Antique Venetian Foiled and Aventurine Glass Scent Bottles

In this guide I will introduce you to the world of Venetian foiled and aventurine glass scent bottles. These spangled works of art were produced in Venice and were mainly manufactured for the tourist market during the mid 19th century.

Many of the ornamental processes which we admire in Venetian glass were already in use or were invented, such as millefiori, in which rods of various colors are joined by heat, arranged and cut, they form patterns resembling flowers or coralines. At the time, the glass was already being made in Egypt and Damascus for centuries. The earliest specimens date back to about 1000 B.C. In ancient Egypt, newly invented glass bottles were made largely to hold perfumes. The crafting of perfume bottles spread into Europe and reached its peak in Venice, starting around the 5th century. The ancient Romans perfected their glass but no ancient example equaled in correct execution as those made in Venice. 

By the 12th century, glass factories were so numerous in Venice that they were considered to be fire hazards, prompting the glass houses to move to the island of Murano. Venetian glass was of such great quality that it was highly sought after by not only the Italians, but by other nations as well. The Italian rulers confined the skilled workers to the island so that their technical secrets could not be revealed, however, as an incentive to stay, they were awarded nobility status, and provided with excellent living and working conditions. As a deterrent, Venetian glassmakers were not allowed to work outside Venice and the penalty for doing so was banishment from the city. By the thirteenth century, the island of Murano had become the chief center of the Venetian glass trade, producing colored beads and vessels for domestic use and export. 

In 1268, a chronicler recorded that during the procession of Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo, "water bottles and scent flasks and other such graceful objects of glass" were proudly exhibited. Scent bottles had always been part of the repertoire of glass manufacturers. Colored glass bottles, especially of the millefiori or ' thousand flowers ' design, were made in the sixteenth century at Murano to contain the new perfume oils brought back from exotic ports of call.  In the 16th and 17th centuries, the scent bottle assumed varied and elaborate forms, but it wasn't until the 18th century that the scent flacon was elevated to the status of an object of vertu.

Antique Venetian scent bottles can be made with inclusions of 24k gold or .999 silver foil, gold leaf, or copper flakes. They were handcrafted by artisans, using secret glass recipes and traditional techniques passed down through generations. The foiled glass was marbled with contrasting colors of glass during the manufacturing process and many examples are flecked throughout with glittering flakes of suspended metallic particles known as aventurine glass (or goldstone glass).  The minute copper flakes present the luxurious look of gold dust forever imprisoned in glass.

 Aventurine glass had been manufactured on a large scale, for a long period, at the glassworks of Murano. Originating in 1600s Venice, aventurine glass includes gold, sub-oxide of copper, or chromic oxide. The Murano glassmakers say that the term aventurine is derived for the Italian word "a ventura" for "chance" and according to legend, the process was discovered by accident. It was said that  this synthetic form of glass was discovered during this period when a worker at the Murano factory accidentally dropped a batch of copper filings into the meld during the fusing process. The result was a striking composite that gave the glass its signature glittering effect, known as "aventurescence". For centuries, artisans in Venetian glass claimed that even if one followed the formula for that particular gold-flecked glass, the results more often were determined by chance rather than by art.

Aventurine, or goldstone as it is known in other countries, is also found in antique marbles. Known as "Lutz", the goldstone decoration gives them an unmatched brilliance, which makes them prized possessions of marble collectors. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Dalla Venezia family of Venice supplied glass rods of aventurine to glass houses all over the world. The inability for aventurine glass to be reproduced outside of Venice meant that it was limited to a handful of objects such as snuff bottles and beads. It was said that in 1868, the great glassworks at Murano employed 5,000 people, among them was a single manufacturer who was in possession of the secret to aventurine glass.

 

Glassmakers in England, France, China, Bohemia and the United States were baffled how the Italians were able to produce this glittering glass and tried to imitate it using their own techniques, many which paled greatly in comparison. Chemists studied specimens of the Italian glass in an effort to figure out what minerals or particles were used in the sparkling product. When Professor Hausmann visited the Venetian glass manufactories in 1819, he found that the glass was no longer being made there and nothing further could be learned about the mode of its manufacture, it appeared that it had remained a trade secret. The other countries performed experiments and tried to mimic the Venetian glass, but were unsuccessful for many years, producing cloudy, discolored or unrefined examples. 

 Professors Wöhler and Barreswil proved that Venetian aventurine was composed of a soft glass holding in suspension metallic and crystallized copper. It appeared then, that aventurine should be obtained by crystallizing copper in melted glass. Once their formulas were perfected, the other nations started to produce their own Venetian styled aventurine glass, close, but, never an exact match. The secret of aventurine or spangled glass was rediscovered as a commercial proposition in France in 1860, breaking a Venetian monopoly which had existed for centuries.

Later, the English & Americans began imitating the popular Venetian foiled glass, by blowing glass bottles and rolling them into gold, silver or mica flakes to achieve a spangled effect. The bottles were finished by then casing the bottles with clear glass to protect the sparkling treatment. The English & American made bottles are easily identified as almost every one has a silver or silver gilt cap, so check for hallmarks. These later bottles came about around 1880s and lasted until around 1900 or so. A word of caution, some Venetian glass bottles are set in sterling or gold mountings. Look for the quality of the glass.

The genuine Venetian bottles were made by pressing globs of glass mixed with foil onto the bottles. Millefiori and murrhine canes with tiny portraits or figurals in them decorate some of the most rarest of examples. Another interesting technique is the usage of aventurine( goldstone) threading to create patterns or stripes in the glass. This was sparkling goldstone effect was achieved by adding minute particles of copper into the colored molten glass threads then inlaid onto the hot surface of the bottle.

The most well known makers of these bottles were the highly talented Italian glass artists: Giovanni Battista Franchini, Pietro Bigaglia and Antonio Salviati.

The antique Venetian scent bottles typically have ornate gilded repoussé brass flip top caps crowned with a glass or semi precious faceted jewel, the caps are usually suspended from chains attached to a ring to hang on a chatelaine or finger. A tiny cut glass stopper should be inside, under the cap, however these aren't always intact as due to their minute size, they are easily lost.

Your bottle may have a black (amethyst) glass or a very deep cranberry shade inside, this is the core that the colorful globs of glass were fused to. If your cap is loosened from the bottle, hold up the small neck of the bottle to a strong light and you can see the color of the bottle. Caps can be easily re-affixed with some carefully applied dental plaster to the collar of the bottle.

At times, some bottles will show damage in the form of cracks, fractures or chipped areas, sometimes these flaws happen during the manufacture. If your bottle is the rare style with portrait canes, damage may be acceptable to some collectors. If you prepare to sell your bottle, be sure to look over the glass carefully, use a jeweler's loupe if you need to, and note any damage in your listing. Your buyer doesn't want any negative surprises when their lovely new purchase arrives.

Souvenirs from the Grand Tour:

Most of the bottles date around the 1840s-1880s during the height of the Grand Tours. The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- mid-19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a chaperone, such as a family member) when they had come of age (about 21 years old). The primary value of the Grand Tour lay in its exposure to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent. In addition, it provided the only opportunity to view specific works of art, and possibly the only chance to hear certain music.

A Grand Tour could last anywhere from several months to several years. It was commonly undertaken in the company of a cicerone, a knowledgeable guide or tutor. In essence, the Grand Tour was neither a scholarly pilgrimage nor a religious one,  though a pleasurable stay in Venice and a residence in Rome were deemed essential. Grand Tourists would return with heavy crates full of books, works of art, scientific instruments, and cultural artifacts – from smalls including snuff boxes and paperweights to larger items such as altars, fountains, and statuary – all to be displayed in libraries, cabinets, gardens, drawing rooms, and galleries built for that purpose.

Due to the small size of the Venetian scent bottles, they made perfect souvenirs to send to ladies back home or to easily store in a suitcase. These scent flasks were most likely lovingly cherished as evidence that their loved one traveled to a foreign destination as not everyone could afford to do so at the time. The delightfully gay colors of the glass contrasted greatly against the dark and subdued hues of the restrained Victorian wardrobe. The glitz of the aventurine gave the piece extra pizzazz and no doubt captured the attention of many, especially when worn to a fancy ball or social function. The flacons probably served as low key objects of jealousy by other women who were not as fortunate as to receive such a precious gift. 

Other Scent Bottles from Venice:

These fragile looking lampworked bottles below remind me of glossy pulled taffy. They are a luminous white spun glass which has been wound around a glass core. Their surface decoration varied between polychrome trailed glass filigree strings of floral or ornamental scrolled motifs, applied globs of glass, to crimped stringing, or threading which has been formed to spell out the name of a city. 

Some souvenir bottles can be found with "Venice" applied on the side in thinly wrapped glass thread. These bottles seem to have very simple closures, usually a cork stopper suspended from a brass chain and held in place by a single wire ring wrapped around the neck of the bottle. I find that these types of bottles are just as varied in décor as any other Venetian examples, albeit somewhat harder to locate.

Other bottles were of slightly lesser or even worse quality. I believe many of these were made by students and apprentices in the glasshouses who sold their projects at cheaper prices or gave them to family members as gifts. The sheer variety of these bottles is vast, no two are ever exactly alike. Each is still considered a work of art. 

In the examples shown below, these bottles have variations including foiling, aventurine speckles, lampworked stringing, crimped tops, millefiori or murrhine inclusions. Simple closures are found on these bottles, while other have no closure at all and may have had them lost of were never finished.

Note: I sometimes see dealers calling these scent bottles "Vasa Murrhina". According to Kovels:

 "Vasa Murrhina is the name of a glassware made by the Vasa Murrhina Art Glass Company of Sandwich, Massachusetts, about 1884. The glassware was transparent and was embedded with small pieces of colored glass and metallic flakes. The mica flakes were coated with silver, gold, copper, or nickel. Some of the pieces were cased. The same type of glass was made in England. Collectors often confuse Vasa Murrhina glass with aventurine, spatter, or spangle glass. There is uncertainty about what actually was made by the Vasa Murrhina factory. Related pieces may be listed under Spangle Glass."

To see some exquisite examples of antique Venetian foiled glass scent bottles, check out these books:

• Millers Perfume Bottles by Madeleine Marsh.
• Perfume, Cologne & Scent Bottles by Jacquelyne Jones North
• Perfume & Scent Bottle Collecting by Jean Sloan