Antique Perfume Boxes
A small fitted case, usually 19th-century, made to hold and present scent bottles on the dressing table or on the road.
What Are Antique Perfume Boxes?
A veneered or metal-mounted wooden case with a fitted interior holding glass or gilt-metal-lidded scent bottles. The box and its bottles are normally sold as one unit, and seventeen of the thirty-eight sampled titles name the contents, split almost evenly between one bottle and several.
The form belongs to the age of the dressing table and of travel by carriage and rail, when perfume was decanted into glass that needed protecting. It was made both as a boudoir casket and as part of a travelling toilet case, which is why the same listings shade into vanity, dressing and jewellery boxes carrying scent bottles among their other fittings.
Timber-veneered boxes make up roughly half of what turns up: rosewood, burr walnut, coromandel and kingwood recur. Beyond those sit brass-bound and brass-mounted carcases, ormolu and bronze caskets, and a smaller run of decorated surfaces in mother-of-pearl and abalone, tortoiseshell parquetry and Tunbridge ware. France accounts for about a sixth of the titles and is the only foreign origin named.
Victorian is the commonest date label, with a generic 19th Century close behind, so pieces are placed by style more often than by year. Only eleven listings carry a clean year, running from 1830 to 1930, and where a title and the dated field disagree by a decade, single years are best read as approximate.
Where The Range Sits
Surface does most of the work. Mother-of-pearl and abalone, tortoiseshell parquetry and brass-and-tortoiseshell marquetry sit at the upper end of the sampled range, and plain timber boxes at the lower. Metalwork pulls the same way: brass bound, brass mounted, ormolu and bronze all appear in the more expensive half.
The fittings count as much as the carcase. Titles that itemise what survives inside, four gilt metal lidded bottles, three gilded bottles, cut crystal bottles and trays, cluster high, while a bare perfume box with nothing specified sits low. Where bottles are counted at all, the counts are small.
Size and completeness lift a piece again. A large travelling dressing box or a lady's dressing set carries more than bottles alone, and combined jewellery and travelling boxes follow. One vanity case names a retailer on the piece and stands at the very top of the sample; every other title is anonymous.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for perfume boxes, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Antique perfume boxes have been listed on Sellingantiques since 2009.
The Antique Perfume Boxes Glossary
- Scent bottle
- The glass or crystal bottle the box was made to hold. Titles use scent and perfume interchangeably.
- Casket
- A box of ornamental rather than purely practical intent, used here for metal-mounted and French examples.
- Coromandel
- A dark striped tropical hardwood used as veneer. It is spelled three different ways across the sampled titles, which is worth knowing when searching.
- Vanity case or dressing box
- A fitted travelling box whose contents include scent bottles among other toilet fittings.
- Parquetry
- Geometric inlay, described in one title in tortoiseshell and mother-of-pearl.
- Tunbridge ware
- Mosaic decoration built up from bundled coloured woods, seen on a single box here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often do these come up for sale?
Around three a year reach the market on Sellingantiques, so the category moves slowly.
Twenty-four different dealers have listed one, which works out at roughly a single box each. No dealer specialises in them.
Do the bottles usually come with the box?
Yes. The box and its bottles are normally sold together as one unit, and the fittings are as much the subject as the case.
Seventeen of the thirty-eight sampled titles name the contents. Where a number is given it is small: four bottles in two listings, three in another.
What woods were used?
Rosewood, burr walnut and coromandel each turn up several times, with walnut behind them and single showings for kingwood and carved fruitwood.
Brass binding and applied brass mounts appear on timber carcases, and separate from the veneered boxes there are ormolu and bronze caskets.
Are French examples common?
France is named in about a sixth of the titles and is the only foreign origin that appears. The rest are English or carry no origin at all.
The French group includes a Charles X bronze casket, a kingwood box and a mid-19th-century Grand Tour caddy.
What dates do these boxes cover?
The dated field runs from 1830 to 1930, though only eleven listings carry a clean year. Victorian is the commonest label, with generic 19th Century next.
Regency shows twice, with one Georgian and one Edwardian title. Decade labels are scattered and thin.
Which pieces are one-offs in the record?
Tunbridge ware appears exactly once, as does a Charles X bronze casket, a carved fruitwood trunk and a Grand Tour caddy.
An Art Deco miniature pot dated 1930 is the latest thing recorded and sits at the very bottom of the range. The earliest clean year, 1830, sits near the top.