perfumepacking

       English cameo glass appeared around 1876.  Acid etching allowed large areas of outer glass layers to be removed relatively faster rather than painstakingly removing it by hand. The carving of the design is achieved in two ways.
       First, the outer layer is roughened by acid pitting to provided a key for the acid resist. The pattern is then painted in acid resist layer of wax or some other acid-resistant material such as bituminous paint and repeatedly placed in hydrofluoric acid which removes any area not covered by the resist. Then, the remaining glass is then modelled using small steel points or wheels set into wooden holders to ‘carve’ the glass. This produced very fine details not seen in French cameo glass perfume bottle.
       Nineteenth-century English producers of true cameo glass include Thomas Webb and Sons and George Bacchus & Sons,  though ceramic imitations made popular by Wedgwood’s bi-colored “jasper ware”, imitated by others from the late 18th century onwards, are far more common. Like Wedgwood’s designers, they usually worked in a more or less neoclassical style. Some of the finest English cameo glass artisans were Philip Pargeter (1826—1906) and John Northwood (1836—1902)
       Webb Cameo scent bottles were sold in fine jewelers and will sometimes bear markings with London, Paris and New York on the inside of the presentation cases.

       The auction is Friday April 30th at 5:00 P.M. in Reston Virginia, during the four day IPBA convention which runs from April 29th to May 2nd. Nick Dawes will be the auctioneer.
       The highlights of the Lalique perfume bottles include the perfume bottles Lilas and Mimosa (Toutes Les Fleurs) for Gabilla with original Gabilla boxes, and an amazingly rare Worth Egg Perfume Bottle (see Lalique Perfume Bottles by Utt Page 78 or Catalogue Raisonne 2004 Page 952 Worth – 9), as well the Lalique perfume bottles Serpent, Telline, Pan, Le Jade with original box, Capricornes, Petites Feuilles, Le Parfum de Anges (made to commemorate the opening of the Oviatt Building in Los Angeles), Misti, Sous le Gui, Camille, Narcisse for Forvil, and others.

       This guide introduces you to the gilded, thin blown glass perfume bottles one can commonly find on ebay. I wrote this guide with one idea in mind– to help educate buyers on what these actually are, where they come from, the age of these, and how they are made. Sometimes there is confusion and some sellers will try to pass these off as antique Victorian era scent bottles. Please note that the bottles shown on this guide are NOT antiques!!! Hopefully, you will find my guide to helpful in your shopping.
       These quality bottles are generally made in Egypt as a tourist souvenir and imported gift item. I have also seen some that were made in other areas of the Middle East as well. These mouth blown perfume bottles are easily identified by their very thin,delicate and fragile nature, their handpainted designs, etched motifs and lavishly decorated with 24kt gold paint. Sometimes perfume oils are sold in these unique handmade bottles.
These bottles have been actively made for about 25 years for the tourist trade. Lately these have been produced in Pyrex glass, which makes them very durable and unbreakable. You can find these bottles sold on ebay in the hundreds, as well as on the internet and in gift shops. They would look beautiful displayed on a vanity and filled with your favorite perfumes.
       Although, some of them might have the appearance of looking antique and from the Victorian era, true Victorian perfumeswere very different than these Egyptian examples. There are many fine reference books devoted to perfume bottle collecting available to the collector and dealer alike. You can also find these on ebay as well.
       Glassmaking in Egypt has its roots in Pharaonic times where it was discovered in Asia, and introduced by the 18th Dynasty (1558 BC).. At first glass was more precious than jewels, and was used in making royal jewelry. It was very likely that the glassmaking process was brought into Egypt by Syrian prisoners of war.
       Craftsmen in Egypt learned to create glass vessels by forming a core of mud and sand and pull the molten glass across it like taffy.Once the form was covered, the sides were worked smooth and the container was heated again for toughening in an annealing oven. The core was then scraped out, cleaned, and sent to the “labs” in the temples, where perfumed oils were manufactured.
       The Egyptians also knew how to create the beautiful millefiori glass by pulling various colored strands of molten glass and working them into a cable. This cable was then cut up and each piece put together against the walls of the mold, producing the effect of a thousand flowers. This technique was used again centuries later by the Venetian glassmakers of Murano, and it was likewise used for flacons.
       Although glassmaking seems to have deteriorated after the 20th Dynasty (1200-1085 BC) and the decline of royal Egyptian power, it flared to unexcelled brilliance after the founding of Alexandria in 332 Bc. The Romans,Arabs and eventually the Italians were to benefit from this tradition.
       The revolutionary invention of glass-blowing took place, probably in Syria during the 1st century BC,though the technique did not reach Alexandria until the latter half of the century when it was introduced by the Romans.The new discovery widely increased production and glass then ceased to be either a rarity or upper-class possession.
       Blown glass vessels were created by sticking a piece of molten glass onto one end of a blowpipe and through the other by introducing pressurized air into the pipe, this was done by mouth-blowing. At that stage, the art of transformation into attractive shapes began. It was then cut with a copper wheel and ground with emery powder.After the vessel took its shape, decorations were added by pinching the hot glass, adding handles or other features to it,changing simple straight patterns into more intricate ones. After the coloring and handpainting process was completed, the bottles were then put into a furnace with a very high temperature to set the color on the glass so that it is permanent.Afterwards, the bottles are taken out to cool. Then they are ready for sale.
       Today’s glassmaking has come a long way since the times of the Pharaoh’s with new machines and advancements in technology, but the Egyptian craftsmen proudly create their lovely works of art using the same historic techniques and primitive tools as their ancestors for you to enjoy. To look for Egyptian perfume bottlessearch on ebay for the best prices.

       Perfume bottle, a vessel made to hold scent. The earliest example is Egyptian and dates to around 1000 bc. The Egyptians used scents lavishly, especially in religious rites; as a result, when they invented glass, it was largely used for perfume vessels. The fashion for perfume spread to Greece, where containers, most often terra-cotta or glass, were made in a variety of shapes and forms such as sandalled feet, birds, animals, and human heads. The Romans, who thought perfumes were aphrodisiacs, used not only molded glass bottles but also blown glass, after its invention at the end of the 1st century bc by Syrian glassmakers. The fashion for perfume declined somewhat with the beginning of Christianity, coinciding with the deterioration of glassmaking.
       By the 12th century Philippe-Auguste of France had passed a statute forming the first guild of parfumeurs, and by the 13th century Venetian glassmaking had become well established. In the 16th, 17th, and particularly the 18th centuries, the scent bottle assumed varied and elaborate forms: they were made in gold, silver, copper, glass, porcelain, enamel, or any combination of these materials; 18th-century porcelain perfume bottles were shaped like cats, birds, clowns, and the like; and the varied subject matter of painted enamel bottles included pastoral scenes, chinoiseries, fruits, and flowers.
       By the 19th century classical designs, such as those created by the English pottery ware maker Josiah Wedgwood, came into fashion; but the crafts connected with perfume bottles had deteriorated. In the 1920s, however, René Lalique, a leading French jeweller, revived interest in the bottles with his production of molded glass examples, characterized by iced surfaces and elaborate relief patterns.

       In 1951, the Perfume Bottle company released a special presentation in a new bottle. It was called “Edition Limitee” and only 200 bottles were produced. I don’t know what sort of juice  was used in this bottle.
       The ad mentions that only a few women in the world had owned the perfume and that it was custom created for them. I think the ad reads that the perfume was being offered at $110. A princely sum at the time!
       The flacon is very beautiful from what I can make out in the picture. It appears to be a cylindrical bottle with a whirlwind or tornado shape with gathered dust at the base and at the top? Is this a US issue of Passionement? I can’t figure it out?
       Its housed in a clear box and rests on a plinth. Do you have this bottle? If so, let’s get that pic on here!