Boîte à poudre

René Lalique
Boîte à poudre
avant 1909
cristal taillé et gravé, argent repoussé et ciselé pour le couvercle et la monture du récipient ; pétale de verre moulé, gravé et dépoli, serti en bâte sur le couvercle
H. 11,0 ; DM. 9,8 cm.
Achat au Salon, 1909
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Jean-Jacques Sauciat
René Lalique (1860 - 1945)

Lalique created many sophisticated dressing table objects, but usually singly. However, this powder box is part of a set that seems to be unique in the glassmaker's work before 1910. The set consists of a large soap box, a hand mirror, a hairbrush and a second, smaller powder box – also in the Musée d'Orsay collections. Originally, there was also a small-handled mirror and brush that have since disappeared.
Lalique's use of moulded, coloured glass, satin finish silver, repoussé and chased, and cut, etched glass is similar to his jewellery work from the 1890s into which incorporated glass elements. But the style is surprising for its sobriety, more suggestive than descriptive: just a few, sparse rose petals, barely tinted with yellow, and some thorny rose stems forming evenly-spaced lines, add to the subtle and harmonious whiteness that characterises the whole set.

Niveau médian, Salle 64
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