 Called the greatest artist-jeweler since the Renaissance, René Lalique (1860-1945) used the full range of goldsmith's techniques to create art nouveau jewelry that mesmerized an era.
Plants and flowers of every description, as well as fish, insects and reptiles, surround mysterious female figures in evocative, dreamlike images.
Rejecting a conventional reliance on diamonds and precious stones, Lalique combined unusual colored stones, ivory, horn, glass and enamel - opalescent, carved or translucent - with stunning virtuosity.
His experiments with glass as a material for jewelry led him to produce, at the request of François Coty, the first perfume bottles made specifically for particular scents. By 1910, Lalique had turned his full attention to glass-making, a second field that he revolutionized in the next three decades.
 The exhibition, focusing on Lalique's jewelry and first works in glass in the period before World War I, brings together more than 200 rare pieces from the greatest museum and private collections in the United States and Europe.
The exhibition has been organized by Exhibitions International, New York and is sponsored by Lalique North America. A fully illustrated catalogue will be published in English and French editions by Flammarion.
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