Saint Matthew Cross Pendant, Clear Crystal, Silver

1934: René Lalique was commissioned to sign the interior decoration of Saint Matthew’s church located on the Channel Island of Jersey. The centerpiece is a towering cross over three meters high, soaring above the altar. It is festooned with the iconic Jersey lilies, emblematic of the island and a symbol of purity. Lalique reinterprets this precious cultural heritage through the St. Matthews Cross pendant in satin-finished crystal, set on sterling silver. Trained as a jeweler at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in the late 1880's, Rene Lalique gained recognition as an independent designer for some of the era's great jewelry houses including Cartier and Boucheron. Eventually, he turned to glassmaking, and his techniques were a triumph for the Art Deco movement. Every piece of Lalique is finely detailed and produced by hand in Alsace, France.