By Alidë Kohlhaas

Right now, a very delightful series runs on the Buffalo-Toronto PBS station WNED, which is based on the stories of P. J. Wodehouse. Jeeves and Wooster is not just a fun-filled series, but its opening credits are a visual delight of Art Déco graphic design. There are both elegance and humour in this design of the opening to each show. That is Art Déco, a mixture of lightheartedness and visual poetry, graceful lines and, mostly, excellent taste.

I am mentioning this show because aside from graphic design, Art Déco in its time — the second and third decades of the 20^th century — inspired furniture design, household wares, objects d'art and architecture. Right now, and until January 28 of 2007, visitors to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) can view the works of the absolute master of Art Déco glassware. Called Déco Lalique, it features more than 60 pieces created by the famous French designer, René Lalique, at his studios in France. There are also many objects from other designers, who abandoned Art Nouveau for the simpler lines of Art Déco, but none are quite as famous.

If you are of a certain age — namely over 50 — this show will not just delight you with the beauty of most of these objects, but it will indisputably arouse nostalgia. Your parents or grandparents surely must have owned at least some Art Déco furnishings, and surely a piece of glassware that is similar to that being displayed in Déco Lalique. Lalique had his imitators, but the master's own creations were very popular in Canada. Various companies sold his wares as upscale gifts, especially for weddings; they included the T. Eaton Company, the Robert Simpson Company, Henry Birks & Sons Ltd., and in the West, the Woodward's chain.

As an aside, Sears, of course, has now absorbed both Simpson's and Eaton's, Woodward's closed down ages ago, and Birks has been owned for some time by an Italian company that doesn't carry Lalique ware any longer. Only the upscale chain store Ashley China, at least in the Toronto area, can now satisfy a desire to own a piece of glassware with the Lalique stamp. Today's wares, of course, are mostly designed by René Lalique's granddaughter, Marie-Claude, and produced at the company renamed Cristal Lalique.

What fascinates one about the ROM's Déco Lalique display is not just that each piece breathes Art Déco, but that it arouses wonderment. Lalique used various methods to create shimmering objects that to this day seem ageless despite their relationship to a past style. Of course, not every piece in the exhibit is to one's liking. For instance, there is a circular pale lilac brooch of press-molded demi-crystal glass in which have been embedded three pearls. Why, one asks, would a designer of such talent commit such a faux pas as to include the pearls that have no relationship to the half-kneeling naked female figure? Of course, he created it for the perfumer, Fioret of Paris, who undoubtedly requested it. Another brooch, however, in pale sapphire glass, which features four moths, is quite enchanting, although it is still a representative of Art Nouveau. I also am underwhelmed by a vase called Chamois. Mould-blown in amber-colored demi-crystal, it features stylized gazelles that fail to convey the gracefulness of these creatures. The vase appears chunky and out of harmony with most of the other objects on display.

Art Nouveau, which reigned supreme in the last two decades of the 19^th century and the first of the 20^th, had its roots in the Arts and Crafts movement in England. William Morris, its founder, rejected the sterile revival styles of in contemporaneous architecture and graceless applied art that resulted from mass-production techniques. Art Nouveau (literally "new art") was characterized by its devotion to curving and undulating lines, often called whiplash lines. Art Déco streamlined Art Nouveau. Its lines were sleek and elegant and came about because artists wanted to simplify the excesses of Art Nouveau, and to make it more responsive to the new age of speed and glamour.

All pieces come from the ROM's own collection, which is now seen as the largest and most representative of Lalique glass in the possession of North American museums. And what a collection it is. The variety of objects give the viewer the whole spectrum of Lalique's activity from his earliest beginnings to his most creative period, and that of his declining years. There are not just vases, but plates of great variety, perfume bottles, ashtrays, candle holders, lamp shades, bowls, bookends, glass wall panels, wine glasses and water goblets, and more.

Lalique often combined glass and enamel to give his creations a special effect. He also added different chemicals to his lead glass (he preferred it to lead crystal) to achieve varied color effects, or to create opalescence. In one stunning vase in this collection he  combined black glass with bronze. He fused elegant bronze handles to the rim of the vase that each consists of six stems that spread to form lanceolate leaves, which follow the curve of the vase.

Just who was René Lalique? He was born on April 6, 1860 in Ay, Marne, a village in the Champagne region of France, which today boasts just a little over 4,000 inhabitants. However, the village had little influence on him as his family moved to a Paris suburb when he was just two. This allowed the young boy to develop his interest in art and nature at an early age. His father's death forced the 16-year-old René to seek employment as an apprentice with the Parisian jeweler and goldsmith, Louis Aucoc. He studied art and design in England in 1880, where he was influenced by the William Morris school, and in France. He then began his career as a jewelry designer, working in the style of Art Nouveau. He had an obvious talent for business aside from being an artist because by 1890 his studio employed a staff of 30.

René Lalique

By the 1890s Lalique began to explore the potential of glass, and once he developed his method, he abandoned jewellery completely, except for items made from glass. In some of the early pieces, such as a vase called Monnaie du Pape still hints at Art Nouveau, but by the early 1920s Art Déco takes over in his work. The style came to the attention of the world following l'Exposition Internatile des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderns in 1925, which France used to bring French artists, designers and artisans to the attention of the world.

When the Great Depression emerged the demand for Lalique's glassware declined and in 1937 one of his glassworks had to be closed. WWII forced the closure of his Wingen-sur Moder factory, which he had opened in 1921. Lalique died on May 5, 1945. His son Marc reopened the Wingen factory after the repair of war damages. The company, with headquarters in Paris, is now run by Marc's daughter, and produces not only newly designed pieces but also reproductions of René Lalique as well as those designed by Marc.

There is so much more that can be said about Déco Lalique and the man who inspired this exhibition. I leave this, however, to Carolyn Hatch, who wrote an excellent introduction to the catalogue that accompanies this show. Called Déco Lalique, Creator to Consumer, it contains stunning colour plates of the exhibited items, and an excellent description of each piece represented in the book. Hatch explores the influence of French modernism and the significance of Lalique's designs in Canada. The catalogue also features many advertisements created for various department stores to promote Lalique items in Canadian Homes and Gardens and The Globe during the 1920s, and an excellent view of the Round Room at Eaton's College Street that has now been refurbished and re-opened as The Carlu. Jacques Carlu was the designer, who created this outstanding piece of Art Déco interior design, which complements the Art Déco exterior of the building, designed by architect René Cera. The building itself was opened to the public in 1930.

Below left: Mermaid - press-molded opalescent glass with blue pain patination; right: "Dancing Satyr" relief panel - cast clear glass with acid-etch mat finish