Lalique.Dragonfly Mind Map click to download sheet
Lalique.Serpent Mind Map click to download sheet
RENÉ LALIQUE – AN ART NOUVEAU ENAMEL AND AQUAMARINE PENDANT, CIRCA 1900. The pendant designed as two enamel and plique-a-jour fish suspending an aquamarine, centring upon a sculpted gold woman in a white enamel dress, playing two fluted instruments, to the blue enamel and gold link eckchain, mounted in gold, Pendant signed Lalique.
1898-1899 Signed: LALIQUE Gold and enamel
This pectoral 9item worn on the chest is perfect example of René Lalique’s jewellery production, not only for the mastery of its execution, as for the theme chosen.
Reptiles were a source of inspiration to which Lalique returned throughout his life not only for jewellery, but also for his glass, bronzes, etc.
The pectoral is made up of nine serpents entwined to form a knot from which the bodies of the other eight fall in a cascade, the ninth rising in the centre, at the top of the jewel.
The reptiles, in the attack position, have their mouths open from which strings of pearls were hung as was apparently the case with a similar pectoral (the whereabouts of which are unknown), which was highlighted at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900 and reproduced in a publication of the period.
Glass, silver, enamel, gold and baroque pearl 7 x 5, 2 cm
Given its symbolic association to the world of dreams, the poppy may be considered one of the symbolic flowers of Art Nouveau. This pendant shows a frontally portrayed female face in opalescent glass and surrounded by hair in patinated silver and with a silver hood formed by four large open poppies.
A large baroque pearl hangs from the hair around the lower part of the face. Lalique reveals his skill as a sculptor, presumably influenced both by Auguste Ledru (his father-in-law) and his brother-in-law.
The female figure, a recurrent theme in Laliqueﾕs work, appears in the half-sleeping in-the-round face in moulded glass, framed by the wavy hair and hood in patinated silver.
The enormous hanging baroque pearl, which he started using in his work as from around 1897, reveals another influence and sources of inspiration: Renaissance jewellery.
His use of glass in the design of jewels also reached its finest expression in this pendant. Lalique managed to create jewels/objets dﾕart through this use of glass, a material he was particularly fond of, and of the transparency that enabled various plays of light.
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