René Lalique was both an avant-garde craftsman and astute industrialist. Originally trained as a jeweller, he discovered glass in the 1890s as a new medium to enhance his intricate designs. Lalique’s opalescent and luminous creations were highly influential in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements.

Lalique turned his focus to glassmaking almost exclusively in 1922, opening a glassworks in north-east France that still operates today. The factory allowed Lalique to recast his designs in a variety of colours and finishes, from translucent clear or blue-green glass to red and frosted grey. By the end of the 1920s, it was an epicentre of French decorative art, combining luxury decor and mass production.

Like many artists of the early twentieth century, Lalique had a great interest in Japanese culture, which was a formative influence on Art Nouveau. He subtly decorated his glass objects with natural Japanese-inspired motifs such as grasshoppers, birds and bending reeds of grass. Notable in the group on display is the Perruches (Parakeet) vase, designed in 1919, which shows Australian budgerigars — a fashionable pet among the French elite at the time – perched on flowering branches in a compressed composition, resulting in a delicate, interlocking pattern. This exemplifies the influence of Japanese tradition, adjusted to European tastes.