Perfume bottles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Perfume bottles are essential for safe storage because perfume is volatile and needs containers with very tight fitting lids or stoppers to prevent evaporation. The best ones are also made from coloured or faceted glass or other opaque material to prevent damage to perfume from sunlight.
Perfume was important to early civilisations and some of the earliest perfume bottles have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs dating back to around 1500 BC.
In Venice, glassmakers were producing small highly decorated glass bottles during the Renaissance, although few survive. By the 16th and 17th centuries manufacture had extended to England, France, Bohemia and Silesia. Production continued in Italy - for example, the famous Murano glassmakers produced bottles in coloured glass decorated with millefiori and latticino (strands of contrasting coloured glass used as a trellis work effect) while in Germany they were using white glass, decorated with gilding and enamels.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, perfume containers of great value and beauty were being made in England, using a wide variety of materials including enamel, porcelain and silver. They were often given as love tokens, usually by a man to his betrothed or wife.
Enamel perfume bottles were popular during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were made by the Battersea, Bilston and Wednesbury factories, amongst others. The enamel bottles contained glass phials, with stoppers, to hold the perfume and were decorated with delicately painted flowers, landscapes and classical scenes. Bilston was the biggest and most famous of the factories and Dovey Hawksford probably its best known artist.
Porcelain was another widely used material and many of the famous factories, like Chelsea, Derby and Wedgwood, produced perfume bottles in many shapes and styles including novelty items made to look like nuts, golf balls and shells.
As traditional Victorian style gave way to Art Nouveau and Art Deco, perfume bottles reflected the change. Art Deco bottles were geometric in form, many with elaborate stoppers so moving away from the earlier more feminine and delicate designs.
René Lalique is the best-known of the Art Deco glass designers and, of course, his perfume bottles are very collectible but other makers are also popular. The French glassmaking company Baccarat (company) produced perfume bottles for parfumiers like Jean Patou, Elizabeth Arden, Guerlain and Lenthéric. Of the other French designers of the period, Marius-Ernest Sabino is amongst the best-known. Much of his work was an imitation of the great Lalique but of inferior quality. However, some of his work stands the test of time and is collectable. The poorer work tends to be ill-proportioned and clumsy. Other notable designers of the period include Maurice Marinot, André Thuret and Gabriel Argy Rousseau. Czech glass-making factories also made perfume bottles which have become collectable.
