Lalique The Panda Collection by Han Meilin

Nature was the prime source of inspiration for our founder René Lalique. His bold endeavour to capture and magnify the elementary sparks of life was a thread running through his work, almost a school in itself. Though separated by some 130 years and a continent, the Chinese artist Han Meilin draws the same breath of inspiration. A master revered at home and an ambassador of beauty to the rest of the world, Han Meilin is a distinguished UNESCO Artist for Peace.

Moulded by the great Chinese traditions he learned travelling the country, Han Meilin has worked for more than 60 years in many fields of artistic expression, including painting, calligraphy, sculpture, writing, ceramics, animation and design. Whatever the artist turns his hand to, he brings his own touch and a taste for simplicity, for rounded figures that are immediately recognizable and for lively and supple artistic gestures.

In 2019, to celebrate 55 years of Franco-Chinese relations, it seemed natural for us to open the doors of our crystal works and place the expertise of our master craftsmen at the service of this energetic and inquisitive artist. In choosing to create effigies of pandas, the ultimate symbols of the bonds that link China and France, Han Meilin has taken to the extraordinary medium of crystal with a rare delicacy of touch.

There is a sense of tenderness that emanates from his rounded, mischievous figures. He captures a moment of life in the wild, a grooming gesture or a frolic on the ground. His gaze is open, the eyes soft and sparkling.

There is a sense of tenderness that emanates from his rounded, mischievous figures. He captures a moment of life in the wild, a grooming gesture or a frolic on the ground. His gaze is open, the eyes soft and sparkling.

A fragile species, mentioned in ancient Chinese texts 3000 years ago, the panda reigns majestically over Han Meilin’s artistic repertoire. In addition to an ink drawing that served as an effigy for a stamp issued in China, the artist has no fewer than twelve young specimens in his bestiary – sculpted, lying down or seated. In 2019, the savoir-faire of Lalique’s artisans, enabled him to fashion two of his beasts in pure crystal. Offered as diplomatic gifts in token of friendship since the Tang dynasty, the panda is the ultimate symbol of the bonds that link China and France.

After years of development and all that attends such a period of waiting, Han Meilin’s crystal pandas saw the light of day thanks to the savoir-faire of Lalique’s master craftsmen. The greatest challenge of this Franco-Chinese venture was to render the finesse and expressiveness of the original sculptures created by the artist.

For the little panda, produced in an edition of 888 pieces, a steel mould was created on the basis of a drawing by Han Meilin. An impression in the mould reproduced the effects desired by the artist down to the last detail from the six-clawed paws to the puckered muzzle. Next, the crystal was meticulously hot-pressed into the mould, then cooled and reheated for a hundred hours. Each stage of production requires great deftness of expertise to master the smooth and delicate material.

Each piece is born in a plaster mould, in a single sheath, which is fired and then cooled again for hundreds of hours before processing in the cold-glass workshops, where it is cut and sanded to produce the repolished satin finish that is Lalique’s trademark technique, expertise that requires years of work to perfect.

After a waiting period of one hundred days, as required by Chinese custom, the little pandas born in the Lalique crystal works were baptized. Han Meilin chose the names Yuan-Yuan for the seated male panda and Meng-Meng for the little female, who is lying down.

These cheerful first names, meaning ‘accomplishment’ and ‘dream’ respectively, were not chosen by chance. The names pay homage to Yuan-Meng, the first panda to be born in France, at Beauval Zoo (Loir-et-Cher) in 2017. The young male’s parents Huan Huan and Yuan Zi have lived in France since 2012, honouring the generous Chinese tradition that dates back to the Tang dynasty.

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