René Lalique

Nicholas M. Dawes, Lalique Glass, New York, 1986, p. 71, fig. 139
Janine Bloch-Dermant, Le Verre en France, Paris, 1983, p. 188, fig. 1
Katherine Morrison McClinton, Lalique for Collectors, New York, 1975, p. 87
Tony L. Mortimer, Lalique, 1989, London, p. 97, illus.

Le Jour et la Nuit is considered to be among René Lalique's masterworks, designed when he was sixty-six years old and at the zenith of a glassmaking career, which began shortly before World War I and lasted until his death in 1945. The figures of 'Day' (male) and 'Night' (female) are made light and dark by ingeniously molding the glass plate in intaglio and bas relief respectively, combining Lalique's characteristic use of neo-classical allegory, exquisite figure modeling and extraordinarily innovative, yet simple technique in one superb design. This design was the most expensive clock that Lalique produced. Less than thirty examples of this clock are known to exist, with most of the examples known in either colorless, or as in the present example, gray glass.