Magazine LALIQUE 2025

HERITAGE

Marc’s daughter, Marie-Claude, told me that among her father’s first creations was the flacon designed in 1928 for Le Baiser du Faune (The Kiss of the Faun), a Molinard perfume. This imposing flacon was embellished with a decorative motif evoking the Antiquity, a theme dear to René Lalique, but here interpreted in Marc’s powerful and modern style. Another sublime creation was realised by Marc for Trésor de la Me r (Treasure from the Sea), a Saks Fifth Avenue perfume, presented in a large casket shaped like a shell, made of opalescent glass with blue undertones and a satin-like surface, fused to a base representing a cluster of aquatic plants, also made of opalescent glass but with amber undertones and a satin-like surface. The shell opened along a silver hinge to reveal a small spherical flacon, simulating a pearl. This limited edition, produced in 100 examples and available only for Christmas 1936, is considered one of the most astounding objects ever conceived for the perfume industry.

Thursday 14 October 1960, Marc Lalique signing the gold book of the City of Montreal in the presence of the Lord Mayor

Financed by the French state, which was eager to re-establish the luxury industries decimated during World War I, the Verrerie d’Alsace glassworks, located in Wingen-sur-Moder, opened for business in 1922 after several years of construction. About fifty highly qualified workers ran the factory, operating avant garde machinery developed according to the very precise instructions provided by René Lalique. This factory was very important for the prosperity of the region and the prosperity of the artist himself. Unlike the old workshops of Combs-la Ville, these new glassworks were able to manufacture a large number of objects. It was here that Marc Lalique pursued his apprenticeship, learning the general techniques of glass making as well as those newly invented by his father – since, of course, it would be impossible to create any glass object without understanding the possibilities inherent to its production. René Lalique had employed the same draughtsmen, sculptors, metal chasers, chemists, and technicians of all sorts, whose functions and relationships had been established a long time ago. It was difficult for Marc to fit in with this group. However, thanks to his tenacious personality, Marc would soon succeed in imposing his views. Progressively, his personal style, strong and streamlined – which echoed the aesthetic evolution of the period – would prevail, and during his entire career, he would create works according to his own vision, while always bowing to the character of the Lalique style.

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MARC WAS A WELL-BEHAVED AND QUIET CHILD WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS AT SCHOOL. HE FIRST ATTENDED THE ÉCOLE DES ROCHES AND LATER THE ÉCOLE NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS IN PARIS.

arc had a sister, Suzanne, eight years older than him, and after their mother Alice and their paternal grandmother Olympe passed away in 1909, it was Suzanne, a teenager at the time, who took care of him. During his childhood, Marc lived surrounded by his father’s works, displayed in the private apartment, the workshops, and the exhibition salons which made up the enormous building. This was where his training began and, imbued with the Lalique style, he also became an artist. He was a well-behaved and quiet child without any problems at school. He first attended the École des Roches and later the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where his sister Suzanne had also studied.

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