Marie-Claude Lalique, who for 17 years ran the company founded by her grandfather, Rene Jules Lalique, the 19th and early 20th century creator of art glass, has died. She was 67.
Marie-Claude, who took over the firm's designing and production upon the death of her father, Marc, in 1977, died April 14 at Health Park Hospital in Fort Myers, Fla., near her home on Captiva Island, according to a Fort Myers funeral home. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Barbara Deisroth, Sotheby's director of 20th century decorative arts in New York, said this week that Marie-Claude, who followed in her grandfather's and father's footsteps as a proprietor of the business and as a designer, was responsible for expanding the family name to other luxury items.
"She introduced perfume, she introduced more jewelry, she introduced special edition pieces -- silk scarves, pocketbooks -- so she really changed it from when her father inherited the business," Deisroth said.
She added that although Marie-Claude's own designs had not yet reached collector status, as had her grandfather's and, to some extent, her father's, it was too early to tell if her work would stand the test of time.
"Her grandfather was certainly the star," Deisroth said. "He was a great jewelry designer, a great object designer, a great glass designer. Her father used to be pooh-poohed" as a designer. "Then people began to say he was not like his father, but he was really good. And I think that's what will happen with her."
Rene Lalique became famous in Paris in the late 19th century for Art Nouveau-style jewelry that incorporated glass. Among his many famous clients was actress Sarah Bernhardt. He turned to glass as an art form after Francois Coty asked him to design a label for Coty perfumes and Lalique designed an entire flask. Before that, customers took apothecary bottles to chemists to get them filled with perfume. This marriage of flacon to fragrance was considered the birth of the burgeoning business of perfume marketing.
Once he began making glass objects, Rene turned to creating art glass, an arena that proved to be a huge artistic and commercial success for him. Among his many notable works was a crystal table service for King George VI of England and various glass works for the Oviatt department store in downtown Los Angeles, including lamps, panels, windows, display cases and a massive ceiling. (The ceiling was sold at auction in 1968, and the current owner, Marilyn Rosov of Boynton Beach, Fla., has it on the market.)
