“A Woman who doesn’t wear
perfume has no future”
— Coco Chanel
It was very small, but so very important. It appeared some years ago on my birthday, other times at Christmas. As a preteen, it was my first glance into the wonderful world of being a woman. It made me feel special, pampered and confident. It’s cobalt container would remain with me long after the contents were gone. And when my little brother told me it made me stink, I didn’t speak to him for days! After all, how could a boy understand the magic of a few drops of the precious liquid in the bottle that read “Evening in Paris”?
Childhood experiences are often the catalyst to adult collecting, and such is the case with my love of perfume bottles. As my wallet will attest, my tastes have progressed far past bottles of the dime store variety, with my most recent passion being the beautiful geometric shapes of the Art Deco Era.
The Art Deco period (1920 until the Great Depression) featured simplicity of design and bold geometric shapes. To cite an example that most of you can envision, picture a bottle of Chanel No. 5. Introduced in 1924, and arguably the most recognizable perfume bottle in the world, it was the essence of Deco design. This clear glass bottle featured a rectangular body with an octagonal stopper that resembled the Place Vendome column in Paris. French designs were an early favorite and remain strong today with notable works from Lalique and Baccarat.
While clear crystal was often used for early Deco perfumes, bright colors such as cranberry red, amber, dark jade green and the dramatic combination clear and black crystal became popular by the late 1920s. Faux “jewels” such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires often adorned the bottle and silver overlay was quite common. Bold geometric designs predominated the era with vertical hexagon, triangular and star shapes being the most common finds, although you will find butterfly and bird designs.
Stoppers took center stage by the late 1920s as huge crystal or Bakelite stoppers rivaled the size of the bottle beneath. Full tiara, fan, feather and pagoda shapes and high relief stoppers in the female form are all highly sought by collectors. The dowels of these stoppers were all finely ground and their condition is of great importance when determining value, so remember to inspect the stoppers as well as the bottle itself when you are considering a purchase.
The glamor of Hollywood was instrumental in the popularization of Czechoslovakian blown/cut glass perfume bottles. Featured in exclusive salons by Max Factor and used as props in movies of the day, they became an instant collectible. Brilliant use of color, hard geometric angles, enameling and acid etched designs are featured on these bottles. They were largely made for the “unfilled” market and sold to retailers for their own fragrances. Two names are synonymous with Deco-era Czech glass, Henry Gunther Schelevogt and Heinrich Hoffmann. They manufactured both their own designs and the works of many of the artists of the day. Watch for their jet black crystal bottles and brightly colored glass examples with glass jewels.
Collected by the designer, era of production, or for their aesthetic appeal, perfume bottles are one of the few forms of “glassware” that continue to hold strong in today’s soft market. Incredibly enough, while they can be extremely pricey, they can also be unearthed digging through box lots at estate sales and flea markets. It is, no doubt, the “thrill of the hunt,” combined with the beauty of their design that place them at the top of the most popular collectibles list for 2015. Until next time………..Linda
Irvington resident Linda Kennett is a professional liquidation consultant specializing in down-sizing for seniors and the liquidation of estates and may be reached at 317-429-7887 or lkennett@indy.rr.com