Lalique

René Lalique was Art Nouveau's greatest jeweler — Sarah Bernhardt wore his dragonflies, Calouste Gulbenkian collected him wholesale — before he became Art Deco's greatest glassmaker, a double mastery no one else in decorative arts can claim. Perfume bottles for François Coty industrialized his poetry; by 1921 he had built the manufactory at Wingen-sur-Moder in Alsace where every Lalique crystal piece is still made.

The vocabulary he set remains the house's grammar: satin-finished crystal against clear, flora, fauna and the female form — the Bacchantes vase of 1927, dancing nymphs in frosted relief, is produced to this day — plus the car mascots, chandeliers and church glass of his empire years.

The modern maison extends the art de vivre logically: jewelry returned to the founding craft, perfumes in collectible flacons, furniture and architectural commissions, all radiating from Alsace. Lalique sells sculpture with a function attached — light, held in crystal, by the man who taught the century how.