LALIQUE’S BESTSELLERS

From practical pocket watches to elegant glass doors via a sculptural bronze, we take a look at some of Lalique’s sensational sellers at auction

In Paris in November 2011, Sotheby’s sold a set of glass double doors (top right) decorated with sparrows, once belonging to Florence Boot, Lady Trent, wife of Sir Jesse Boot of Boots the Chemist. They made approximately £1.8m against an estimate of £ 355,000–£ 530,000. Lalique created the doors to show at the 1929 Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. They were then shown in London and appeared in Vogue magazine, where they were spotted by Lady Trent, who installed them at her home on Jersey.

For his stand at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, Lalique created ! ve bronze statues of winged female !gures to form a balustrade – the female form was one of Lalique’s most distinctive

decorative motifs. Ethereal and graceful, these eye- catching women became ornaments in their own right. One of the !gures (right) sold at Sotheby’s in Paris in February 2013 for around £1.1m against an estimate of £175,000–£ 265,000.

At the same sale held by Sotheby’s Paris, a pocket watch (far right) sold for £ 614,000 against an estimate of £132,000–£176,000. Made from enamel, moonstone and gold, the dial is adorned with butter "ies painted in light shades to represent day, while the reverse is decorated with bats to suggest night-time. The threedimensional coiled serpent on the loop is typical of Lalique’s sculptural style.