Perfume containers |
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The earliest perfume containers were made of terracotta, but the ancient Egyptians began to develop the art of glass making from the 4th millennium BC and by about 1500 BC skillfully decorated galss perfume bottles were in use. Bottle, vases and pots of alabaster, onxy and porphyry were also used from early times, having the advantage of preserving the oils and unguents in them by keeping them cool. In Egyptian court circles perfume containers of silver were known. Some perfume materials and cosmetics were also kept in decorated boxes made of wood or ivory.
Greek perfume containers were made in a similar variety of substances, sometimes exquisitely carved. Greek ointment vials of pottery, called Lckythcn, with a narrow neck, a single handle and decoration in black, are frequently found in tombs. The Greek Aryballos, a small unguent flask, was carried suspended from the owner's wrist by a leather cord. Some Greek scent bottles were made in the shape of human or animal heads. In Roman times glass, onyx and alabaster remained the most normal materials for perfume containers (Balsamaria - and also Alabastrum). They were produced in a wide variety of shapes and designs, often of the highest craftsmanship. Common perfumes for the less wealthy were sometimes sold in shell-shaped containers made of earthenware. Cosmetic creams were sold in glazed earthenware pots. Rich Romans sometimes used elaborate cases or boxes (Narthecia), often of precious metal, to hold their perfume and toilet requirements when they traveled or attended the public baths. Frankincense, burned as an incense on an altar or a turibulum both in temples and in the home, was kept in small boxes called Acerra. As perfumery began to flourish in Europe, so skillfully wrought perfume containers of glass and metal were created by European craftsmen to hold their fragrant materials, though with little change in styles. Glass scent bottles were being made in France, England, Silesia, Bohemia and Italy from the 16th century. The pomander, carried in the hand or hanging round the waist, required a new type of container, which was originally ball-shaped and usually made of precious metal or ivory. The pouncet box held perfumed powders. Developing from the pomander came, in the 18th century, the vinaigrette, a tiny silver box holding a perfumed sponge. Novelty containers of this period included 'Oiselets de chypre' , but most French 17th and early 18th century perfume was sold in white glazed earthenware pots. The discovery of the Chinese porcelain-making secrets early in the 18th century made an important new material available for scent bottles, notably those produced at Meissen, Sevres and Chelsea. From the end of the 18th century the manufacture of small scent bottles of porcelain, glass, enamel and precious metal became a considerable art; enamelware scent bottles made at Battersea and Bilston at this period, for example, arc now valuable collectors' pieces. A feature of the time was the decorated case containing two, three or four tiny bottles, so that the owner could vary the kind of perfume worn at different times of day- Perfume was usually sold in plain containers and transferred at By the middle of the 19th century, perfume and perfume containers were being manufactured on an industrial scale both in Europe and in the USA, the bottles being mostly made of glass. Popular glass styles included opaline (notably between 1825 and 1870), vaseline (between 1835 and 1900), cameo (from the 1870s), satin (notably in the 1880s), milk glass and cut glass (both from about 1890). Bottles, usually in colored glass, decorated with overlaid patterns cut out of silver became fashionable from the 1870s. Double scent bottles were popular from the 1850s, Chatelaine Bottles and Tulip Bottles from c. 1880s. Atomizers were introduced early in this century. The principal glass makers of the period included the Cristalleries of Baccarat, Nancy, Saint-Louis, Andre Jolivet, and the Verreries of Argentueil and Viard et Viollet le Due in France, Thomas Webb and Stevens & Williams in England, Val St Lambert in Belgium and Moser in Bohemia. In the 1890s the American firms of Tiffany and Carder brought out quality bottles of Art Nouveau style to compete with European products, while, from its foundation in 1903, the Steuben Glass Works of New York also produced scent bottles which are now highly valued by collectors. The Art Deco style was adopted by many perfume bottle makers from the 1920s. In the same period it became fashionable for women to carry their perfume with them, leading to a vogue for very small bottles which they could keep in their handbags. Bottles with fan stoppers were popular from the 1930s. From the end of the 19th century, growing competition had brought increasing demands from the perfumers for more appealing packaging not only in the shapes of the bottles but also in the designs of ribbons, labels and boxes, leading to an important new industry for supplying them. Early in the 20th century the requirements of, in particular, Francois Coty on Baccarat and Lalique for new containers of very high quality for the commercial sale of perfume revolutionized ideas about the design of perfume flacons. In the 1920s the style of flacons chosen for the line of
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