I have five of these bottles in stock.
This is would have contained Stephanotis. This is a shrub with waxy flowers. It is also known as Madagascar Jasmine or Creeping Tuberose and the blooms are traditionally used in wedding bouquets and headdresses.
It is so difficult to find a matched set of these old perfume bottles these days - and in such excellent condition. Being hand-blown there is of course little differences in sizes in each bottle measurement. They all date to the late 19th century before mass-manufacture of perfumes and fragrances occurred.
These are large bottles and would have contained fragrant oils, potions or lotions - you would not have put the contents directly onto your skin. You would have used the stopper as a "dropper" and dripped or dabbed a nice floral fragrance onto a cotton ball or handkerchief for you to carry about on your perfume. Old French bottles to dispense perfumed oils in drips were called Facon Stilligoutte.
I am attributing these bottles to being by Baccarat. They are of cylindrical form with a fluted collar around the neck and a neck which flares out to the lip. They bottle has been hand-blown and there is a pontil mark on the base. I love the stopper or dropper - which has an egg shaped knop and this is covered all over with a mesh of facets which glitter in the light.
Each bottle must have been produced as a set - perhaps for display in a fancy Parisian shop or in a fine boudoir.
At the end of the 19th century fragrant essential oils, along with dried herbs, tinctures, extracts, and mineral salts, were part of the pharmacist’s stock from which medicines and cosmetics were prepared. Oils were used in toilet waters, as well as to camouflage the less-agreeable scents of various salves and ointments. Deodorants and antiperspirants, which prevent odors, weren’t widely marketed until the early twentieth century. Before then, people who could afford to mask body odors did so with perfumes applied directly to clothing and handkerchiefs. Soap manufacturers also added fragrances to make their toilet soaps more appealing and to scent the skin of the user.
My bottles have no Baccarat mark - and this is consistent with my bottles age. From 1860 Baccarat marked their pieces only with a circular paper label bearing their logo. This often got washed and rubbed away over the years. It wasn't until 1936 that Baccarat replaced the traditional paper labels for their permanent acid-etched logo. So I would have been suspicious if I had seen a mark on any of my bottles.
I have found in the course of my researches - a very similar bottle in the collection of the Smithsonian. It has the same type of stopper, fluted neck and the fragrance is on the same ribbon - that is called strangely "Jockey Club". The Smithsonian have catalogued the bottle as an apothecary one.
All the same - that shows how rare these old bottles are - only one in a prestigious American museum! These bottles are more probably for the specialist collector of perfume bottles - as they are so hard to find I would imagine that my price for each one is a fair one.
The thing that makes my bottles so special are the matched decorative labels on each of them. The label is original hand painted enamel - it take the form of a little Art Nouveau style ribbon with curling forks to the strip at each end. The name of the contents painted on the ribbon and refers to the inside.
Dimensions: the height of the bottle including stopper is 7 1/2 inches. The diameter of the bottle is just over 2 1/2 inches. The length of the stopper is 2 3/4 inches. This bottle has a little flaw in the making on the rim - so it is not quite circular. You do not see this when the bottle is on display - but have reduced the price to take this into consideration.
Postage will be with Royal Mail Tracked Parcel. This will be applied to your order at checkout. I will take out extra private insurance on the bottles so that they are fully insured against damage or loss in transit.