necklace

Composed of 46 acid-etched colorless dahlia beads and 23 frosted and polished amber flat beads, this necklace was designed by René Lalique to be worn by the era’s New Woman. Compared with his earlier Art Nouveau jewels, which were one-of-a-kind objects for an elite clientele, such necklaces were designed to be mass-produced for middle-class customers. Lalique’s new designs reflected the women of the 1920s, who not only fought for the right to vote but also began to take part in traditionally male activities, such as driving, smoking, and drinking. Art Deco fashion reflected these changing roles by adopting bold and bright patterns, dropped waists, and higher hemlines worn over an uncorseted body. As a master jeweler and glassmaker, Lalique began experiments with glass as early as 1891 and continued to dazzle with new styles and new techniques for almost 50 years. Just as his jewelry—displayed at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris— was seen as the epitome of Art Nouveau fashion, his designs were found in every corner of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, also in Paris, which signaled the beginning of the Art Deco period. Lalique elevated pressed and molded glassware to a fine art form through his unique designs and creative mass production techniques. In 1912, the Norwegian critic and fine arts commissioner J. Nilsen Laurvik observed that Lalique’s “accomplished craftsmanship has enabled him to utilize the services of the machine without in the least affecting the artistic quality of his productions. In his hands it is no longer mechanically meaningless; it has become a tool of the artist wherewith he may communicate his ideas to a greater number than was ever possible to the craftsman of old.”* Unsigned. Published: Kelley Elliott, Elizabeth Everton, and Tina Oldknow, René Lalique: Enchanted by Glass, Corning: The Corning Museum of Glass in association with Yale University Press, 2014, pp. 82–83; and Félix Marcilhac, René Lalique, 1860– 1945, maître-verrier. Analyse et catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre de verre, Paris: Editions de l’Amateur, 2011, p. 560. For more information about Lalique glass, see Nicholas M. Dawes, Lalique Glass, New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1986. * J. Nilsen Laurvik, René Lalique, New York: Haviland & Co., 1912, p. 12.