It is not easy to think that the world of perfume and its containers, so pleasant and light, could be somehow linked to something as terrible and brutal as war. Yet, even if very rare, you can find perfume holders that recall even very tragic war events.
When I purchased the metal bottle below online, I was attracted by the sweet and poignant scene of a soldier embracing his woman. I had never heard of Trench Art, that is, the production of everyday objects made by soldiers up until the Napoleonic wars’ with the metal of bullet casings: vases, lighters, inkwells, and other small utensils were produced, especially during the First World War, perhaps In the long hours in the trenches to keep the troops busy and to briefly banish the fear of death.
A memory, a dream, a desire or perhaps just the surrounding reality were sufficient stimuli to activate the artisanal creativity of these men who sometimes produced small masterpieces: the three scent bottles that are part of my collection, produced around 1920, have very different meanings.
The first evokes, with great wealth of detail, the moment of farewell to the woman he loves or perhaps, instead, the hope and desire of being able to hug her again; on the back, however, the much cruder surrounding reality, is expressed by the 75 mm Mle cannon. 1897 (75 mm canon Modèle 1897). A strong point of the French artillery, this weapon was able to influence the outcome of many battles in favour of France and its allies.
Precisely the alliance between France and England is celebrated in the bottle on the left, where the rooster and the lion represent the two nations, and the names of the most important battles of the First World War are remembered.
The last Trench Art scent bottle evokes peace with all its most recurring symbols: doves, bells, and an olive branch.
Another scent bottle, in silver and in thick blown glass of a delicate peach pink, is a souvenir of the Menin Gate in the city of Ypres,Belgium, scene of one of the bloodiest clashes of the First World War. The Menin Gate, officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of WW1 and whose graves are unknown. Designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and built by the Imperial War Graves Commission, the Menin Gate Memorial was unveiled on 24 July 1927. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads that led Allied soldiers to the front line.
Also linked to the First World War are the two Crown top porcelain flasks, showing respectively the design of two Prussian soldiers on the battlefield and a military decoration: the Eisernes Kreuz (Iron Cross) 1914 2nd class.
The episode mentioned in the bottle in the next figure is certainly unknown to most people. On the green glass are painted a cannon and some words in Bulgarian, meaning “Evil Society Glen Klisura” and the date 1876, when many Bulgarian villagers rebelled against the Ottoman Empire but their villages were destroyed and the revolt drowned in blood. Klisura is a small town in central Bulgaria located in a valley surrounded by mountains. Its name has traditionally been associated with the heroism of its inhabitants during the April Uprising when the village was a centre of the revolution and Borimechkata “the man who fights with a bear”, who lived in the village was one of its leaders. The spirit of the rebels can be felt to this day. One mile from Klisura is a historical place called Zli Dol “Evil Glen”, mentioned on the bottle.
Furthermore, the unusual and artistically relevant perfume holder linked to the military world is the lead soldier, in clothes attributable to the Ottoman Empire, carrying on his shoulders, a small, richly carved crystal bottle with an ivory cap instead of a backpack. Not only is the great richness of the clothes that the soldier wears and which place him as an important character interesting, but even more significant is the painting on the mother-of-pearl labarum which shows a specific scene where the soldier himself is in the moment in which he killed an enemy that lies at his feet. The uniform of the killed soldier is certainly European, perhaps Russian or Austrian and allows us to place the production of this object in the second half of the eighteenth century, given that the Austro-Turkish wars, which began in 1716, ended in 1791 with the Peace of Sistova.