Ville de Paris ¹⁹¹⁴

In the spring of 1914 the French government welcomed to Paris a delegation of foreign local authorities in the context of a diplomatic offensive on the eve of the First World War. During a banquet on the last day of their stay, the guests, among whom probably the mayor of Ghent Emile Braun, all drank out of the same glass goblet, of which they also found a photo next to their plates. They later each received a copy of the goblet, which René Lalique had been commissioned to make 20 copies in great haste by the city of Paris. The stem of his design features the coat of arms and motto of Paris, while the coat of arms of Ghent adorns the foot, on which the date of the banquet, 6 June 1914, is also engraved. Another story is that the mayor of Paris offered the goblet as a gift to Braun because the latter had ensured that France was the guest of honour at the World’s Fair in 1913 in Ghent.

SOURCES

Lennart Booij, De ontvangst van het werk van René Lalique (1860-1945) in Nederland. Proefschrift voor de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, 2013, pp. 39-42;
Met dank aan Lennart Booij, Pieter-Jan Lachaert (Archief Gent), Bart D’hondt (Liberaal Archief) en Régine de Hemptinne.