RUSTAN’S is celebrating Home Month at its Makati branch with a display of limited edition pieces from luxury houses, including the French brand Daum.
While Daum was founded in 1878, it reached its artistic zenith much later, in the Art Nouveau art period from the 1890s to the 1910s. Art Nouveau, distinct with its use of curves and natural forms, fit right in to the dying days of the Belle Époque, and unfortunately, its sensibilities didn’t fit with the industrialization reflected in the Art Deco period right after the First World War.
These naturalist forms present in its Art Nouveau days were evident in the display at Rustan’s on Aug. 5.
A new collection, called Citrus, is centered on lemons. It is an homage to Andalusia and the rest of Southern Spain, and it is anchored by the Magnum Vase, a mixture of whole lemons, lemon leaves, and cut lemon slices (P875,000).
The house is known for its use of the Pâte de Cristal technique, where glass of different colors are blended and melted together to give a depth in hue to the piece. Using the lost wax method in casting, the hollow parts of the mold are carefully filled with fragments of crystal of different colors and different sizes. This is then placed in a firing kiln. Once cooled, the plaster mold is carefully broken, to reveal the sculpture in Pâte de Cristal. The house uses over 48 colors to make its works.
Cecilia Lam, head of sales and marketing for Asia Pacific for Daum, pointed out the result in the Magnum Vase: not just uniformly yellow, the vase contains two shades of yellow, and a tinge of green. “(When) the sunlight goes inside the vase, the colors will reflect differently as well,” she said in an interview. She also noted the bubbles that formed during the heating process: “It’s a very lively performance. We don’t control it,” she said, thus ensuring that every Daum piece is unique.
OTHER ITEMSThe Daum vase isn’t the most expensive thing on display. Another French glassworks maison, Lalique, showed off its Le Bain de Cristal — a giraffe in a goblet. The piece, part of a collaboration celebrating artist René Magritte, is worth P3.75 million. Other brands collaborating with artists (and on display and on sale at the store) include silverware brand Christofle’s collaboration with Junichi Hakose, ceramics brand Bernardaud’s collaboration with Jeff Koons, and Lladró’s collaboration with Javier Calleja.
The exhibit will run until the end of the month, or while supplies last. — Joseph L. Garcia
