Dutch designer Marcel Wanders has designed a collection of glasses, vases and candelabras for French crystal brand Baccarat, including this family of stainless steel deer with candelabra antlers (above).
Above and top: Les Esprits des Bois (Spirits of the Woods). Marcel Wanders had a dream, and Baccarat brought it to life: to top off the “United Crystal Woods” collection with one design devoted to the legendary animals of the forest—large deer that appear like dream images at the edge of the woods and magically metamorphose into exceptional candelabra. This line features three different sizes, from two meters for the tall deer to 90 centimeters for the small deer. The slender forms are made of square, polished stainless steel, topped with engraved, clear crystal candleholders, votive holders or vases. Decorated with candles or ethereal flowers, they become striking decors of light.
Called United Crystal Woods, the collection also includes wine glasses and carafes featuring Wanders’ silhouette wearing a clown nose, cut-crystal vases with metal bases, and lace-etched candlesticks.
Above: Les Rois de la Forêt (Kings of the Forest) These four majestic, clear crystal vases designed by Marcel Wanders look like monarchs adorned with their most glorious finery. On classic bases of gilded, stainless steel, vermeil, or chrome, the deeply cut patterns feature contrasting geometric rhythms, diamond and square shapes—truly royal mantles for the kings of the forest, serving as an exercise in style for Baccarat’s exceptional expertise.
Here’s some text from Marcel Wanders:
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Forest of the United Crystals
A long time ago, in a place not far from here, I remember… vaguely, in the middle of the night, I woke up after a possibly… but probably not, long sleep. With my head on the table, distorted, the last in the room and surrounded by too many beautiful empty glasses, I opened my eyes. Too many empty, too many empty.
Above: Les Rois de la Forêt
I welcomed that new day, waking up in that autumn forest, that overwhelming forest of emptied crystal trees, showing their naked skeletons, surrounding me, towering over me, filling up my short view with endless crystal sparkles. What once made the trees colorful was gone, what was loud only whispered, only a few splashes, little witnesses, dried out pools randomly scattered over my table of friends remained.
Above: Les Rois de la Forêt
I woke up in the forest of the united crystals. Too much light forcing me to close my eyes, too many sparkles for a heavy night, boys will always be boys. Me…I will always be me. I was lost, looking for breadcrumbs. After hanging around a little in the united forest of the united crystals my imagination drifted further and entered the border of another strange forest.
Above: Les Rois de la Forêt
Here the trees were bathing in the lights of four different suns. Light hit the crystal dewdrop-trees, the kings of the forest, in their own special seasonal manner. Four royal trees attracted these rays of light, silently battling over the evolution of their royal status.
Above: L’Ivresse des Bois (Woods of Euphoria) Marcel Wanders, a self-professed hedonist of great wines, focuses his talent and humor on wine glasses and carafes—which often have little character. Working with an oenologist, he added a Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne glass to the traditional blank, featuring elegantly turned stems engraved with his favorite seal. The famous clown’s nose that pops up in his collections has become a motif for the stem and the stopper, produced in Baccarat red or clear crystal. Two magnificently elegant carafes—including one decanter—complete this sophisticated line geared to all design and wine connoisseurs.
This was the forest of eternal evolution; here things would always change order, flavor and position. What seemed important today was gone tomorrow. Life and time was wasted and erased with passionate power, and at the same time new minutes were streaming in with vast force as if there was an overwhelming amount of time pushing to get in. In this fierce, hostile environment it was hard to find a place, a chair, some rest. My fluid grey cells moved on….
Above: L’Ivresse des Bois
It was silent again when I entered the most remote – and hidden- of the forests of the united crystals, this was called the forest of the lost dreams. Here the most captivating of all forests lived, or better, slept. It was called the forest of the lost species During the day the forest was quiet as if it was in a 1000 year sleep but at night it would wake up and gently wander around, towering over the united forest.
Above: L’Ivresse des Bois
What seemed logic for the world, to be lost and forgotten, was ultimately impossible here. The forest of the lost species was the final destination of all extinct animals in the other forests and was larger and more active than all others. Instead of being animated by trees it was a forest of deer, invisibly hosting all other species, hovering over the forest of the united crystals.
Above: La Forêt des Songes (Forest of Dreams). Among the forest trees conjured by Marcel Wanders are a series of clear crystal candlesticks and vases inspired by his first vision of Baccarat’s expertise and style: the deeply cut crystal is combined with the lightness of filigree, undoubtedly linked to his own source of inspiration, his country’s lace he uses so often. A play in contrasts, the solid, deeply cut crystal bases and engraved candlesticks and vases are available in series, or alternately in modules of five elements, single candlesticks or vases, or votives and vases attached to a single base.
Silently and invisibly. You could only sometimes sense their presence. When you feel a cool breeze on a warm day, when a door slams without reason, when a cloudy sky suddenly clears, only then can you sense the presence of the forest of the extinct species.
Above: La Forêt des Songes
My eyes were heavier than before, without lifting my head from the table my heart made a little pirouette, the inner dance of love is one of my favorites. My lungs were happy; this table of trees would provide fresh air for the night.
Above: La Forêt des Songes
Ultimately I would wake up again, like before, with a mouth dry as cardboard and a head the weight of the entire table inside. This little journey did end with the sound of a slamming door….no reason….welcome forest of the lost species…are you going to take me home?
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