Plafonniers and station platforms

Christmas is almost upon us and you still haven’t sorted out that significant present for the woman in your life who has everything. And there’s the rub. She already has the jewels, the houses, the horses, the cars, the shoes and furs and more cashmere dressing gowns than she could possibly ever want. Knowing the way she’s capable of burning through your money, you’d like to give her something under the tree that will at least hold its value, and perhaps become a family heirloom. So does she have, I ask you, any Lalique plafonniers?

My first thought was that a plafonnier was something to do with platform shoes, although admittedly platform shoes made from antique French glass would be pretty outrageously special. Actually, a plafonnier is a chandelier, and if she likes gems and strong colours and Art Deco aesthetics, and if on top of all that you have fairly deep Christmas pockets, then you should consider popping over and placing a bid in the Lalique sale at Christie’s in New York on 18 December. One of the highlights is an opalescent glass plafonnier from 1921, designed by René Lalique and decorated with two seductively naked sirens gently swirling around its butterscotch-yellow rim.

Lalique worked with liquid glass cast in moulds, and his genius lay in the refinement of his materials and in the superlative graphic and sculptural skills that he brought to bear in creating forms and decorations. According to Jeni Sandberg, the glass specialist at Christie’s in New York, this plafonnier is very rare and in extremely good condition. ‘The yellow colour is very unusual and sought after and it’s in gorgeous shape. It would appeal to the really hardcore Lalique collectors and to people who love Art Deco things.’