Vintage view: Lalique glass

Kya deLongchamps takes a look at the extraordinary glass legacy of René Jules Laliques.

IT’S taken me a while to get around to Lalique glass, as his ethereal imaginings from the 1920s forward make me rather swoony, turning my fingers to over-cooked green beans. Divine, transcendent — what are the words for the work of René Jules Lalique? Artist, industrialist and visionary, it’s easy to forget the diamond bright core of a very modern man when mesmerised by the unearthly, fragile beauty of even his mass-produced moulded glass.

Born in 1860, Lalique’s first great success was not even in glass but in designing and crafting jewellery in Paris for Boucheron and Cartier among others. Apprenticed to Louis Aucoc, at just 16, his fame flashed into vivid life and by 1890 he had set up his own jewellery firm and was supplying the iconic Paris design house of Maison de L’art Nouveau, a perfect showcase for his naturally inspired creations.