Rating and value of Luc Lanel's services, dishes and silverware

If you own a piece of furniture or creation by Luc Lanel and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will guide you.

Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your object, and provide you with an accurate estimate of its value on the current market.

Then, should you wish to sell your object, we will direct you to the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price.

The market value of Luc Lanel's works

Thanks to their refined design, manufacturing quality, comfort, historical value and aesthetics, Luc Lanel's creations are in great demand among furniture enthusiasts and are highly prized on the market. Their value varies according to their years of production and state of preservation.

Their price can soar at auction, particularly for his silverware items, which are adaptable to many interiors.

The price at which they sell on the auction market ranges from €40 to €5,900. In 2020, a pair of " Écaille " vases, dating from 1925, sold for €5,100 while they were estimated at between €600 and €800.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

Luc Lanel's style and technique  

Luc Lanel (1893 - 1965) was an artist who developed a rationalist, functional aesthetic. His work is in line with the modernism of the 1930s, combining geometric rigor and restrained elegance.

Originally trained as an ornamentalist, he developed a pared-down style, stripped of all decorative superfluity, in keeping with the spirit of late Art Deco and international style.

He mastered metal and industrial design. Specializing in silversmithing and tableware, notably for Christofle, he works mainly in silver-plated metal and chrome, but also in steel, in pure, clean lines that are sometimes inspired by machinismo or modern architecture.

The forms he mobilizes are simple, often cylindrical or elliptical. Lanel favors elementary structures: tubes, cones, spheres and linear segments. His objects (teapots, cutlery, vases and lighting fixtures) are based on harmonious proportions and meticulous treatment of surfaces.

His work is a constant dialogue between art and industry  he conceives objects as reproducible forms, designed for mass production, while maintaining a high formal standard. This positioning (between craft and industrial design) anticipates the principles of modern design.

He collaborates with major institutions, creating decorative ensembles for French liners such as the Normandie and the Pasteur, where he applies his metal forms to monumental spaces - notably through his sconces, railings and balustrades of great stylistic coherence.

He is above all influenced by abstraction and constructivism. His creations share a logic of geometric composition that is directly inherited from constructivism, where function guides form and visual harmony derives from structural logic.

Luc Lanel is therefore developing a body of work at the crossroads of design, goldsmithing and decorative architecture. His style is characterized by formal sobriety, technical excellence and a profoundly modern conception of the object, designed for use and for the eye.

Luc Lanel's life and career

Luc Lanel was born in Paris in 1893. Trained at the École des Arts Décoratifs, he quickly specialized in object design and industrial arts. This rigorous training in the applied arts soon shaped his taste for precision, geometry and sobriety of form.

He made his debut in the goldsmith's and silversmith's industry in the 1920s, and began working for Christofle, where he gradually imposed a modernist aesthetic. He gradually broke away from the floral ornamentation and neo-styles of the 19th century, becoming one of the firm's leading designers between the wars.

He was an important figure in Art Deco and then modernist design. At the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs, he presented pieces that marked a shift towards a more refined style. In the '30s, he collaborated on several major interior design projects, notably for French transatlantic liners (such as the Normandie and Pasteur). He designed lighting fixtures, railings and decorative objects in metal.

Luc Lanel played a central role in the evolution of industrial taste  at a time when industry was seeking to reconcile beauty and mass production, Luc Lanel embodied the ideal of a modern designer. He designed utilitarian objects (cutlery, vases, etc.) with great formal rigor, aiming for functional elegance.

He was a discreet but influential designer. Although he received little media coverage during his lifetime, he nevertheless left a coherent body of work that contributed to the evolution of French silversmithing towards more modern, timeless forms. He died in 1965, leaving behind a body of work that has become emblematic of design from the 1930s-50s.

Luc Lanel therefore embodies a rare alliance between artistic craftsmanship and industrial logic. His career illustrates the transformation of French decorative arts in the 20th century, towards a modern, rational and sustainable aesthetic, which was to have a profound influence on post-war design.

Focus on the silver-plated tea service for Christofle, Luc Lanel, circa 1935

The silver-plated tea service for Christofle is an emblematic example of Art Deco functionalism. Designed for Christofle, it illustrates the perfect synthesis between functional demands and decorative refinement.

It consists of a teapot, sugar bowl, milk jug and tray, the whole displaying a keen sense of proportion and sobriety. The geometric shapes used are pure and balanced, each element resting on a slightly stretched cylindrical base, and topped by a hemispherical lid.

The handles are reduced to angular or semi-circular shapes, joining here constructivist influences. The harmony of the volumes creates a visual unity that is both simple and rigorous.

The surface is smooth and reflective. The silver metal service also plays on the brightness and clarity of the material. The walls are polished and unadorned, emphasizing the purity of the lines and the silent elegance of the object. The light reflects off them, accentuating the sharpness of the contours.

The ergonomics of the object are thought through to the smallest detail. Proportions are calculated for use. The pouring spout is discreet yet functional, while the handles keep the hand free from heat and the lids fit precisely. Aesthetics therefore never compromise the object's practicality.

This service is a model of French industrial design. Luc Lanel has created a work that is both utilitarian and sculptural, in which geometric rigor is placed at the service of everyday life. He affirms his vision of modern, uncluttered art, fully in tune with the times.

Luc Lanel's imprint on his period

Luc Lanel established himself in his time as a key player in the modernization of the decorative arts. In decades marked by the transition between the ornaments inherited from the 19th century and the emergence of a more functional design ; Lanel plays a key role in the adoption of a refined formal language, which he adapts to the demands of industrial production and modern aesthetics.

He is a designer at the heart of the reform of taste. Thanks to his creations for Cristofle, he imposed simple, legible and geometric forms in the field of silversmithing and tableware. In this way, he helped redefine French luxury around central notions such as sobriety, clean lines and polished metal.

He became a decorator of architectural stature, as his work on the great French liners of the 1930s, such as the Normandie, testifies to his ability to think the object in space, and to create coherent decorative ensembles that are both functional and aesthetically innovative, while remaining in tune with the spirit of architectural modernity.

During his career, he exerted a certain influence on French design. With his concern for elegant standardization, Luc Lanel anticipated the principles of post-war design, including the combination of formal efficiency, material quality and mass production. In this way, he paved the way for developments in utilitarian furniture in the second half of the twentieth century, following in the footsteps of other artists such as Jean Desprès.

Luc Lanel's imprint was thus part of the profound change in French decorative taste between 1925 and 1950. This discreet but decisive artist helped to tip the applied arts towards a modern aesthetic, which was also intended to be rational and sustainable, reconciling traditional craftsmanship with the demands of modernity.

Recognizing the artist's signature

Despite a recognizable design, the artist's works are not always signed - which reinforces the need for expertise since there are so many copies. The hallmark remains a very important indication.

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