EGGS-SHAPED SCENT BOTTLES
Eggs symbolize life, birth, rebirth, and new potential across many cultures and religions. They represent creation myths, fertility, the cycle of life, and hope. In various traditions, eggs are also associated with luck, wealth, and magical or healing powers. So, it’s no surprise that so many scent bottles have this shape rendered in so many different ways from the realistic ones to the most unusual.
My number 1, the scent bottle that fixed the criteria of my collection was just a tiny silver egg: small, precious, antique and with a surprise. Only after I had bought it I discovered a tiny compartment under the suspension ring and it was told me that it is for poison or for medicine powder: not only a perfume box of the 17th century, but even a more fascinating object!
Ivory is a material of choice if you want to imitate an egg. Here is a vinaigrette shaped as a tiny egg. It unscrews in three shares to reveal a wool flock that was soaked in essence. It measures only 3 cm and it was possibly made in England in the 18th century.
Much richer and more complete is the ivory necessaire, containing five objects: a thimble, a pair of scissors, an awl, a needle holder and a cut red glass perfume bottle with a silver hinged cap and glass inner stopper also 3 cm. All these items are mounted on a vermeil base decorated with friezes in perfect condition. This ingenious kit was made in France around 1850.
Mother of pearl, or nacre, was an appreciate and relatively cheap material: with its whiteness and its shine It made a great contrast when combined with gilded bronze, and it can be an open egg to nest a cut clear glass scent bottle, making a striking presentation. Same type of style for the green opaline egg mounted in bronze dore that opens to reveal a glass and silver scent bottle. In this case too, egg is combined with the vine leaves, symbols of growth, resilience, interconnectedness, and abundance due to their ability tom thrive in various conditions.
Two tiny scent bottles in clear glass with hinged brass caps are closed in a symbolic metal egg with clasp closure and pedestal on a marble base. On both sides there is a medallion with two different graphics of Venice: Rialto Bridge and Santa Maria della Salute church. It is not so weird that a French made object has got Venetian views. These bottles, were made as souvenirs for the noble, rich young people who, from the 18th century, had the chances to travel across Europe to complete their education and for this reason they are called ‘Grand Tour’ scent bottles.
All the last three scent bottles belong to the period of Napoleon the 3rd Empire and they were sold in the exclusive shops in the Palais Royal court.
Of the same period, but product in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is the beautiful shield-shaped brooch with an egg-shaped chatelaine scent bottle in black porcelain showing two different classical scenes in grisaille. Silver trimming and hinged cap with inner glass stopper. This beauty is only 4 cm tall. Very popular in Victorian times were instead the porcelain eggs imitating specific birds’ ones. This scent bottle copies a thrush egg and it has a registration number. From the silver screw cap, we know it was crafted in Birmingham, in 1886, by Cornelius Saunders and Frank Sheperd silversmiths. It is 4 cm
This egg-shaped bottle is in richly decorated porcelain with polychrome painting, partially embossed gold trim, and has a brass mount with a cork stopper. On the front, within an oval cartouche framed by gold painting, is a depiction of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Around the shoulder of the body is a blue scale decoration; on the back, a gold leaf tendril. These bottles with depictions of Berlin cityscapes, were made by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin (KPM), and donated by the Prussian royal family to diplomats and state officials, following the example of the Russian tsars.
Continuing our chronological journey, we enter the 20th century with an early 20th-century bottle nestled in a captivating egg of blue glass painted white and gold-plated metal. The meticulous finishing touches, velvet, braiding, and charms make it an exclusive and refined object that a woman can wear with pride as a pendant: it is only 6 cm. A mid-century Mosell egg, created by the Mosell Jewelry Company of New York which opened in the 1940s and was in business until the 1980s. The exterior of this beautiful egg has a gold-tone filigree in a trellis pattern with white flowers. The egg is hinged at the bottom and opens to a flocked and felted lining with a miniature glass perfume bottle and funnel. The Mosell name is embossed inside on the top.
