René Lalique (1860 - 1945) was a French artist, glassmaker and jeweler. Going through everything he created in his life would become a very long post, so I'm only going to focus on his jewelry here. When creating his Art Nouveau pieces he took his inspiration from both the French countryside and the Japanese natural world. Lalique was a very innovative man and he incorporated many materials not often used in jewelry in his pieces, like glass, horn, enamel, ivory, semi-precious stones and pearls. When he used precious stones it was only for what they brought to the piece of jewelry, and not for their value as gems. Glassmaker Emile Galle called Lalique "the inventor of modern jewelry", and here follows some of his works.
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Don't you just love that bird-collar in the next to last picture?!!! The last object is actually a diadem, shaped as a mermaid! In the future I know at least I will be searching for Lalique objects when I go antique-hunting!
