A memento of secret love, crafted by grasp jeweller René Lalique and valued at €450,000, is ready to function alongside a number of basic items on the annual showcase for Eire’s vintage sellers, Timeless.

Lalique’s pendants, brooches and necklaces are among the most consultant examples of artwork nouveau bijoux, and Emile Gallé, the famend French glassmaker, ceramicist and cabinetmaker, known as him “the inventor of contemporary jewelry”.

The piece, a corsage decoration displaying the faces of two girls in 18ct gold and carved chalcedony, have been worn aspect by aspect, hooked up to cloth through small eyelets to the reverse.

The French craftsman was sometimes called “the genius of the jewelry world”, not only for introducing new supplies and topics into jewelry design, but in addition for a way he revolutionised the know-how of glassmaking, patenting 16 strategies. He labored as a contract designer for French jewelry homes Cartier and Boucheron after his schooling on the Parisian College of Ornamental Arts and the Crystal Palace Artwork College in London. By the point of his loss of life in 1945, he had grow to be one of many foremost glassmakers on this planet, along with being a celebrated jeweller.

Primarily his works have been landscapes and portraits with artwork nouveau-style nubile younger girls, birds and unique flora embellished with semi-precious stones, diamonds and pearls.

Actress Sara Bernhardt, on the zenith of her fame, was his foremost buyer, serving to to launch his profession. There’s not often {a photograph} of her with out his signature tiaras or hair-combs — particularly within the stage costume of Cleopatra, which he created.

The piece at Timeless was created for Alice Ledru, Lalique’s lover and muse who he would finally go away his spouse for. The piece is claimed to be loaded with symbolism. Whereas the blue cornflowers recommend secret love, her flowing locks — the antithesis of taut matronly Victorian buns — are stated to characterize liberated feminine sexuality, synonymous with the “nouvelle femme” of the artwork nouveau motion.

Describing it as “one of the best single piece of jewelry I’ve come throughout”, and “of museum high quality” the president of the Irish Antiques Sellers Affiliation, Garret Weldon, stated: “One can’t consider this piece with out utilizing the phrase masterpiece. It has by no means been on show and has been in the identical non-public assortment for one of the best a part of 130 years. Sometimes these items don’t come to market and far of Lalique’s work is displayed within the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, so to have the ability to deliver it to the Irish public is particular.”

Timeless will run on the RDS in Dublin, September Twenty third-Twenty fifth, providing a mix of up to date and antique-focused exhibitors. Along with the Lalique jewelry, fascinating tons embody an unique Brionvega RR126 document participant — just like the one favoured by David Bowie — and previous grasp work to mid-century items. timelessfair.ie