How are antique perfume bottles different from just perfume bottles? Usually antique is defined as over one hundred years old. That means that the perfume bottles designed by famous names of the Art Nouveau just made the grade. As Art Nouveau was advocated and used predominately by French artists and designers, the French perfume industry was a bigger supporter of the art and artists than any other part of the perfume industry. Because French perfume is known and distributed worldwide, the perfume bottles of the Art Nouveau also made the world cognizant of the new art. So there should be quite a few antique perfume bottles out there to look for.
Older than Art Nouveau, perfume bottles the many centuries of glass making are also collectible. More likely to be an after market container, these perfume bottles were made by any center of glass manufacturing. Hundreds of years of Murano perfume bottles are existence, and the glass is so well loved that quite a few must have survived. The problem here is telling the new ones from the antique. You must buy from someone who knows their Venetian glass and ca assure you that the one you are looking at is actually old.
Ancient glass perfume bottles are sometimes unearthed in digs in the Fertile Crescent. These may show up on the market from time to time. This is a very risky purchase for two reasons. If it is truly ancient, it may be from unlicensed digs or sold without the proper paperwork. If you buy it and it is later determined that it was exported illegally, you will have to give the perfume bottle back, and you lose the money you spent on it. The other problem is fakes. Ancient items are in such demand that they have been faked for centuries. An expert should verify the authenticity of the perfume bottle before you buy it. All of which makes it easy to leave this area to someone else so you can pursue other glass collectibles.
If you decide to collect antique perfume bottles, do your research. Read all the available books, not only on perfume bottles, but also books on glass that have sections on perfume bottles. Study the pictures. Go to museums that have antique glass collections and study those on display. Buy auction gatalogs that include antique perfume bottles and study those pictures. If you can, attend a few auctions an examine the actual perfume bottles. With time and study, you will begin to be able to determine the antique from the non-antique, and can begin to venture into purchasing antique perfume bottles.
For those looking for an easier area to collect, antique perfume bottles from the Renaissance on may show up at auction on occasion. You are still going to have to do the homework, but you are less likely to deal with issues of stolen items and demands for repatriation. And there are those lovely Art Nouveau perfume bottles out there. They are desirable for their unique style and for the identification of the designer/artist. Usually the designer of antique perfume bottles is unknown, so these perfume bottles represent a different take on what is usually merely a container.
Antique perfume bottles can be interesting to read about, and to look at the pictures, but if you are going to collect them, prepare to do a considerable amount of homework before you even begin to collect.
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