Probably the most fascinating elements of researching positive and pretend jewellery is delving into all the numerous supplies. It’s simple to simply take a look at a phenomenal bauble because the sum of the elements, however when you think about what goes into fabricating each bit of wearable artwork, it’s like peeling away the layers of the proverbial onion.
For instance, on the subject of Lalique jewellery—starting with René Lalique within the 1800s and persevering with along with his heirs a lot later—glass is the constructing block of many masterpieces. We’ll hint the beginnings of this illustrious French jewellery home, take a look at a few of the issues it made early on, after which cowl the Lalique objects you’re extra more likely to run throughout when hitting flea markets and thrift retailers in your space.
Lalique Advantageous Jewellery
In the beginning, René Lalique was a educated artist. After apprenticing with French goldsmith Louis Aucoc in 1876, he attended artwork faculty in Paris and London. He realized to sculpt and even did some textile design earlier than starting in earnest in 1881 as a jewellery designer and fabricator. He bought his work to Aucoc and different massive names in Paris, resembling Cartier and Boucheron.
In 1885, he ran his personal workshop for a decade, specializing in artwork nouveau designs that includes the requisite bugs, flora, vines, and willowy feminine figures. He mastered the artwork of plique-à-jour enameling, a finely crafted glass artwork, and embellished items with pure stones like opals, pearls, moonstones, and tourmaline. Most of those early items reside in museums and high-end personal collections now.
Finally, René Lalique’s work turned primarily to glassmaking, and he not used gold in his jewellery. His workshop continued to provide some pendants and brooches made from frosted clear and coloured glass within the Twenties, however these, too, are seldom discovered by jewellery hunters immediately. His enterprise was shuttered by 1940, and he handed away in 1945.
After that, his son Marc carried on the Lalique household custom of manufacturing glass, together with jewellery. The mark on these items not included “R.” for his father’s title and easily learn “Lalique.” Marc Lalique’s daughter, Marie-Claude, took the helm in 1977. In 2008, the enterprise was acquired by a Swiss agency, and 4 years later, a brand new line of excessive jewellery was launched below the Lalique title. The corporate remains to be producing positive jewellery immediately.
Lalique Costume Jewellery
Technically, the glass pendants and pins René Lalique made within the Twenties qualify as costume jewellery since he didn’t use treasured metals for these settings. However these are so onerous to come back by, collectors of costume jewellery hardly ever have an opportunity to personal them. Nonetheless, as a result of an increasing number of focus went into creating costume jewellery because the many years handed after his dying, you’ve a significantly better probability of operating throughout these designs.
By the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s, and nicely into the twenty first century, Lalique produced many various kinds of costume jewellery objects that may be discovered whereas thrifting and property sale buying immediately. Clear frosted glass is commonly related to Lalique for the reason that firm made many objects like vases and fragrance bottles utilizing this materials. Some types pay homage to the early artwork nouveau jewellery made by René Lalique with motifs like winged nymphs gracing pendants or pretty lily of the valley flowers made into earrings and rings utilizing clear frosted glass.
Different colours of frosted glass and colourful polished glass additionally made their approach into jewellery items. Good sellers included dome rings and pendants suspended from necklaces made from satin twine. Hearts are a few of the extra generally discovered pendants, and so they’re usually priced at lower than $50, as are the dome rings in an array of colours. Bracelets, then again, whether or not they’re cuffs or panel types with a number of glass insets, usually promote for a whole lot and might be more durable to seek out.
Restricted-edition items, particularly wonderful necklaces that includes glass serpents, may also promote for a whole lot and even 1000’s now and again. Some are nonetheless within the unique packaging, whereas others are marked “Lalique” on the plated steel frames, bails, or backings used to carry the glass. The exceptions are the all-glass rings with “Lalique France” etched in script lettering on the backs of the bands.
If objects made from frosted glass aren’t marked “Lalique,” watch out attributing them. The title has turn out to be a catch-all for a lot of sorts of frosted glass costume jewellery. One instance of a misrepresented merchandise is a frosted glass dove pendant in a gold-plated body bought by Nina Ricci. These necklaces have been bought in packaging studying “Nina Ricci Frosted Crystal Pendant.” Nowhere on the pendant or packaging is the title Lalique talked about, so it’s uncertain that they’re actually made from Lalique glass. It’s most likely a scenario the place the affiliation with bottles made by Lalique to carry L’air Du Temps fragrance was linked to those dove necklaces that embody generic frosted glass. As soon as the error occurred, the unhealthy info acquired copied over and over.
So, whether or not you’re shopping for Lalique jewellery to flip or to put on, search for marks to be sure to’re shopping for the true deal. You most likely received’t be fortunate sufficient to discover a René Lalique positive jewellery treasure, however you possibly can definitely snag a chunk of trend jewellery produced whereas his heirs have been overseeing his namesake enterprise. Get pleasure from these attention-grabbing finds as an alternative.
Pamela Siegel is a contract author and creator who has been educating collectors for greater than twenty years. Along with three books on matters regarding antiques and collectibles, she regularly shares her experience by way of on-line writing and articles for print-based publications. Pamela can also be the co-founder of Costume Jewellery Collectors Int’l (CJCI) and the proprietor of Stylish Antiques by Pamela.
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