How To Order:
Thames and Hudson
500 5th Avenue
New York, NY
10110

Subject: Although bottles specially made to contain perfume have been used since antiquity, their history in modern times has been marked not only by the creation of exciting and original forms, ranging from the romantic to the starkly geometric, but also by the development of often elaborate presentations comprising specially designed bottles and stoppers, labels, boxes and other unique decorative features. This lavishly illustrated survey presents some of the most striking designs, outlines the historical and social background to their creation, and reflects the talents of leading designers such as René Lalique, Lucien Gaillard and Julien Viard, as well as glassmakers including Baccarat, Dépiniox, Brosse and Lalique. A passionate collector of perfume bottles for nearly two decades, the author has pioneered the study of their history. She traces the story of perfume from its elitist image as a luxury product, radically altered by the social changes which followed the First World War, through the heyday of the 1920s and the development of a wider market in the 1930s, to a new era when machine-made products partly replaced traditional hand-crafted glass bottles. The result of many years of detailed research and countless interviews, the book is invaluable to collectors or anyone for whom these imaginative designs have enduring visual appeal. The Art of Perfume represents the fruits of many years’ research, in which the author has made a detailed study of company records, trade journals and other archival material. She has also interviewed leading figures in the perfume industry, their associates or their surviving relatives. This book will prove invaluable to collectors and to all those for whom these imaginative designs have enduring visual appeal.