Antique Perfume Bottles

Text: English, French, German (translation)
Original Language: English

Jeri Lyn Ringblum is an avid collector of mini bottles in Missouri.

This handy and will laid-out book showcases Avon and the California Perfume Company products manufactured from 1886 to 2007. Over 200 categories of Avon collectibles are listed in an easy to view format, with hundreds of new color photographs to update and inform readers and researchers. Every item has its own description listed clearly beside it. Current market values, colors, variations, dates and other useful information is included along with helpful hints and tips for collectors.

This classic book has been out of print for five years, and used copies have actually sold for $200 on the Internet. Now this volume is back in print in a greatly expanded, revised edition. All pages of the original edition have been retained and more than 800 perfume bottles are shown in color. The revised edition adds new essays by three leading perfume bottle authorities. Ken Leach describes America's fascination with perfume bottles and related items (c. 1910-1950), with special attention to the role played by Hollywood. Ruth Forsythe writes about recent reproductions of Czech perfume bottles. Madeleine France provides new historical perspectives and offers a hierarchy of perfume bottle categories to aid the collector.

Accompanying these essays are 62 new photographs in spectacular color. With the addition of this new material, the book has expanded from 128 to 164 pages. An up-to-date 1999 price guide concludes the work. This book provides essential information to collectors, and is a visual delight to all lovers of beauty.

Joanne Ball, a Connecticut resident, is the author of Costume Jewelers, The Golden Age of Design, and Jewelry of the Stars, Creations from Joseff of Hollywood. Dorothy Torem, of New York City and Rhode Island, has an eclectic background as an artist and jewelry designer. She is also a staff photographer and contributor for Lady's Gallery magazine.

Glinda Bowman is a collector and dealer from Wheeling, West Virginia.

Ms. North has been collecting antiques for over 20 years. Her interest focused on perfume bottles due to the wide variety offered to the collector. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The hundreds of containers illustrated here, which are from the author's own collection, date from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1950s. In the art of perfumery, scent is not the only allure. As the author points out in this detailed history, serious attention is also given to the selection of a name (which carries its own cachet), the design of the label, the bottle, the stopper, ornaments that might be affixed to it, and the box in which it is packaged. Often, this multimedia art form represents the work of well-known artists, designers, and couturiers. Although this book does not give advice on how to collect perfume bottles-which some readers might consider a drawback-it does contain a directory of hundreds of designers (past and present) with their addresses, a brief history of each firm, and the names of some of their best-known products. This would be an attractive addition to most libraries.
Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.