Lalique - The Glass Church, Jersey
René LALIQUE not only designed and manufactured vases, bowls, statues, tableware and, of course, car mascots but also turned his hand to collaborating on major architectural commissions. These included department stores, homes, cruise liners and, as in the case of the subject of this blog, churches.
On a recent visit to Jersey I took the opportunity to visit one of and perhaps the most famous of these churches.
St Matthew’s on the Channel Island of Jersey, started life as a modest chapel, built at the foot of Mont Felard to spare parishioners the long uphill trek to the ancient Parish Church of St Lawrence. Over the next century, the hamlet of Millbrook where it was situated flourished, from the coming of the Jersey Railway to the age when planes landed on St Aubin’s Bay. Its greatest blossom was yet to flower. A generous gift changed everything.
Millbrook resident Florence Boot wanted to honour her late husband Jesse, the founder of the Boots Chemist, by rebuilding the church in his memory. Alongside St Matthew’s, she gifted the beautiful Coronation Park to the people of Jersey. The Boots were also generous donators to Nottingham University College and there remains a Boots Charitable Trust today.
René Lalique and the Boots met in the South of France where they were neighbours and Lalique was delighted when Florence offered him the commission to decorate St Matthew’s, near Villa Millbrook her Jersey home, in memory of her late husband. Florence commissioned the talents of René Lalique in collaboration with the Jersey architect A. B. Grayson, to decorate the entire church with his finest work.
The exterior of the church remains a humble white building, only the beautiful front doors giving a clue to what lies within.
The interior was transformed and indeed did honour the memory of the first Lord Trent. Behind the altar the illuminated four metre high glass cross is decorated in relief with lilies. The Madonna lily motif is repeated throughout much of the glass decoration. The cross is flanked by two glass pillars creating a scene which brings to mind the Crucifixion.
The Lady Chapel and Vestry are enclosed by glass screens. The signed Lalique font stands firm and proud in its 90th year.
This was not the first commission by Florence or Lady Trent. From 1929 the great Lalique Moineaux Chambranle Crante Doors graced the dining room of Villa Millbrook, her Jersey home. As testament to her foresight and Lalique's quality and genius, these doors sold as Lot 131 on November 22nd at Sotheby’s in Paris at their sale Arts Décoratifs du XXe siècle & Design Contemporain. Against a pre-sale estimate of €400,000 – €600,00, the final hammer price was €1,750,000 which totaled €2,024,750 including buyers premium. This is a world record price for a single Rene Lalique work at auction.
It was also not the first chuch commission for René Lalique. The Saint-Nicaise church in Reims, France is a unique structure thanks to its Greek cross layout and its both Roman and picturesque styles. It was built in 1923-1924 by Jacques Marcel Auburtin, at the behest of the industrialist and friend and patron of Lalique, Georges Charbonneaux. Lalique had also accepted a commission in 1930 to redecorate La Chapelle de la Vierge Fidèle a la Deliverande at Calvados which was severely damaged during the Second World War. This design incorporated six pillars crowned with Madonna lilies, six angels formed the reredos and there was a fifteen panel glass communion rail. All these elements from the French chapel were assembled in the Pavillon de Marsan at the 1933 Paris Exhibition. Many of the components of this earlier design appear to have been incorporated at St Matthew’s, which provides the best surviving example of Réne Lalique’s important glass interior designs. The refurbished St Matthew’s church was completed and dedicated in September 1934. No similar Lalique commission survives anywhere else in the world.
