Penthièvre Vase
Design Date 1928
Designer René Lalique (1860-1945, French)
Manufacturer Lalique (1902-present), Combs-la-Ville, France; Wingen-sur-Moder, France
Media glass
Dimensions 10 3/8 x 10 x 10 inches
Designers Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand and René Lalique can be considered the triumvirate of French Art Deco. Lalique was a pioneer in Art Deco glass because of his experiments in molded glass, which allowed vases like this to be produced in large quantities, as opposed to the more traditional and time-intensive glass-blowing process. Lalique approached his glass designs as a sculptor rather than a glassworker, carving models of his creations out of wax so a mold could be made out of them. Frosted glass like this was created using acid on the finished vase. Lalique glass had a variety of decorative motifs, including stylized, abstracted animals like the fish on this vase. The geometry of the rows of diamond-shaped angel fish makes this motif Art Deco in style. Penthièvre is located on the upper west coast of France, in Brittany, at the narrowest point of the Quiberon Peninsula, west of Vannes. It has two famous beaches and therefore fish, which perhaps suggested the name.
ON VIEW in Art Deco Gallery 6
Markings Bottom etched, "R. LALIQUE
Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art
Accession Number 2013.0582
