DOI Heft:
Nr. 99 (June 1901)
DOI Artikel:Some recent examples of the jewellers' art in France
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19788#0042
Jewellers Art in France
a delicate aigrette in precious stones. At the Exhibition of
1889 there was no sign of progress; our jewellers remained
taithful to these styleless ornaments, these floral designs, the value,
the rarity of which lay solely in the cost of the precious stones of
which they were formed. A quarter of a century had passed
without the discovery of anything new, without anyone showing
the slightest sign of appreciating the jewel in conformity with the
general artistic culture of the day, to say nothing of the growing
aspirations of certain circles.
At last, like Malherbe, came M. Lalique. He had fancy, and
knowledge, and boldness. He knew the wonders of Egyptian
and Grecian and Florentine jewellery, the splendours of Byzantine
art, the minute marvels of the Japanese. He realised the possi-
bilities of all this, the fortune it held for the jeweller of to-day.
People held up their hands in amazement, as at sight of a miracle,
when M. Lalique began to produce the results of his labours; and
well they might, for, in comparison with the other jewellery of the
time, bis were so many absolute masterpieces 1 Despite the sug-
gestions of the past in form and in idea easily discovered in these
works, not one of them but had undoubted originality of its own,
a sort of strange—sometimes even unhealthy—complexity. The
jeweller broke away audaciously from all the "School" traditions,
COMB BY R. LALIQUE
HATPIN BY R. LALIQUE
widened the scope of his work, re-
stored to honour the precious stones
lately despised, and reintroduced
enamels, the glory of the jewellery
work of the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, giving full rein to his
imagination, the abundance and the
richness of which are well known to
all who have seen M. Lalique's
work.
In truth, M. Lalique is rather a
renovator than an innovator. A
craftsman endowed with uncommon
intelligence and deep knowledge of
27
a delicate aigrette in precious stones. At the Exhibition of
1889 there was no sign of progress; our jewellers remained
taithful to these styleless ornaments, these floral designs, the value,
the rarity of which lay solely in the cost of the precious stones of
which they were formed. A quarter of a century had passed
without the discovery of anything new, without anyone showing
the slightest sign of appreciating the jewel in conformity with the
general artistic culture of the day, to say nothing of the growing
aspirations of certain circles.
At last, like Malherbe, came M. Lalique. He had fancy, and
knowledge, and boldness. He knew the wonders of Egyptian
and Grecian and Florentine jewellery, the splendours of Byzantine
art, the minute marvels of the Japanese. He realised the possi-
bilities of all this, the fortune it held for the jeweller of to-day.
People held up their hands in amazement, as at sight of a miracle,
when M. Lalique began to produce the results of his labours; and
well they might, for, in comparison with the other jewellery of the
time, bis were so many absolute masterpieces 1 Despite the sug-
gestions of the past in form and in idea easily discovered in these
works, not one of them but had undoubted originality of its own,
a sort of strange—sometimes even unhealthy—complexity. The
jeweller broke away audaciously from all the "School" traditions,
COMB BY R. LALIQUE
HATPIN BY R. LALIQUE
widened the scope of his work, re-
stored to honour the precious stones
lately despised, and reintroduced
enamels, the glory of the jewellery
work of the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, giving full rein to his
imagination, the abundance and the
richness of which are well known to
all who have seen M. Lalique's
work.
In truth, M. Lalique is rather a
renovator than an innovator. A
craftsman endowed with uncommon
intelligence and deep knowledge of
27