Souvenir is a French word that has been used internationally for many years. It is said that a souvenir has meaning only for the person who acquired it, bringing back memories of a travel, an event, or a relationship. In other words, there must be a psychological link between the person and the object to give it particular importance.
Nowadays, souvenirs from the past have become more and more interesting to avid collectors of memorabilia, and I am one of them. Even if they are terribly kitsch, they can be a nice part of a collection, just as they are in mine.
We can essentially distinguish three types of souvenir bottles:
linked to a place;
linked to an event;
linked to a real or legendary famous person
Let’s show three examples linked to the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte.
To the first type belongs all the so-called “Grand Tour scent bottles.” The Grand Tour was a traditional European trip taken by European and American wealthy young people. Such trips usually yielded a large variety of souvenir objects, from the sublime to the ridiculous. They are not difficult to find on the antique market, made in opaline coloured glass with the graphics of famous monuments under the caps.
The red glass scent bottle has the cap adorned with a small medalion depicting The Madeleine Church, erected by Napoleon in the style of a Temple de la Gloire de la Grande Armée (“Temple to the Glory of the Great Army”). This monument may not have been appreciated by the British at that time, but it was very important to the French.
A different Napoleonic scent bottle is a souvenir of Fontainebleau, sit e of the royal castle transformed by him as a symbol of his grandeur: here he signed his abdication in 1814. The silver scent bottle has a signed portrait (I can read only DAVID D’ANG?) and is decorated with bees, symbols of immortality and resurrection. Quite difficult to date, it may be from the early 19th century. It belongs to the second group.
In the third group can be collocated the spectacular scent bottle, made probably by Baccarat, with a sulphide double portrait of Napoleon and his second wife Marie Louise (then Duchess of Parma); on the back there is a portrait of their son, the “King of Rome”(1811-1832), based on the portrait of Jean-Baptiste Isabey; the hinged cap has got marks for silver.
Souvenir scent bottles made in porcalain with silver or metal caps where very popular in the UK too, in Victorian time and from there they spreaded in all the Western world.
Another popular souvenir scent bottle from the Victorian Era is Mauchline Ware made by the Smith family of Mauchline, Ayrshire, now Strathclyde, Scotland. At its peak in the 1860s, the company employed over 400 people in the manufacture of small, beautifully- made, wooden souvenir and giftware items. They are quite rare, now, especially when they are complete
Another type of souvenir bottles is called Crested Ware. These are usually small, white, china flacons of different shapes carrying the coat of arms of the places where they were sold. Let’s start with the more common, but still quite precious to me, porcelain bottles. All bear the coat of arms of British towns, often with their motto. They date from Edwarian times and have many of them have fully-hallmarked silver caps
Scent bottles made to commemorate special events are not easy to find, probably because the production was very limited and they are very sought after by collectors, especially if related to the International Expositions like the ones in the photo.
When the only way to know the aspect of a famous person were paintings, prints and newspapers, every objects could become a vehicle for his/her fame, even a scent bottle, as we saw for Napoleon and as the little photos’ gallery shows.
Lady Hamilton; Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Sarah Bernhardt