Artistic Luxury: Faberge, Tiffany, and Lalique

I know that I say this all the time but I'm going to say it again. I went to an INCREDIBLE exhibition today at the Legion of Honor. It's called "Artistic Luxury" and features the works of art from three master craftsmen- Faberge, Tiffany, and Lalique. I have been to an exhibition of Faberge several years before at the Bellagio Art Gallery and was blown away not only by the intricate eggs, but also the enameled pill boxes and holders. Well, this exhibit was much more extensive and showed me some of the OTHER items made by Faberge. He made jewelry, silver tea pots, cups, hair combs, and several other items. His primary patron was Czar Nicholas II and his family. Every year, Faberge had to create two unique easter eggs that contained a special surprise. One egg went to the Czar's mother and the other to his wife Alexandra. Not only were these eggs extremely beautiful, made with the finest gems, gold, and stones, but they had these intricate gadgets inside of it. Sadly, I do not have any photos of the inside treasures (photography not allowed), but the following is a photo of one of them.

I saw some beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows. The thing that I had not noticed about their large picture windows is that they are not perfectly flat- but they are more 3 dimensional with some pieces being more textures and raised, and others in the background. The jewelry on display was breathtaking as usual- even more luxurious then what I have seen in their store. They even had a 237 carat yellow diamond. I won't even try to post any photos because they do not do these pieces justice since they can't capture the sparkle and coloration when hit by light.

Overall, I wasn't really a big fan of Lalique. Several of his pieces were beautiful, but he was more about pushing envelope about was was considered "beautiful" like having some glass carvings that looked like they were covered in soot and other more muted colors. I just personally like the more luxurious elegance provided by Faberge and Tiffany.

I was surprised at just how crowded it was for a weekday- to me, it was the type of crowds that you would see on a weekend. I asked one of the employees about it and they said that this has been "fairly light" since the exhibit began over a week ago- the first Saturday of the exhibit 15,000 people went to the exhibit!! Out of control. I'm so glad that I wasn't there on that day. It just demonstrates what an unbelievable exhibition it is.