Welcome to the RLalique Blog. Glad you stopped by! This is the place where we report R Lalique news, R Lalique auction results, info on upcoming R Lalique events, and our observations about the entire World of RLalique. And don’t stop reading on page one. We do 15 posts per R Lalique Blog page, and great R.Lalique news and R.Lalique information appears on every R Lalique Blog page. If there is any R Lalique topic you’d like to see covered, please drop us a note at blog@rlalique.com. All RLalique enthusiasts, all admirers of Rene Lalique, and all interested R Lalique collectors and observers are welcome to participate. Comments, additions, corrections, R. Lalique information, and bug reports, are greatly appreciated!! Hope to see you hanging around the Blog!

……………………..there are men who do nothing all day but good deeds. They are called phila…er — er — philanth-er — er, yes…er …..good-deed-doers! And their hearts are no bigger than yours. But! They have one thing you haven’t got! A Testimonial!

Our newest R Lalique listing has appeared on Ebay. It’s a good R Lalique Fleurettes Perfume Bottle (Garniture De Toilette), circa 1919. The perfume botlle has a starting price of only $200, well below recent sales prices, and no reserve. Our Ebay User I.D, is RLaliqueSales. We’ve posted the listing in the RLalique at Auction Section, and here is a direct link to this nice Fleurettes Perfume Bottle on Ebay, as well as a link to the Really Big Photo Page, to see a giant photo of the Fleurettes. You can also check out our RLalique.com Ebay About Me Page (well, About US really)! Every Ebay item we’ve listed since the inception of RLalique.com has sold (well, one sold the day after the Ebay expiration to a bidder that had regrets about not bidding higher)! We chalk it up to good items, low starting prices, the trust we’ve established with collectors that know us, and our famous (and popular) Satisfaction Assurance!

A short trip down memory lane as a great looking light blue tiara stoppered R Lalique Perfume Bottle Bouchon Mures walks into the US Antiques Roadshow in Miami Florida in 2001. Here’s a link to the PBS website, where you’ll have to pick your video format to play the video.

Old Style Blackberry In Miami

We’ve listed a great book, The Collection of the Lalique Museum in Hakone Japan, on Ebay this week. The book is in new condition, and has unbelievable photos of the Museum’s collection of R Lalique items, including some fantastically rare objects. Here’s a Link To The Ebay Listing, and also a link to the Really Big Photo Page of photos from the book, as well as a link to our About Us Page On Ebay. And don’t forget to check out the R Lalique Library here at RLalique.com, where you find hundreds of rare books, period publications, and other great R Lalique reference material. We search the world to bring you the most informative and the best reference and educational material on the works of the great Rene Lalique. There is no collection of R Lalique reference material available anywhere in the world that compares to what you’ll find in the library here at RLalique.com. This great museum collection book from Japan, is just one of the countless reference treasures that we have reached out around the world to find, and make available to you.

The great looking dark colored R Lalique Senart Vase that appeared in Istanbul at the Alif Art Auction House, and which we publicized both in an RLalique Blog Entry, and in our R Lalique Auction Section, sold for a hammer price of 11,000 Turkish Lira Saturday at the Sofa Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. We don’t know the ins and outs about the refundability of the VAT in Turkey, but with the 6% buyer’s premium and the 18% VAT on both the premium and the purchase price, it adds up to a total of 13,760 Turkish Lira, or around $9100, of which $1300 represents the VAT on the purchase price. Word from the sale room was that there were several bidders including multiple phone bidders and left bids. And the word from both the Sofa and from around the globe was that in the fray were multiple bidders who had seen the item here, on RLalique.com. This would include the winning bidder, who saw the Senart on this website, and who reached out across continents to acquire this rare R Lalique Vase. A great R Lalique result against an auction house estimate of $825. One other reason for this result is that the auction house made bidding easy by accepting credit cards, by handling shipping, by the availability of phone lines, by responding promptly to inquiries for condition reports and photos, and by a reasonable bidder registration form. This was an R Lalique auction trifecta; a great R Lalique vase, a bidder friendly auction house, and of course, the global reach of RLalique.com. And now they’ve heard in Istanbul what they’ve heard in auction rooms around the world: I saw it at RLalique.com!

We’ve added another great new section to the website this week, The RLalique Tailor Shop, a place where you can get information about common alterations of R Lalique items. We’ve started with two subsections of the shop. The first one discusses missing material, where broken R Lalique items are cut down or hemmed up or taken in, to eliminate obvious damage in an attempt to make them look better. The second subsection details the change from cendrier to seal, something we see quite often as a way to salvage a broken ashtray. As we explain on the main Tailor Shop page, it’s our current plan to stick to discussing items that can be easily described, shown in photos, that are reasonably common, and that result in a change in the shape of the original R Lalique item. We don’t have a home page box set-up for this section, but you can get to it from any navigation bar on the site, including the one on the right hand side of every Blog page. Suggestions for future topics you’d like to see covered in the Tailor Shop, additional photos of items that are already covered, and any comments or suggestions about our information are welcome and appreciated.

Christies New York at Rockefeller Center had two great R Lalique items in their Important 20th Century Decorative Art & Design Sale on December 16th. Lot 232 was the large 50 cm diameter R Lalique Boule De Gui Frosted Glass Chandelier which made a premium inclusive $27,500 against an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000. Lot 233, was the very interesting 94 cm by 63 cm panel pictured here; the R Lalique Bouquet De Fleurs Molded Glass Gold Inclusions and Plane-Tree Wood Panel For the Compagne Internationale Des Wagons-Lits Rail Car. It sold for a premium inclusive $25,000 also against an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000. Also selling at Christies two days later on December 18th, was a wonderful enameled stickpin or hatpin at Christies Interiors Sale in New York. This hatpin sold for a premium inclusive $8750, roughly 8 times the estimate of $800 to $1200. All three of these wonderful R Lalique items were featured in our RLalique at Auction Section for the last several weeks, and represent three more strong sales results for the works of the great Rene Lalique.

The unbelievable R Lalique Butterfly Necklace that came up for sale yesterday at Pierre Berge & Associes in Brussels, and which is pictured here, made a high bid of 200,000 Euros against an estimate of 60,000 to 80,000. With the 24% added charges for premium and tax, the total price is 248,000 Euros, or about $360,000 US at today’s exchange rates! A very strong price. The necklace has been listed in our RLalique at Auction Section for several weeks, and is also pictured in a post on this Blog from late November. This wonderful necklace, featured blue butterflies, amethysts, enamel work and colored gold. It came with the original R Lalique presentation box. An amazing example of the work of the great Rene Lalique and another good auction result for R Lalique as we head into the new year. Our French can use some help, but hopefully the buyer of this R Lalique treasure told the auction house something close to this: Je l’ai vu chez RLalique.com!

The Mastro Auction held in Chicago (and via their website and Ebay live) on Saturday the 13th, reports good overall results. We don’t have all the final lot by lot details, but they are reporting over 75% of the lots sold, with several strong highlight sales prices. One great result was the rare Cased Yellow Butterscotch Chardons Vase selling as Lot 483 and pictured here, which was hammered down at $14,000 bid price, plus a 22.5% Ebay Live premium for a total price of $17,150. Top seller was Lot 355, the beautiful Opalescent Thais Statue which made $27,500 and a premium of 20% ($5,500) for total price of $33,000. The three R Lalique flower sets of architectural panels which were the last three lots of the auction sold for $7500, $7000, and $7000 respectively, for a premium inclusive total for the three lots of $25,800. Also selling well was Lot 456, the striking R Lalique Tourterelles Opalescent Covered Vase which made a premium inclusive $12,000. Update Dec 26th - Final totals for the Mastro Sale were 164 of 225 lots sold, for a premium inclusive total of $324,810.

We scour the world to bring you information on great R Lalique items coming up for auction, and there can be no better example of the info flowing in here at World Headquarters than our listing of an R Lalique Senart Vase coming up for auction in Istanbul Turkey on December 20th at the Alif Art Auction House! Yes, Istanbul, you read it right! Figuring that many of our readers may not have done business in Turkey before, we’ve contacted the auction house directly to obtain information for you on how to make arrangements to investigate and bid on the vase. Here is the edited combined contents of two email replies we received from the auction house:

The vase is in good condition. H: 21cm
İf you want to participate, please give me a fax number so İ could send you a written bid form for you to complete with a credit card number as references (nothing will be debit from it).
The payment could be done by credit card within 1 week or by wire transfer 3 to 5 days after the auction date.
Concerning the shipping cost, it will depend the way we will send the item. Normally we use DHL, easiest way. As we are used to send marchandise overseas, be sure there will be no problem.

Thanks you very much for your interest and help. For the phone bids, İ just need a fax number so İ can send a written bid form to complete, sign and add a credit card number as references. During the auction, İ will call. İn the case of no fax number, İ will ask all the necessary informations (full name, address, passport number, phones, credit card numbers) but İ would rather have the bid form SİGNED by the bidder.

Concerning the vase, there is no problems (no damages, holes…) The glass is black (inside and outside), with some grey parts.

Do not hesitate to contact me for further information,
Sincerely yours,

Celine CHALABİ

Celine’s contact info is: c.chalabi@alifart.com +90 212-249 5811 or +90 212 249 3649
The web site of Alif Art is: www.alifart.com
And of course, the vase is listed in our RLalique at Auction Section!
Please, check the vase and the arrangements out thoroughly before bidding. We are passing this information along without warranty or representation and you must check things out for yourself. Celine will be happy to assist you, but don’t wait until the last minute. You can also review our RLalique Buyer’s Guide or RLalique Purchase Checklist to give you a good idea of items you want to know about. And as always, please remember to tell Celine that you saw this vase here, at RLalique.com. Istanbul; how great!

The Grande Ovale Tete Penchee Opalescent R Lalique Statue that appeared at Forsythes’ Auctions in Russellville, Ohio sold to an Ebay bidder for a strong $24,500 plus 18% buyer’s premium on December 6th, bringing the total sales price to $28,910. A great looking and rare statue nearly 15 inches high, the final result well exceeded the wide $8000 to $15,000 estimate. As we see from time to time on R Lalique glass items, the statue was signed with the wrong model number, having been signed 828 instead of 827 after the R. Lalique signature on the underside. Of course, as we may have mentioned previously, a correct R Lalique item authenticates the signature, not the other way around. In this case, it would not have mattered a whit if the statue was unsigned! You have to love it when great R Lalique pieces like this appear in the heartland of the United States in places like Russellville. We looked it up, and according to the last Census, in the year 2000 Russellville had a population of 453 people in 190 households. The entire village comprises .8 square miles. A great place for a great R Lalique result. We hope the buyer remembered to tell Forsythes what is becoming an increasingly familiar phrase at auction houses around the world: I saw it at RLalique.com!

We’ve come a long way in a short time here at RLalique.com, and with the release of the catalogue for the December 13th Mastro Live Auction featuring roughly 200 great R Lalique items, we’ve reached another important milestone. Our first ever advertisement has hit the streets! The inside back cover of the Mastro Catalogue features the elegant and simple ad shown here. As you can see, the ad contains a complete image of the great RLalique Wasps Cire Perdue Vase that graces the top of every page of this website. Information about the Mastro Sale can be found on our R Lalique Auction Highlights Page, including a link to the Mastro home page, and a direct link to the R Lalique lot listings on their site. The sale is also listed on Ebay Live as well, although there is a higher buyer’s premium for bidding on Ebay than for bidding directly with Mastro. Check out the great R.Lalique items in the sale, and even more importantly :), check out our ad! This is the biggest auction of R Lalique anywhere in the world this year, and the perfect place for us to spread the word.

Who would have thought that several different bidders, including one rumored to be a regular buyer and seller of R Lalique items, would compete to run this Ebay Item up to $713.47, PLUS the cost to ship from Paraguay? Talk about being “thrown for a loupe”! Seriously, we apparently have to do a better job of getting out the word that there is a place to go for information that may be helpful to purchasers of RLalique! This item was the subject of some comment in the Suspicious Online Auction Thread, and it was (and is) also listed in the RLalique Police Section. Tragic.

And here it is straight from the dictionary:

throw or knock for a loop: to astonish or upset: Her quitting the project really threw me for a loop.

Our newest R Lalique listing has appeared on Ebay. It’s a good R Lalique Deux Figurines Menu Holder, circa 1924. The menu holder has a starting price of only $250, well below recent sales prices, and no reserve. Our Ebay User I.D, is RLaliqueSales. We’ve posted the listing in the RLalique at Auction Section, and here is a direct link to the great Deux Figurines on Ebay, as well as a link to the Really Big Photo Page, to see a giant photo of the Menu Holder. You can also check out our RLalique.com Ebay About Me Page (well, About US really)! And yes, another post representing “Shameless Self Promotion” of an item owned by us or consigned to us for sale that sells with our famous (and popular) Satisfaction Assurance!