Perfume Bottles Auction
Tysons Corner, Virginia
April 27, 2018

On April 27th the Perfume Bottles Auction in conjunction with the International Perfume Bottle Association's 30th annual convention in Tyson's, VA, matched its previous year's result of $400,000 within dollars! 

A large and enthusiastic crowd competed with online bidders, multiple phone lines, and a number of absentee bids over 250 lots chosen to suit every pocketbook-resulting in a wide spread of wins from a 1925 Terre de Ritz figural powder box formed as a 17th century court lady ($120) to the  1940 Helena Rubenstein "Gala Performance"  ($24,000)  formed as an actress with outstretched arms standing in an elaborate stage-set box of ostrich plume and velvet. 

Bottle designs of 1925 proved to generate special interest and some of the highest results, including the Julien Viard bottle for Myrugia "Besame" with it's rare love-birds images on label and box ($19,200); the French comic-strip inspired black and white auk character for Coryse "Alfred" ($9,600);  Rene Lalique's dancer and butterflies motif for Erasmic "de Lui" ($13,200); and the alluring fan-themed label, box, and scent name of Oriza L. Legrand "Eventail" (fan) topping the sale ($39,000) at triple it's pre-sale estimate. 

A fine grouping of R. Lalique items featured perfume bottles, powder boxes, hand mirrors, and a rare 1930 three-chamber perfume tester bed with miniature stoppers as nude maidens for Maison Lalique ($8,400). The auction drew particular interest from a number of museum curators over three historically significant Guerlain bottles including "The Moorish Bottle" a rare 1910 hand decorated bottle by Pochet & du Courval ($9,600). All three went to museum collections. Other highlights in the commercial bottle category include the surrealist female bust of 1941 Lilly Dache "Drifting" ($19,200); the 1938 Baccarat white crystal fan for Elizabeth Arden "Cyclamen" (9,600); and the 1927 Marblehead Art Pottery Egyptian pharaoh bottle for Leigh "Amber Nile" ($10,200). 

The sale included several lots of perennially popular 19th century scent bottles featuring a Thomas Webb peachblow bottle with applied gold cherry blossoms ($960); an 1850s miniature gourd with hand carved Napoleonic images ($660); an 1887 silver-capped British porcelain monkey ($480); and an 1870s crystal chatelaine bottle with ruby, sapphire and pearl set silver mounts ($1,320). 

Dominating the evening’s offerings was a beautiful private collection of 1920s-1930s Czechoslovakian crystal bottles, which became a buyer's paradise due to the large selection and variety, scattering winning bids to between $500 and $2,500, and sending an exceedingly rare Ingrid bottle simulating carved lapis birds soaring ($7,200)!