Roger Lucas was a Montreal jeweller who made dazzling golden rings that ended up on famous fingers and in exhibits at museums in Europe and the United States.
asserted
that → make → Europe
The singer Aretha Franklin was often photographed wearing a ring Mr. Lucas made.
asserted
Lucas → photograph → ring
“It was a huge rectangle of gold with a series of diamonds and she used to say it was her favourite piece of jewellery,” said Philippe Lucas, the jeweller’s nephew, who is an academic living in Victoria, and a keen family historian.
asserted
who → use → Victoria
At the peak of his career, he was known as Lord of the Rings.
asserted
he → know → Rings
Roger Lucas, who has died at the age of 89, was from a family of jewellers.
asserted
who → die → jewellers
His father, Gabriel Lucas, was born in France in 1904 and came to Canada in the late 1920s as a master jeweller.
asserted
father → bear → jeweller
In Montreal, he opened Gabriel Lucas Joailliers, on Sherbrooke Street in the 1930s; he also met and married Mercedes Dorion.
asserted
he → open → Dorion
Their first son, Roger, was born in Montreal on Oct. 3, 1936, and he grew up in the inner-Montreal suburb of Outremont, the francophone equivalent of anglo Westmount on the other side of Mount Royal.
asserted
he → bear → Royal
The couple had two more children, Michel and Danielle.
asserted
couple → have → children
Roger went to a private school in Outremont but from the age of 12 he wanted to be a jeweller and was in effect apprenticed to his father.
asserted
he → go → father
At 15 he went to Paris to study at the École des arts décoratifs.
asserted
he → go → décoratifs
He then started working in a Cartier workshop in Monte Carlo, in Monaco.
asserted
He → start → Monaco
He would have a long association with the storied French jewellery house.
asserted
He → have → house
Roger returned to Montreal to work with his father, Gabriel, whose store was next door to Brisson and Brisson, an exclusive men’s clothing store where Pierre Trudeau shopped.
asserted
Trudeau → return → Brisson
Roger Lucas was a glamorous figure with movie-star looks who raced motorcycles in Europe, though he gave that up after a spectacular crash, and owned rare cars, including a Jaguar D-type (a racing model than evolved into the classic Jaguar E-type).
asserted
than → race → type
He sold his Jaguar after owning it for only a few years.
asserted
He → sell → years
“Selling the D-type was one of the regrets of his life.
asserted
Selling → sell → life
He sold it for about $5,000,” his stepson, Christian d’Auteuil, said.
asserted
stepson → sell → 5,000
“He lived his life as a rebel,” Philippe Lucas said.
asserted
Lucas → live → rebel
“When he was in his early 20s, he was running a Cartier atelier in Europe and on the weekends winning motorcycle races.
asserted
he → run → races
It was the kind of life that is so exotic that it’s really hard to imagine”
asserted
it → ’ → life
“My father is a dominating person like me,” Roger told the Montreal Star in 1972.
asserted
Roger → dominate → 1972
“He likes to run a one man show.”
asserted
He → like → show
He went on to say that they clashed on design ideas because he thought his father’s work was too conventional.
asserted
work → go → ideas
“My father won top prizes but he was passé for me,” Roger told the Montreal Star for a letter article.
asserted
Roger → win → article
“He was a classical designer working with gems set in platinum.
asserted
He → work → platinum
His jewellery were status symbols and not designed to be worn for sheer pleasure and enjoyment.
asserted
jewellery → design → pleasure
I got very restless.”
asserted
I → get → ?
The battle between father and son ended with a takeover of the business.
asserted
battle → end → business
The other partner was Lucas’s brother, Michel, who handled the financial aspects of the operation.
asserted
who → handle → operation
“He and my uncle Roger ultimately bought out my grandfather, Gabriel, in 1968 with Charles Bronfman as a silent partner,” Philippe Lucas said.
asserted
Lucas → buy → partner
Roger and Michel Lucas wanted to appeal to a younger audience.
asserted
Roger → want → audience
They even unlocked the front door to the shop to make it appear more accessible.
asserted
it → unlock → shop
“Both [Roger and Michel Lucas] wanted to make this long-standing enterprise appeal to a younger audience,” wrote the curator to a Cincinnati Art Museum exhibition of his work in 2021.
asserted
curator → want → 2021
“Roger, the designer, artist, and more avant-garde of the two, was particularly interested in promoting a jewellery-as-art concept.
asserted
Roger → promote → concept
Roger’s ambition was to gain an international reputation as an innovative jeweller.
asserted
ambition → gain → jeweller
“Roger Lucas created one-of-a-kind pieces with a timeless quality, and although precious stones were sometimes incorporated, he considered his jewellery artwork, not investments.
asserted
he → create → investments
Thinking of himself as a designer first, a jeweller second, he approached his rings as art objects and . . . described these pieces as sculpture for the hand.
asserted
he → think → hand
One of his specialties was designing a style of ring that would encompass two or even three fingers, slipping over the middle finger and the fingers on either side as well.
asserted
that → design → side
While that concept did not catch on, Mr. Lucas demonstrated his eye for trends when he told a reporter in Boston in 1969 that men would soon be wearing earrings.
asserted
men → catch → earrings
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia
