How two experts at art jewelry specialist Didier Ltd. pegged a mouth-shaped brooch as the French sculptor’s work
Several years ago, Martine and Didier Haspeslagh of Didier Ltd. acquired a gold brooch shaped like a pair of lips. Purportedly the work of French sculptor Claude Lalanne, it bore his monogram and had the hallmarks of GianCarlo Montebello, whose GEM Montebello company helped artists turn their visions into wearable pieces. However, the brooch wasn’t marked like other jewels from GEM, and it was not on the Haspeslaghs’ list of jewelry Montebello had produced with other artists. But they knew from Montebello himself that he’d worked with creators like Lalanne outside of his GEM productions. Additionally, the Haspeslaghs had a necklace with a solid gold pair of lips that Montebello had cast for Lalanne in 1970, bearing the same hallmarks. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to establish the brooch’s origin for certain. So the search for proof began.
“We looked to see if we could find it published anywhere,” recounts Martine. “Our library of books and catalogs is extensive and has been built up over decades. We also have an archive of works that have come up for auction, whether we have purchased them or not, as well as a Dropbox full of photographs we found on the internet.” But none of that helped the two identify the piece. “We drew a blank for a very long time.”
Then Didier saw a blurred image of a Vogue article on Instagram, showing two body ornaments Lalanne had created using German fashion icon Veruschka as a model. The Haspeslaghs found the full text from the December 1969 article online, and the caption confirmed that Lalanne had created three pieces modeled off Veruschka — the third being a pair of lips. The Haspeslaghs returned to the library to search again. “Suddenly, eureka! There was…a black-and-white photograph of Claude Lalanne applying plaster to the mouth and chin of Veruschka — definitive proof,” declares Didier. “The evidence had been there all along, just waiting for us to recognize it.”
Main image: Lips brooch by Claude Lalanne. (Didier Ltd)
Source link