National Motor Museum acquires Lalique car mascots

It has become the first publicly owned collection of Lalique car mascots in the world and the National Motor Museum is the only museum where visitors can now see such a significant display of Lalique mascots outside of Japan.

The collection was previously on loan by its private owner as the centrepiece of the National Motor Museum’s The Luxury of Motoring exhibition, where visitors to Beaulieu can still see the showcase of illuminated mascots.

Grants of £83,500 each from the Art Fund and National Heritage Memorial Fund, together with £40,00 from ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and £5,000 from a private donor have secured its long-term future as a jewel in the crown of the Museum’s Collections.

As a keen fisherman, the private owner began his extraordinary Lalique collection with the glass perch, which started a six-year quest to find true and perfect mascot examples. The collection includes majestic animals and human forms that bring art into everyday life

Master glassmaker René Lalique’s stunning work represents an era when car mascots were the ultimate luxury, capturing the grace and power of the cars they adorned. Lalique was born in France in 1860 and by the age of 12 was already winning awards for his drawings before his mother arranged his apprenticeship with famous Parisian jeweller and goldsmith Louis Aucoc. He opened his own workshop in 1885 and attracted the attention of prominent personalities of the day. It is believed that Cinq Chevaux (five prancing horses) was Lalique’s first purpose-designed car mascot, when it was commissioned by André Citroën to be mounted on the radiator of his newly designed Citroën 5CV.

Motoring mascots have a strong association with Beaulieu. When Rolls-Royce asked Charles Sykes to design one for them, the Spirit of Ecstasy was born and the muse and inspiration for much of Sykes’ work was Eleanor Thornton, the personal secretary and secret mistress of John 2nd Baron Montagu. Examples of the Spirit of Ecstasy and the Montagu family mascot The Whisper can also be seen on display at Beaulieu.