This vase, in smoked, mould-blown glass, was made in 1925 and acquired by Calouste Gulbenkian the following year. Designed with great formal simplicity, this classically inspired work is decorated with two masks drawing on Greek theatre, from which sprout serpent-shaped handles. In this object, Lalique marries the mould-blown glass technique used for the spherical body of the vase with the press-moulded glass technique employed in the masks, which are hot-glued onto the smooth glass of the body.

The artist’s passion for glass and his first experiments with this material date back to the time of his atelier on Rue Thérèse, in Paris, where he took up residence in 1890. Lalique cemented his reputation as a glass master at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, a defining moment in the affirmation of the Art Deco style.