comb

• Ornamental Comb with Wisteria Blossoms

• metal collection

• design: René Lalique
• execution: René Lalique, Paris, 1899 - 1900

• Art Nouveau,
• Modern,

• jewelry

• horn ,
• enamel,
• gold ,
• silver ,
• plique-à-jour,
• carved,

• height: 15.8 cm
• width: 12 cm

• BJ 1204

• purchase, 1900

• Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstätte Archive

• signature:

Goldsmith and glass artist René Lalique was one of the most important representatives of the Art Nouveau movement in France. He was the first goldsmith to include organic materials such as horn and ivory in pieces of jewelry. Employing these materials in combination with enamel, gold, or silver, he originated entirely new forms and led the jeweler’s art, which had been stagnating in traditional designs, out of its unimaginative torpor. Similarly to the Guild of Handicraft in London or the Wiener Werkstätte, Lalique considered the value of a piece of jewelry to lie not in the preciousness of the materials used, but exclusively in the quality of its design. Horn is the material in which this seven-toothed decorative comb with stylized wisteria flowers and leaves was made. The freehanging wisteria blossoms, made of plique-à-jour enamel set in gold, swing along with the wearer’s motions. This principle of movable structures on hair combs was taken from Chinese and Japanese jewelry traditions. (Schmuttermeier, Elisabeth)

• (MAK Guide)

on display

• comb, Ornamental Comb with Wisteria Blossoms, René Lalique, MAK Inv.nr. BJ 1204

• https://sammlung.mak.at/en/collect/ornamental-comb-with-wisteria-blossoms_22862

• 06.12.2024