What is a Palais Royal scent bottle?

French decorative glass, ormolu-mounted, often carrying a Grand Tour association. It accounts for a modest but steady group of listings on Sellingantiques. Several came supplied in opaline caskets, including the egg and "egg in nest" form. Those cased examples sit above single bottles.

How old are most antique scent bottles?

The dated field runs from 1750 to 1940, and about four in ten listings carry a clean year. Victorian and nineteenth century together cover almost half the archive, so many bottles are placed in a span rather than a date. Decade labels cluster in the 1870s and 1880s, with a second peak in the 1930s. Edwardian, the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s fill the gap between.

Why do so many have silver tops?

Scent evaporates. A screw-fitting metal top and collar closed the bottle properly and stood up to being carried in a pocket, reticule or on a chatelaine. Silver mounts appear in around two-fifths of titles. Birmingham and London are the assay offices that show up most; Sheffield and Chester surface only once each.

What are Oxford Lavender attar bottles?

A sub-population of around twenty-five listings, almost all dated circa 1850 to 1860. They turn up in amber, turquoise, green and polychrome enamel. They're consistent enough in form and date to read as a group of their own rather than as scattered Victorian glass.

Are Art Deco perfume bottles part of this category?

Yes, and they weigh heavily on the current side. Bottles and atomisers of the 1920s and 1930s make up about a third of what's listed now, against roughly an eighth of all listings on record. The atomiser, with its bulb spray, is almost entirely a twentieth-century form here. Guilloche enamel tops belong to the same stretch.

Does uranium glass appear in scent bottles?

It does, in a handful, French and Victorian both. The greenish-yellow colour comes from uranium oxide in the batch. It's one of the few materials that repeatedly holds the upper-middle of the range rather than appearing once and disappearing.

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Antique Scent Bottles

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A small stoppered glass bottle made to carry perfume, cologne or smelling salts, kept on a dressing table or carried in a pocket, reticule or on a chatelaine.