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Lot Essay
Je suis belle ô mortels comme rêve de pierre
Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal
René Lalique met Sarah Bernardt in 1890 through his friend the painter Georges Clairin. Although he was not originally interested in costume Jewelry, the personality of Sarah Bernhardt inspired Lalique to create some of his most daring pieces. From 1891 to 1894 he designed works for Iseyl and Gismonda as well as some other dramatic objects, though not for the theater.
It is most likely that the present cane handle was designed with the actress in mind, given their close relationship with René Lalique and Bernhardt's legendary bat hat (as viewed in the photograph above). The figure of the bat is very often used at the beginning of the 20th century as a symbol of the obscure, the night but also melancholy. Lalique incorporated the nocturnal creature in his 1900 Exposition Universelle stand where the booth was framed by bronze winged female figures under a sky filled with velvet bats.
Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal
René Lalique met Sarah Bernardt in 1890 through his friend the painter Georges Clairin. Although he was not originally interested in costume Jewelry, the personality of Sarah Bernhardt inspired Lalique to create some of his most daring pieces. From 1891 to 1894 he designed works for Iseyl and Gismonda as well as some other dramatic objects, though not for the theater.
It is most likely that the present cane handle was designed with the actress in mind, given their close relationship with René Lalique and Bernhardt's legendary bat hat (as viewed in the photograph above). The figure of the bat is very often used at the beginning of the 20th century as a symbol of the obscure, the night but also melancholy. Lalique incorporated the nocturnal creature in his 1900 Exposition Universelle stand where the booth was framed by bronze winged female figures under a sky filled with velvet bats.