his great fountain, Les Sources De France, Rene Lalique was following in the footsteps of the tradition in Paris of the great French fountain builders dating back to the middle ages when fountains were first constructed to provide drinking water to the people of Paris!
Today, this style cendrier in all its forms is commonly called a ring dish by sellers either because they don’t know, or because “ashtray” is not usually the best selling point.
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.
The 
Four other vases tied for 2nd place at $31,070 all-in: Borromee in Blue Glass, the large Palestre Vase in clear and frosted glass covered with gray patina, and the deco black enameled vases Tourbillons and Oranges, both in clear and frosted glass. 6th place in the money department went to the Rene Lalique Car Mascot Victoire that made $26,290 including the premium.
All told and all-in there were 12 lots above $10,000 accounting for $278,435 or about 56 percent of the total dollars for the 92 sold lots, with the 12th high seller being Lot No. 1, the rare Lezards Perfume bottle, which made $11,950.
Mr. Dawes is in New York this week in his role as a consignment director for Heritage Auctions where he is overseeing this year’s largest Rene Lalique Auction on Thursday December 10th. We have previously written about this exciting 
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.
Heritage and Mr. Dawes have put together a wide-ranging selection of Rene Lalique pieces represented by 100 RLalique lots to be auctioned in a New York City sale on December 10th.
All told, a near tour de force of the commercial production works of Rene Lalique with a high percentage of rare colored pieces, highly desirable collector lots, some hard to find items, and a few unique drawings and a great mirror in the mix to complete a well rounded and high quality sale.
Equally cool, though not as unique or as valuable, the circa 1911 production brooch Grenouilles appeared as Lot 369. This is a typical glass brooch from the time of larger production of Lalique’s glass decorative and useful items. Its Catalogue Raisonne number is 1357. The brooch was estimated at CHF 6,000 to 9,000, and made an all-in price of CHF 10,000, or nearly the same in U.S. Dollars. A great result for a production brooch, and anyway you look at it, a strong and high auction price for a strikingly designed object.
The historical origin of the old British currency was the fact that the weight of a British Penny was 1/240th of a Troy pound of sterling silver. This measuring system of the weight of a penny, or Pennyweight, which is abbreviated as dwt (the d in dwt stands for the old Roman silver coin Denarius) traces its origin to medieval times, and to this day a Troy Ounce contains 20 dwt. There being 12 Troy Ounces to an old Troy pound, that would make 240 dwt or pennies to the pound. And there you have a bit of the origin of the pre-decimal British currency; Troy pounds and Troy ounces!
And why do we care even a “plugged nickel’s” *** worth about all this currency business? Because the namesake of the Troy measuring system is an old Roman crossroads town and trading center in northeastern France, about 100 miles from Paris, where the Troy measuring system had its earliest known use. The name of this small city which today is comprised of around 60,000 people? Troyes! What a coincidence! And it is there, dear readers, in the hometown of the great French alligator fashion house LaCoste, in Troyes France, that the Rene Lalique Cire Perdue Vase which is the subject of this story, has appeared!
One more short step backwards in time: In 1930, Rene Lalique created two similar Lalique Cire Perdue Vases in succession, CP 566 Feuilles De Lierre Dentelees, and CP 567, Feuilles De Lierre Pointues. Both these cire perdue vases were exhibited in October 1931 at Galarie Rouard in Paris. CP 566 appeared almost exactly 6 years ago, on November 24th, 2003 at the Tajan auction house in Paris. It was listed by Tajan as being 18 cm tall and it’s pictured here. It sold as Lot 3 in their sale for €73,403 all-in, several times the estimate of €20,000-€25,000. Note that in November 2003, €73,000 was around $100,000. It’s also rumored authoritatively that the runner-up bid on CP 566 was placed from a phone in the desert, just a few miles from RLalique.com World Headquarters!
Rene Lalique Auction Results for Christies South Kensington’s Semi-Annual Lalique Sale were very strong! Lalique auction items exceeded estimates and once again marked another in a string of very strong auction sales for the works of the great 
Our man in the room reported that bidding was fast and furious on most lots, with the highly estimated pieces attracting the most attention from a trio of different phone bidders. Trade and collectors in the room competed heavily on the mid and low estimated items, but found the phone bidding competition, which ran many of the most expensive items past their high estimates, to be too much to compete with as prices soared. When all was said and done, many participants left with tired arms and no purchases!
The first lot to go over $10,000 was Lot 6, the large Sirene Opalescent Bowl. It sold for ₤7,500 ($12,500) against a pre-sale estimate of ₤3,500 to ₤4,500. The vase Salmonides was the next RLalique item to go over 10K. Selling as Lot 17, it made ₤32,450 or about $54,500 against a pre-sale estimate of ₤15,000 to ₤20,000. This would be the second Opalescent Salmonides in as many years to make over $50,000 at South Kensington. A fitting price redux for a striking high relief vase model. It was also the high selling RLalique lot in the sale.
Two Penthievres were offered as Lots 46 and 47; one amber glass and the other gray glass. They made ₤17,500 ($29,500) and ₤13,750 ($23,000) respectively.
Lot 68, the frosted Escargot Vase made ₤6,000 or almost exactly $10,000. The rare Myosotis Vase (#10-918) sold for ₤17,500 ($29,500) as Lot 72, and the Lalique Lamp Paons, Lot 93, sold for ₤28,750, or about $48,000, marking the third highest Lalique sales price.
If our counting by fingers is correct :), the sale featured a total of 120 Lots, of which only 11 failed to sell. All the passed lots were on the low end of the sale estimates, the highest estimate for any of the passed items being ₤2,500 to ₤3,000, for a take up rate of near 92%. A great sales percentage combined with very strong prices!