GENERAL DESCRIPTION
By the mid-eighteenth century, women’s dressing tables displayed the height of exotic luxury in the rococo taste. With its fine draperies and expensive accoutrements, the dressing table rivaled the state bed and sideboard as a stage for dazzling extravagance.
Created in the late-eighteenth century, this etui scent bottle was included as part of a lavish porcelain and gilded silver dressing box, or toilette set, (see 1995.22.1.A-I) designed by Charles Gouyn and made by St. James's Factory in London, England. Many toilette sets included a variety of objects such as scent-bottles, snuffboxes, sewing materials, brushes and combs, jewelry, various containers for cosmetics and powders, and writing accessories.
This scent-bottle is formed from a bundle of apple-blossom buds. An etui is traditionally a small, ornamental container that was designed to hold various objects such as hair pins, bodkins, toothpicks, sewing materials, nail files, or tweezers. The long green stems form the etui and the blossom forms the scent-bottle while an opening porcelain bud forms the stopper. The St. James's Factory was recognized specifically for decorative galanterie (decorative porcelain trinkets) including scent bottles such as this piece which was designed for holding perfume.
Drawn from:
- Douglas Hawes, "Dressing casket with accessorie" in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 204.
- Bonnie Pitman, ed. "Dressing casket with accessories" in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 162.
- Kevin W. Tucker, Label Copy, Margot B. Perot Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, August 2004
- "Important Silver and Objects of Vertu including Works of Art from Houghton" in Christie's Catalogue (London: December 8, 1994), 12.
NOTES
This note was submitted but not tagged with a status by Megan Wanttie, summer 2016. I am tagging with #incomplete so that the note can be reviewed for formatting, tags, and text. I am also adding department tags so that the note can be routed. (EAS, 08/26/2016)
"Etuis are container for small tools that could be carried conveniently in a pocket or bag. They could be made in many different materials: porcelain, as here, enamelled copper, hardstones and precious metals. This example has no interior fittings or tools, but rare complete etuis may contain a penknife, a thimble, a bodkin for threading ribbon through lace, a combined nail-file and tweezers, a combined toothpick and earscoop and perhaps even a hinged pair of ivory memorandum leaves (these could be written on, using a pencil). Etuis were not just attractive ornaments for wealthy ladies; their contents were useful too, and not unlike today's manicure sets, sewing kits and Swiss army knives.
As their use was primarily functional, the shape of etuis was dictated to some degree by the tools they were to contain. However, porcelain factories could be very inventive in designing etuis of different shapes: small figures, vegetables, flower posies, columns and many other shapes are known. This particular example of quiver shape was probably made by the Höchst factory, which favoured puce monochrome decoration, although this shape was also made at Meissen. Its tapering, undulating form would have been easy to hold and is also typical of the fashionable Rococo style of the period. This is reiterated in its decoration of scroll-edged panels composed of plant fronds and shell-like forms; the assymetry of these cartouches and the miniature scenes in the style of the French painter Watteau showing amorous couples can be linked directly to contemporary French Rococo models." (Victoria and Albert Museum, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O333348/etui-hochst-porcelain-factory/)
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General Description
By the mid-eighteenth century, women’s dressing tables displayed the height of exotic luxury in the rococo taste. With its fine draperies and expensive accoutrements, the dressing table rivaled the state bed and sideboard as a stage for dazzling extravagance.
Created in the late-eighteenth century, this etui scent bottle was included as part of a lavish porcelain and gilded silver dressing box, or toilette set, (see 1995.22.1.A-I) designed by Charles Gouyn and made by St. James's Factory in London, England. Many toilette sets included a variety of objects such as scent-bottles, snuffboxes, sewing materials, brushes and combs, jewelry, various containers for cosmetics and powders, and writing accessories.
This scent-bottle is formed from a bundle of apple-blossom buds. An etui is traditionally a small, ornamental container that was designed to hold various objects such as hair pins, bodkins, toothpicks, sewing materials, nail files, or tweezers. The long green stems form the etui and the blossom forms the scent-bottle while an opening porcelain bud forms the stopper. The St. James's Factory was recognized specifically for decorative galanterie (decorative porcelain trinkets) including scent bottles such as this piece which was designed for holding perfume.
Drawn from:
- Douglas Hawes, "Dressing casket with accessorie" in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection, ed. Charles Venable (New Haven, NJ: Yale University Press, 1997), 204.
- Bonnie Pitman, ed. "Dressing casket with accessories" in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 162.
- Kevin W. Tucker, Label Copy, Margot B. Perot Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, August 2004
- "Important Silver and Objects of Vertu including Works of Art from Houghton" in Christie's Catalogue (London: December 8, 1994), 12.
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Notes
This note was submitted but not tagged with a status by Megan Wanttie, summer 2016. I am tagging with #incomplete so that the note can be reviewed for formatting, tags, and text. I am also adding department tags so that the note can be routed. (EAS, 08/26/2016)
"Etuis are container for small tools that could be carried conveniently in a pocket or bag. They could be made in many different materials: porcelain, as here, enamelled copper, hardstones and precious metals. This example has no interior fittings or tools, but rare complete etuis may contain a penknife, a thimble, a bodkin for threading ribbon through lace, a combined nail-file and tweezers, a combined toothpick and earscoop and perhaps even a hinged pair of ivory memorandum leaves (these could be written on, using a pencil). Etuis were not just attractive ornaments for wealthy ladies; their contents were useful too, and not unlike today's manicure sets, sewing kits and Swiss army knives.
As their use was primarily functional, the shape of etuis was dictated to some degree by the tools they were to contain. However, porcelain factories could be very inventive in designing etuis of different shapes: small figures, vegetables, flower posies, columns and many other shapes are known. This particular example of quiver shape was probably made by the Höchst factory, which favoured puce monochrome decoration, although this shape was also made at Meissen. Its tapering, undulating form would have been easy to hold and is also typical of the fashionable Rococo style of the period. This is reiterated in its decoration of scroll-edged panels composed of plant fronds and shell-like forms; the assymetry of these cartouches and the miniature scenes in the style of the French painter Watteau showing amorous couples can be linked directly to contemporary French Rococo models." (Victoria and Albert Museum, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O333348/etui-hochst-porcelain-factory/)
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Gold-mounted
Porcelain with enamel decoration
Wrought
Modeled
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
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