precious butterflies
Tuesday, February 4th 2025
by René Lalique (French, 1860-1945)
A set of three ca.1900 butterfly-shaped jewels
18K gold.
Featuring three identical pairs of butterflies, one bigger than the other two. Each jewel features two engraved openwork butterflies with plique-à-jour enameled wings set with round old-cut diamonds, the legs and antennae holding cabochon opals and green-enamel eyes.
Signed.
The larger one: Height 11.5 Width 8.1 cm.
The smaller ones: Height 7 Width 5.8 cm.
Raw weight: 30.2 g, 30.1 g and 49.1 g.
(one opal needs to be reset, there are tiny chips and blemishes to the enamel, fastening system added at a later date)
Comes with an 18 K yellow gold necklace. Length: 57.5 cm. Raw weight: 10.3 g.
René Lalique, an Art Nouveau visionary genius, was the first jeweler to introduce innovative materials such as glass, enamel and semi-precious stones into his creations, thus revolutionizing late 19th century jewelry. His main inspiration sources were nature, women, flora and fauna, as well as mythology and the world of dreams.
The butterfly, a symbol of metamorphosis and lightness, perfectly embodies Lalique’s art of movement and transparency: to him, butterflies were more than a simple design, they were a poetic allegory. Today, Lalique jewelry, whose designs often featured delicate plique-à-jour enamel or satin-finished glass, has become extremely scarce on the market. It is prized as much for its aesthetic value as for its historical rarity. The jewels presented in this auction all evoke the magic of Lalique's universe, between jewelry and decorative art.
