THE COLLECTING "GENE" - PART ONE

I do not know who was responsible for handing out the "gene's" when I was born but I think that they miscounted and gave me not only my collecting gene's but all of the ones left in the "gene pot."

I cannot seem to help myself. When I see beautiful things of supurb craftsmanship I simply fall in love. Many years ago my mother gave me a beautiful perfume bottle for my dresser. I think I was about 15 or 16 years old. Little did she know what she was starting. Some years later my daughter Kristen and I, entranced by the beauty of that bottle, decided to collect perfume containers.

Glass, porcelain and silver are some of the materials used in these containers. Many beautiful bottles were made in England and France as well as Czechoslovkia, by the master glass blowers of the late 19th and early 20th century. Our collection of glass perfumes falls mainly in two categories, those made in Europe,and those made in the United States. The third category in our collecting is those bottles made of porcelainThe bottles shown in this entry were all made by the

Gundersen-Pairpoint Glass Works of

New Bedford Mass. The bottle shown above is 15 inches

tall and is a master of hand blown glass with the

three controlled bubble balls as a base.

This "lay down" bottle with its blue ribbing and

floral stopper is also a beauty.

Guided by the designer Lloyd F. Cary

the glass blowers of Gundersen-Pairpoint

created lead crystal bottles of exceptional brilliance,

workmanship and quality.

Two more bottles of supurb quality.

These birds are perched on swirl bottoms, one

elongated and the other rounded both with

threading of red.

Another group of bottles with heavily ribbed

bases, threaded with red. Notice the elegant stoppers in

these bottles.

This grouping has blue trim. The bottles with the "fantasy"
stoppers are the most difficult to find in tact.
These stoppers are very fragile and often were
broken.

The fantasy of these bottles is just as beautiful
and interesting in the clear uncolored bottles
as in those sparked with color.

Several other American companies also produced interesting perfume containers. Closer to home, the Fenton Art Glass Co. of Williamstown, W. Va. and the DeVilbiss Co. of Toledo, Ohio also produced beautiful glass perfume containers. The DeVilbiss Co. was very prolific in producing atomizer's for perfumes.

The perfume bottle that sparked this interest is still on my bureau and is a much loved item. I hope that this entry has not bored you, as I would like to share some of the other items in the collection with you from time to time. The collection now numbers over 200 and has a wide variety of items.

A very busy week is in the making so I will stop for now. Hope all you have a wonderful week and enjoy this beautiful sunshine. How many more days can we expect like this? Remember this day when the sky is cloudy and dreary in the middle of December!

Doris