Rare opaline “gorge de pigeon” scent bottle in the shape of a horn. The elaborate Arabesque/Persian design is the work of Oscar Pierre Erard, created with gold paste and enamel with applied cabochon glass stones of turquoise, moonstone, sapphire and coral. Fitted with a silver mount, hinged cover chased with flowers leaves- Hallmarked for London, 1885, H.T.B for Brockwell & Son (Henry Titterton Brockwell) Hallmarks Registered – October
1875 Office – Brooke Street London.

Erard, a contemporary of his better-known countryman Jules Barbe – Thomas Webb’s chief designer from 1879 to 1900 – is thought to have left a politically unstable France, where he was born in 1853, for the West Midlands sometime in the 1880s. He started working for Steven and Williams in 1885 “with his French influence, was to fire the starting gunfor the enamelling and gilding shop at Moor Lane Glass Works”. Erard’s first pattern in the records dates 1884 and it has enamels of Arabian, Chinese and Japanese design, but unfortunately none of his work is signed.