Small vase 'Oléron' or 'Petits poissons' 1928 - 1932

René Lalique

Glass
9 cm
ConditionExcellent
Price on request

Dille Art

• About the artwork
  About this piece
  
  Spherical vase with numerous small fish, the vase is called 'Oléron' but is also called 'Petits poissons'.
  
  The vase is extremely refined and beautifully made, it is executed in opalescent glass. The glass consists of multiple layers of opalescent and transparent glass on top of each other, this can be clearly seen at the neck, like the rings of a tree, you see a kind of rings that differ in colour intensity, those are the different layers of glass, (cased opalescent glass), it is a difficult technique. The vase still has very light traces of a patina, so it has had a patina. Through use and especially through cleaning the vase, the infamous annual scrub, the patina has been lost almost completely. In itself, this is not a problem at all because it was an addition to the design. Lalique originally made and sold the vase with and without patina. It just depended on the preference of the buyer. To achieve opalescent glass, a special alloy is needed, everyone had their own secret recipe. René Lalique used, in addition to the usual ingredients such as silicon dioxide or sodium, arsenic, which was banned after the war, and real gold, to increase the colour intensity. Opalescent glass has the special property that it appears bluish/white when backlit, and when light shines on the vase, the glass gets an intense golden glow, as if the sun is shining on it. Very beautiful. The first photo was taken while the vase was placed in front of the window with the sun shining outside. The rather distracting background has been removed, but nothing has been done or altered to the vase itself.
  
  The vase is blown into the mould. It is a design by René Lalique from 1927 and has model number 1008. It was listed in the catalogue of 1928 and 1932.
  
  The vase is signed on the underside with: 'R. Lalique, France, No. 1008'. This signature is applied with the wheel (molette). This way of signing, with the addition 'France' and the model number, was only used between 1928-1932. After 1932, the model number was omitted. According to literature, this was also only done with objects that were blown into the mould, very occasionally an object was still signed in this way if the pressed signature was not clear.
  
  At some point, in the early 1930s, René Lalique, partly due to the crisis, decided to no longer produce designs with labour-intensive finishes. This vase was also part of that decision, and it is therefore no longer mentioned in the 1937 catalogue.
  
  The Municipal Museum of The Hague also has an opal Oléron vase in its collection.
  
  
• About the artist

  René Jules Lalique (6 April 1860, Ay, Marne - 1 May 1945, Paris) was born on the 6th of April in 1860, in Ay, Marne.
  
  He was a French glass designer known for his creations of glass art, perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks and automobile hood ornaments.
  
  In 1872, when he was twelve, he entered the Collège Turgot where he started drawing and sketching. He attended evening classes at the Ecole des arts décoratifs. He worked there from 1874-1876 and subsequently spent two years at the Crystal Palace School of Art Sydenham, London. At the Sydenham Art College, his skills for graphic design were improved, and his naturalistic approach to art was further developed.
  
  When he returned from England, he worked as a freelance artist, designing pieces of jewellery for French jewelers Cartier, Boucheron and others.
  
  In 1885, he opened his own business and designed and made his own jewellery and other glass pieces. By 1890, Lalique was recognized as one of France's foremost Art Nouveau jewellery designers; creating innovative pieces for Samuel Bing's new Paris shop, Maison de l'Art Nouveau. He went on to be one of the most famous in his field, his name synonymous with creativity, beauty and quality.
  
  Lalique was best known for his creations in glass art. In the 1920s, he became noted for his work in the Art Deco style. He was responsible for the walls of lighted glass and elegant coloured glass columns which filled the dining room and "grand salon" of the SS Normandie and the interior fittings, cross, screens, reredos and font of St. Matthew's Church at Millbrook in Jersey (Lalique's "Glass Church").His earlier experiences in Ay were his defining influence in his later work. As a result, many of his jewellery pieces and vases showcase plants, flowers and flowing lines.
  
  Both unique and commercial works of René Lalique are in the collections of a large number of public museums around the world including the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Musée Lalique and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in France, the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim in Germany, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum and the Corning Museum in New York State, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
  
  René Lalique passed away on the first of May in 1945, in Paris.

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