Perfume Bottles

52SOME GENERAL RULESFuture CollectiblesCelebrity brand scent bottles: perhapsthese bottles which bear the name of movieand music notables should be considered1. There are no rules! Every rule hasexceptions!2. Specialize! Specialize!3. Until you have studied the market andhandled many, many bottles, you shouldonly buy from a reputable dealer who willguarantee his/her merchandise.4. Always remember that identificationof glass manufacturers can be a problembecause workers moved from factory tofactory, even from country to country,taking with them every technique they hadlearned. Also, signatures can be forged.5. The importance of labels andpackaging cannot be overstated whencollecting commercial perfume bottles.6. The importance of rarity is moredifficult to quantify. Buy something rare,but not obscure.7. The secondary market places greatimportance on signed/documented pieces.8. Condition is all important. Checkcarefully for any signs of sick glass, chips,repairs, mismatched stoppers, falsesignatures and torn labels. The exception isthose little rubber bulbs on atomizers.Because they dry out over time,replacements or missing bulbs are notconsidered flaws. Missing a tiny innerstopper under a silver or gold cap or ornatestopper cover is considered a minor flaw.9. With some bottles, a “marriage”between a bottle and a stopper made for anidentical bottle is considered a minor flaw.Chapter 18current collectibles (they accounted for$140 million in sales in 2006).New figurals will also be appealing tocollectors.SOME GENERAL RULESHowever, with cut glass or silver depositbottles, the stopper must match the patternof the bottle exactly.10. Prefer something by a famousglassmaker or porcelain manufacturer.11. Prefer something by a famousperfume house over an unknown one.12. Buy a complete presentationwhenever possible.13. Buy a perfect example wheneverpossible.14. Prefer crystal to glass.15. Prefer examples where the stopper isground to match its individual bottle overexamples with plastic stopper liners on thetongue of the stopper (post-1979).16. Buy a perfume bottle over cologneor eau de toilette.17. Buy the best quality you can afford.18. Size matters. Some commercialscents are rare in large sizes (2 ounces orlarger) but fairly common in miniatures—orvice versa.19. If you absolutely love it, buy it.20. Of course, be wary of reproductions,but some designs, especiallyCzechoslovakian and Murano bottles, havebeen in almost continuous production formany, many years, so that their recentproducts cannot be consideredreproductions.