Number Plate Stories

From the moment Tony had first purchased his original 1932 Lalique catalogue, he realised just how many beautiful objects René Lalique had designed and always dreamed of handling the ultimate Lalique pieces. Over the past few decades he has lucky enough to handle the finest of these. However, as the collection grew, one piece remained elusive - The Fox!

Its was the rarest of all and the only source of reference was a rather blurred photograph from an early catalogue. This was to change in the mid 1980’s. One evening around midnight, he received a telephone call from a Paris dealer. Apparently, one had just been purchased by another dealer. If Tony could get to Paris by the following afternoon it would be his!. "I couldn't sleep that night" Tony recalls "knowing that it actually existed and that could be mine the very next day. I was also more than aware of the rarity of this piece and that if any other collector knew of its whereabouts that it might be lost forever. The very next morning I flew to Paris. I was amazed by the size and detail of the piece and spent days photographing it before finally presenting it to my client. We had now now managed to complete the dream collection."

Only six Foxes were known to exist in the late 1980’s. Tony has since located four more perfect examples and four others in lesser condition - one is missing its base, another has badly damaged ears and another was broken and has been glued together. The question is, exactly how many were in fact made, and when will Tony find another one? It has become his lifetime’s quest. "Through the 1980’s the prices of Lalique and similar mascots were soaring. In 1989, tremendous auctions were held in Monaco and Paris, and rare metal mascots were fetching well over £5000 each. An example of the Bugatti Royale even lacking the authenticating foundry stamp claimed a new world record price of £33,000. Yet another milestone I had to reach.

"Three years later I came across a superb Bugatti Royale mascot at an obscure French country auction and bought this example. Luckily, it also has the Valsuani Cire Perdue foundry stamp intact. Between 1989 and 1990 the international economic climate changed. This, together with the Iraq crisis, caused the Japanese buyers to lose interest in Lalique. The market fell but finally steadied at a lower level. It took more than five more years to recoup the lost ground but it finally regained its 1989 levels at the start of 1999.

Today's market is becoming extremely selective and only the rarest pieces can achieve a premium price. Despite being ever more challenging, one thing remains the same: the rarest pieces are now even harder to find. That elusive Fox's lair is now inhabited by his companions, the Owl and the Comete. Tony now spends far more time than ever tracking down these rare pieces and continues to build the important metal and Lalique glass collections for his prestigious clients all over the world.

previous... |1|2|3|4|5|