Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Renowned innovator of Art Deco jewelry, René Lalique (1860-1945) also became a master glassmaker. Initially commissioned to create
perfume bottles, he went on to create monumental glass structures such as fountains,
church alters, and dining room chandeliers, for example, for such luxury liners as The Normandie. René Lalique even became famous for the car radiator
caps that he created out of glass.
To obtain the poetically sculpted glass pieces that are so well
known, René
Lalique invented a way of producing decorated glass as a single piece using a waste-mold
casting process.
The French patent FR475348,
titled Procédé de fabrication d’objets en verre ou cristal décoré (Process for the fabrication
of decorated glass or crystal objects), granted February 16, 1915, to René Lalique, recites the waste-mold
casting process used to create the signature Lalique glass or crystal pieces. A process that enables the production of glass or crystal pieces with
ornamental designs that appear sculpted on their surface, displaying all the finest details of the mold.
The patent recites a process that subsumes the application of wax or wax-type decorations on
the glass or crystal surface. The glass or crystal, and its wax
decorations are then cast in a mold made of a substance capable of resisting high furnace temperatures,
such as a clay or clay-type mold. The clay mold, containing the wax decorated
glass or crystal object, is then subjected to high furnace temperatures, causing the wax
to volatilize, and the glass to soften sufficiently for it to be blown into the
recesses left empty by the volatilized wax. Once cooled, the mold is then
broken, and the glass or crystal piece appears with its ornamental decoration, as a single sculpted piece, that includes all the finest details of the mold.
A variation of the process is also described for cases where the
ornamental design is very large, and the glass object has a large opening such
as a wide-rimmed vase or bowl. In this case, the whole object with the ornamental design is
made of wax, then cast in a clay-type mold. The mold is then furnace-heated to the point
where the whole wax model with decorations volatilizes. The temperature of the
mold is then such that molten glass might be introduced directly into the mold, where it
is blown into all the recesses left empty by the volatilized wax model. Finally, once cooled, the mold is broken, and the decorated glass
piece appears sculpted with all of its detailed ornaments.
The patent figure 2 is included below, depicting a narrow-rimmed glass or crystal
object (1) with ornamental decorations on the surface, within a mold (2). The rim of the glass or crystal object is connected to a
cane (3), through which the glass blower will blow to push the softened glass
into the ornamental recesses left empty by the volatilized wax, after the mold
has been heated in a furnace.
The image of one of René Lalique's famous sculpted vases, called Les Bacchantes, is also included.
References
Musée Lalique
https://www.musee-lalique.com/en
