Source de la fontaine “Telphuse”, model created on [April 29, 1924], originally designed for the Fontaine des Sources de France for the 1925 Paris Exposition, removed from the 1937 catalog. Important statuette resting on its original wooden base.

Proof in pressed white glass, partly satin-finished. Original rosewood veneer terrace.

Total height 53 cm with wooden base.

Statue height 47 cm 

Bibliography: “R. Lalique, catalog raisonné de l'oeuvre de verre” by Félix Marcilhac. Éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 2004. 

Identical model reproduced on page 402 

. History: The original model of this statuette was one of those that adorned the “Fontaine des Sources de France”, created by René Lalique in collaboration with architect Marc Ducluzaud. This luminous fountain, comprising one hundred and twenty-eight caryatids of sixteen different models, was presented at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925 on the Esplanade des Invalides (opposite the Cour des Métiers). Given the high cost of dismantling it (100,000 francs at the time), once the event was over, René Lalique chose to offer it to the City of Paris. The city declined, considering it difficult to leave it alone in front of the austere Invalides monument. In February 1926, the artist decided to dismantle it on his own, and after collecting the statuettes, he put them up for sale in his store (naming them after the muses) to recoup the cost of creating this masterpiece. Such was their success that new ones had to be made for several years to keep up with demand.