Friday, January 3, 2014

Antique English Cameo Glass Scent Bottles

In this guide I will introduce you to the world of antique English cameo glass scent bottles. These exquisite perfume flacons were popular during the Victorian era and were no doubt very expensive in their day just as they are now. There are some very good and informative websites which can explain the process of making cameo glass, so I wont put that info here.

English cameo glass appeared around 1876.  Acid etching allowed large areas of outer glass layers to be removed relatively faster rather than painstakingly removing it by hand. The carving of the design is achieved in two ways.

First, the outer layer is roughened by acid pitting to provided a key for the acid resist. The pattern is then painted in acid resist layer of wax or some other acid-resistant material such as bituminous paint and repeatedly placed in hydrofluoric acid which removes any area not covered by the resist. Then, the remaining glass is then modeled using small steel points or wheels set into wooden holders to 'carve' the glass. This produced very fine details not seen in French cameo glass.

Nineteenth-century English producers of true cameo glass include Thomas Webb and Sons and George Bacchus & Sons,  though ceramic imitations made popular by Wedgwood's bi-colored "jasper ware", imitated by others from the late 18th century onwards, are far more common. Like Wedgwood's designers, they usually worked in a more or less neoclassical style. Some of the finest English cameo glass artisans were Philip Pargeter (1826—1906) and John Northwood (1836—1902)

 Webb Cameo scent bottles were sold in fine jewelers and will sometimes bear markings with London, Paris and New York on the inside of the presentation cases.

THOMAS WEBB & SONS CAMEO GLASS SCENT BOTTLE, c. 1890's. 6 1/2" Long. 

A Thomas Webb & Sons perfume bottle, circa 1880, a silver mounted swan's head cameo glass perfume bottle and stopper, white overlay finely carved feathers on a blue body, silver cover hallmarked and bottle signed. Length 24 cm


AN ENGLISH CAMEO GLASS SCENT BOTTLE WITH AN AMERICAN SILVER MOUNT, 
THE GLASS THOMAS WEBB, LATE 19TH/20TH CENTURY, 
the silver marked 'Sterling' 
5¾in. (14.6cm.) high (2)
photo from Christies



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Welcome!

This is not your average perfume blog. In each post, I present perfumes or companies as encyclopedic entries with as much facts and photos as I can add for easy reading and researching without all the extraneous fluff or puffery.

Please understand that this website is not affiliated with any of the perfume companies written about here, it is only a source of reference. I consider it a repository of vital information for collectors and those who have enjoyed the classic fragrances of days gone by. Updates to posts are conducted whenever I find new information to add or to correct any errors.

One of the goals of this website is to show the present owners of the various perfumes and cologne brands that are featured here how much we miss the discontinued classics and hopefully, if they see that there is enough interest and demand, they will bring back these fragrances!

Please leave a comment below (for example: of why you liked the fragrance, describe the scent, time period or age you wore it, who gave it to you or what occasion, any specific memories, what it reminded you of, maybe a relative wore it, or you remembered seeing the bottle on their vanity table, did you like the bottle design), who knows, perhaps someone from the company brand might see it.

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