Eric Knowles Books

Rene Lalique was one of the giants of twentieth-century decorative arts. Born in 1860, early artistic talent led to an apprenticeship with Paris goldsmith Louis Aucoc. By 1885, Rene had established his own workshop and for the next twenty years he designed and made jewelry of great originality and beauty. He became famous across the world for his jewelry, but before the turn of the century he began experimenting with glass. It is for his glass that Lalique is most famous today. In 1907, Lalique met the perfume manufacturer Francois Coty, and this led to the design and production of fine art perfume bottles on a grand scale. But Lalique's glass would not be confined to ladies' dressing tables, his repertoire including vases, lighting, clocks, car mascots, several architectural commissions and more, much of it in the Art Deco idiom, of which Lalique was one of the masters. Rene Lalique died in 1945, but the firm he founded was continued by his son Marc, and then his daughter Marie-Claude who heads the firm today. This highly illustrated history of Lalique celebrates the extraordinary jewelry and glass of Rene Lalique, and the glass of the Lalique company up to the present day.

Well-known antiques expert Eric Knowles brings together Victoriana, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco in a lavish and highly informative companion to a popular collecting field. 100 Years of the Decorative Arts covers artistic movements, technological advances, and the work of the major craftsmen of this period. It also includes informaton on identification, valuation, dating, and spotting fakes.

Although most associated with the 1920s and 30s, Art Deco began in France prior to World War I. During the interwar years the style evolved and was adopted by an international elite set as the perfect expression of modern opulence and elegance in an age that gave birth to jazz, the Charleston, speakeasies, glamorous Hollywood films and engineering marvels such as skyscrapers. At the height of its popularity the Art Deco influence was seen in a wide variety of remarkable and innovative applications from decorative arts such as jewelry, metalwork, ceramics, and glass to massive scale applications in architecture, interior design, fashion, public works projects and consumer goods from automobiles to telephones to jukeboxes. This unique book is a collection of the most beautiful examples of Art Deco style from personal statements in jewelry to skyscrapers that defined city skylines, and examines the social and cultural climates of the 1920s and 30s which were perfectly aligned with the optimism and elegance of Art Deco. It traces the seminal influences in its evolution including the Ballets Russes, Cubism and the Bauhaus and explains why Art Deco style continues to attract new collectors and enthusiasts who connect with this design styles' impeccable ability to convey opulence, elegance, and exclusivity.