Interesting Art Nouveau Websites

www.laliqueartnouveau.com  (this site !)

www.nga.gov/feature/nouveau/nouveau.shtm
Feature about a great Art Nouveau Exhibition

www.artchive.com/artchive/art+nouveau.html
Website about Art Nouveau plus Klimt,Aubrey Beardsley and Alphonse Mucha

www.artlex.com
Good examples of Art Nouveau

www.artnouveau-net/eu/
An interesting network detailing Art Nouveau in various cities in Europe

www.senses-artnouveau.com
Good catalogue of reprod art nouveau jewellery

www.artnet.com
Excellent section on Lalique plus art of the Art Nouveau period

www.collectorsweekly.com/art-glass/lalique
All about lalique art glass

www.bbc.co.uk/homes/design/period_artnouveau.shtml
BBC Website with good descriptions of Art Nouveau Glass

http://www.cristallalique.com/

The official website of Lalique (you sholuld preferably have a recent version of Flash to see properly)

http://www.vam.ac.uk/

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London which has some excellent Art Nouveau and Lalique information

http://greatfrenchglass.com/blog/tips-from-an-antiques-market

Excellent article on buying glass at an antiques market

http://greatfrenchglass.com/blog/lalique-copies-and-fakes

Article on How to tell Lalique Copies

http://greatfrenchglass.com/blog/oh-oh-chipped-figurines

How to deal with chipped antique glassware  ( Sister website - with other famous glassmakers)

Art Nouveau interesting Websites is a post from: laliqueartnouveau.com

Although Lalique was primarily a Glass Designer he was equally known for his beautiful Jewels.

He is particularly renowned for his designs of Vases,Chandeliers,perfume bottles and jewellery.

From his birth Ay in Marne,France in 1860, he loved nature and in his early teens he began to paint
He love natural History and the flowing forms of nature
Later this love of nature became one of his trademarks because of his unique style..

Rene studied drawing and design at the Colege Turgot.

His mother realised how much he loved painting and design and apprenticed him to Louis Aucoc a major Jeweller in Paris.

He also studied at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in the evenings and subsequently studied at Sydenham College in London England at a very fortunate time.

During his holidays back in Ay he drew sketches of nature and wildlife and this influenced his work throughout his life.

England was the the very centre of the Arts and Crafts movement and he was inspired not only by the artisits of that movement but also by what he saw at the Crystal Palace Exhibition.

In 1880 he returned to Paris where he studied Jewellery manufacturing and then sculpture under Justin Lequien at the Ecole Bernard Palissy.

This time influenced his later work as much of Palissy Pottery was relief decorated and had realistically modelled fish,lizards,snakes and plants.

From this background of Art and Design, he evolved flowing and often erotic designs and the influence of Palissy is shown in his vases
such as the Sauterelles and Martin Pecheurs designs .

His most famous single work is probably the Perruches bowl from the 1920s which had a frieze of beautiful moulded parakeets on Opalescent Glass.

In later years he became famous not only for art nouveau Glass but also for Art Nouveau Jewellery.
He became the most famous jeweller in Paris and supplied the Crowned Heads of Europe withjewellery and trinkets in the Art Nouveau Style.
His friendship with the famous actresss Sarah Bernhardt introduced him to a huge range of highly fashionable clients including the Oil Mogul Nubar Gulbenkian who became Renes major Patron

Rene Lalique Early Years is a post from: laliqueartnouveau.com

Antiques expert Eric Knowles has a wonderful fund of knowledge about Rene Lalique and his works.
He is of course a well known presenter on tv and regularly values antiques on the Antiques Roadshow and
is the resident Antiques Expert on This Morning.

Eric has a really funny stage show called Antique Antics and this includes a fun show with slides and a series
of enjoyable anecdotes about the antiques of the nation.
If this show visits near to you I really advise you to go to it for a fun and informative evening.

If you are unable to visit one of the Antique Antics show thenthere is a chance to meet Eric on one of his
Antiques Tours which he leads with Arena Travel (www.arenatravel.com)
These include tours to Prague,Vienna,Budapest, Berlin,Lisbon,Meissen and Dresden as well as UK visits to
Ironbridge,Coalport and Glasgow .

His Website is at :

http://www.ericknowles.co.uk

Eric Knowles – Expert on Lalique is a post from: laliqueartnouveau.com

Quality of the moulding: is there good detail? As moulds get older detail gets weaker.
Original staining adds to value.
Enamelled items, is there damage? Damage to enamelled items can cost more to repair that the item is worth.
Damage to an enamelled piece makes it virtually worthless.

Colored lalique: is it the most desirable color?
Some Colours are much more desirable than others
You could get badly stung if you pay rare prices for a common piece.-

Check on ebay to see what the piece you are considering has sold for in the past.

Check for damage such as grinding down edge chips, polishing , chips, cracks or drill holes.
Check if the piece is complete, is there a base, lid or original stopper missing? If so you may have problems sourcing a replacement.
Has it been converted, for example a bowl to a sconce or hanging light? Collectors want pieces in original condition.

The following is a guide only, as there are many variations and exceptions as to how lalique glass
is marked.
Early pieces were engraved by hand - by the artisan himself so there are variations between pieces.

The greatest confusion for new collectors is how the R is used in the signature. Some people believe that the use of the R means the piece must be made before 1945 and if there is no R that is must be after 1945. This is not so.

Pieces that are signed R. Lalique can be from old moulds such as worth perfume bottles issued with the R until very recently and some early lalique may not have the R.
Remember that many FAKE Lalique pieces are still being produced in Czech Republic,Romania and Taiwan.
Some of these are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.
Fakes are usually only made of EXPENSIVE pieces - like the top vases. Fakes of Lalike minor pieces such as modern fish or glass rings are almost unknown.
If you are in any doubt then try to get a certificate of authenticity.
For pieces under $100 in value it is almost impossible to get a certificate of authenticity ...

Glass Condition is a post from: laliqueartnouveau.com

Surely the most prolific designer and manufacturer of Art Nouveau and Art Deco Vases and bowls during the first part of the twentieth century, Rene Lalique was one of several houses providing the world with beautiful art glass items along with the Baum brothers and Louis Comfort Tiffany in the 1920s and 30s. Lalique is the acknowledged driving force in high production glass art using both blow moulding and hot glass pressing techniques to create items that are not only beautiful but functional. As his production increased during the 1920s he designed and produced over 150 bowls and 200 vases of all sizes. These were in many finishes and in several colours in addition to clear and frosted.

The Lalique factory produced and shipped not thousands, but millions of glass objects during his lifetime, with all types of commercial applications.

Even though he produced stunning vases and bowls, figurines and boxes, he also produced a large amount of strictly practical and functional items endowed with his signature design genius.

Beautifully simple yet beautiful inkwells, paperweights, bottles, glass partitions, columns, huge pieces such as a glass fountain and a church altar piece were made with the same care and attention to quality of workmanship as his strictly art pieces.

The vases are a subject all to themselves, and the process that Lalique used to make them also made the unique in the time period. He used birds, dragonflies, floral designs, animals of many types, nudes, and geometric designs on almost all of his works and the stylization could be very simple or quite involved.

Pieces ranged from tiny to quite large, and there are hundreds of museums throughout the world that maintain collections of Lalique . They regularly come up at auctions, and despite the hunger for Lalique amongst collectors of the world most are still in individual ownership. This reality makes it a rewarding hunt when attending estate sales and flea markets. Generally, the early pre 1945 vases are signed R. Lalique , and can be either acid etched, moulded in relief, or set into the piece. Script and block lettering were both used. If you are trying to determine if your piece has an authentic signature, the use of a respected collectors guide is highly recommended.

Colour is also critically important. Pricing will range from small to medium clear and frosted glass items to more expensive when more intricate and colored or tinted glass pieces. Lalique comes in red, blue, amber, green, and rarely in black.

Some pieces recently that were clear as originals have been irradiated to turn them a deep purple, but this is not an original finish and experts treat them as fakes. Later Lalique from 1945 through 1977 were produced by Renes son Marc, and while different in many ways than his fathers work, the influence is obvious at once.

Also beautiful and collectable, the markings will be Lalique France. It is gaining value and may be more affordable in many cases than the older pre 1945 pieces.

You can find a massive amount of information on Lalique Vases and other items both online and in your library. It is a treat to the eyes to visit a museum or gallery that has a collection of Lalique on display, and an experience that has set many a collector on the hunt for their own Lalique pieces.

Lalique catalogs of all the original pieces are also available in reprint in bookstores and on line for as little as $30 to well over $200 for coffee table versions. They are priceless assistants when looking for target items, and a valuable resource when trying to identify the piece you have just found.
Remember to always take a pocket guide with you when hunting for Lalique.

Lalique Vases – Collecting Hints is a post from: laliqueartnouveau.com

It is easy to begin collecting Lalique glass, as it has been in constant production since the late 19th century and is still available today. Thousands of pieces and hundreds of designs and objects are available, from small perfume bottles and inexpensive items like bookmarks costing a hundred dollars (or less if you are lucky) to one of a kind lost wax castings from before Rene Lalique expanded to blown glass moulds and pressed glass techniques running in the six figure price range.
Very popular art glass subjects to collect include antique glass,antique glass perfume bottles and art deco glass vases.
Most of these are readily available at reasonable prices.
Glass chandeliers are harder to find but the best place to look is in antique markets in Paris and rural France (where they are usually less costly).
Lalique Cristal is more expensive but of high quality.
Earlier vases tend to be higher in value and lalique art deco vase examples are genuinely more modestly priced.
One of the best places to look is in the Lille (Northern France) antiques market in Early September where you will have an astonishing choice of 14 kilometers of antiques in the city streets to choose from.
Beware though - there are MANY reproductions and outright fakes there as dealers bring goods from all over Europe to sell.

Lalique is both art glass and commercial glass. Thousands of Lalique pieces are perfume bottles as Lalique made the majority of them for many years in France.

You will find Lalique in many places. You can buy new Lalique glass manufactured by Renes granddaughter at many fine department stores and online sites.

As always, when trying to authenticate a piece to add to your growing collection, it is necessary to also own and use a respected collectors guide complete with detailed pictures of marks and variations.

As anyone who watches Antiques Roadshow knows, you do not just go to antique stores and Ebay to find them, but try estate sales and flea markets, garage sales and church rummage sales.

As with something as common as Lalique glass, many current owners of pieces have no idea what they have. Keep up to date with collector groups and other like minded folks so you will know when there are fakes being circulated; often the grapevine in such a setting can save a neophyte collector from getting taken advantage of by unscrupulous dealers.

Above all, enjoy the journey. Many happy hours can be spent in pursuit of that next great find.

As with many types of glass and art deco items, color and finish determine value as much as style and size. A large piece of later frosted Lalique probably will not bring as much as, for example, an early small black floral vase.

Knowing what you are looking at is critical, and the best bet is to see as many pieces and know their value as possible before you set out to corner the market in Lalique.

Know what the most valuable colours are. You will find Laliques in ten or more colors as well as clear and frosted finish. The majority of pieces are lead glass or crystal, and will be heavier than plain glass. Realize what Lalique commonly used for decorative schemes, as he often used fish, birds, flowers, nymphs, and dragonflies.

Watch the sharpness of the cuts and angles, as the first pieces out of the mould were very much sharper in detail and angle than the last ones to be produced, and are subsequently worth more. Watch for the signature not looking quite right, as fakes are out there with pieces this collectable and valuable.

You can tell that it is being produced currently as the mark used by Marie-Claude is Lalique h France. Her father, Renes son Marc, produced pieces until his death in 1977, which were heavily influenced by Renes works. The markings for Marc LeLique will show as Lalique France. Original Rene Lalique will normally be marked as R Lalique. Markings are generally acid etched, but some are raised and molded into the piece. They can be script or block and be legitimate.

Research Lalique. There is an incredible treasure trove of information, pictures, collections in museums, and online material to be discovered by the collector. Once you have your collection in progress, enjoy it. Display it proudly in your home or office, and do not forget to insure it. Most Lalique collections grow in value nicely, and more so if you are an avid collector. Do not be the collector who spends years of loving devotion towards collecting a good number of quality pieces to lose them to theft or disaster without even being able to begin the journey again with the insurance companys funding. Good Luck!

This is where you will find the BEST SOURCES of Lalique Antiques
(Its where the Dealers go shopping !
Antique Arcades

Collecting Lalique Glass is a post from: laliqueartnouveau.com