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René Lalique designed Chrysis in 1931, a kneeling figure in French crystal, her hair swept by an imaginary wind. Lalique decorated the Côte d'Azur Pullman Express and lit the Normandie's dining room. Read its story.
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Lalique was entrusted with decorating the carriages of the Côte d'Azur Pullman Express, then took part in shaping the first-class dining room aboard the liner Normandie. Chrysis was his design for the motorcar, made to adorn its radiator cap and turn a working part into sculpture.
At heart, Chrysis is grace in motion, a figure of the Art Deco years poised as if the car were still moving. Her form is molded, then refined with acid frosting and sandblasting until the crystal takes on its luminous finish. The mascot now stands free as a work of art.
Light drifts through the crystal like mist over a morning road. Signed Lalique France, she has the substantial weight of fine crystal and serves as a paperweight as gracefully as a sculpture. Wherever she is placed, the golden age of luxury motoring feels near.
Lalique began with a jeweler's eye. Born in Aÿ, in the Marne, René Lalique was apprenticed as a young man to the jeweler Louis Aucoc. He also studied at England's Crystal Palace School of Art. In the mid-1880s he opened his own workshop in Paris, where jewels would one day give way to glass.
Paris crowned him in 1900. At the Great Exhibition he shone with jewels for stars such as Sarah Bernhardt, and that year he was named an Officer of the Legion d'Honneur. The illustrious maison went on to adorn the Cote d'Azur Pullman Express and the liner Normandie.
His son Marc carried the maison into crystal. Today Wingen-sur-Moder remains the only place in the world where Lalique crystal is made, and its artisans hand down their craft from generation to generation. Its crystal now shines in homes across the globe, chosen by collectors who know the difference between beautiful and sublime. They know each piece carries the vision of a jeweler who turned glass into art.
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