Floral, musky, woody, spicy…so many different scents of
perfume. There are over 30,000 fragrances
available today! But to a collector, the
bottle the fragrance came in the most desirable element of perfume.
“It all started as far back
as 1500 BC when glass perfume bottles adorned the homes of the noble and
wealthy. While early scents were designed to ward off bad spirits, grace the
gods and disguise body odors, the bottles were a true symbol of luxury. In Greek
and Roman times, scent bottle designs became increasingly more sophisticated,
even imitating the shapes of birds, humans and other animals.
In 50 BC, glass blowing techniques were
developed in Syria. This was a huge advancement in bottle construction.
Expensive Roman scent bottles created from transparent glass adorned with
colored glass decorations were widely acclaimed. Even though glass dominated as
the material for perfume bottles, in the Middle Ages some metal and enamelware
did appear in the perfume marketplace.
Then arrived the 18th century when the
Chinese secret of manufacturing porcelain was revealed. A new fashion had been
delivered; with little porcelain perfume bottles the rage all over Europe. The
large variety of bottle production was due in part to the process of how
perfume was sold. Until the end of the 19th Century, perfume was bought in
plain containers and then transferred into these beautiful scent bottles at
home. For these early times, there was a vast market of delicate bottles to
match every personal taste.
While these varieties of materials created
beautiful works of bottle art, they did not function as a container of perfume
as nicely as glass. Glass ultimately became the main perfume bottle material
because of its ability to resist reacting with the fragrance oils and ensuring
a tight stopper seal. In addition, modern perfumery eventually led to factory
production where the fragrance was packaged on site. Perfume manufactures were
well aware of the attachment customers had to a desirable bottle; therefore,
the factory-produced perfume containers still had to be attractive enough to
enchant a purchaser.
These factories hired some of the most
talented craftsman of the time to design and create the ideal bottles to match
their highly crafted scents. Today, these original
bottles demand the highest prices at auctions. Perfume manufacturers of the new
millennium still appreciate the bottle as a vital factor in selling a perfume,
so top bottle designers remain in high demand.”
In this article, there is also reference to another
website: www.perfumebottles.org where you will
find some wonderful photographs of beautiful perfume bottles.
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| Beautiful Cut Glass Bottles |
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| Lovely I W Rice Perfume |
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There are so many styles of perfumes bottles to collect! Vintage Gal Antiques carries a nice selection
of leaded cut glass perfume bottles, as well as some vintage “Toilet Water”
labeled bottles. Surely you will find a
nice addition to your collection at Vintage Gal Antiques!
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