Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started. So, these are market values based on prices I find on the web, not appraisal for insurance purposes that I suggest for items that have been determined to be of great value.
Today’s question is about an Elsa Schiaparelli “Shocking” perfume bottle.
Question:
I have a Schiaparelli Shocking perfume bottle in the little leather case. I think it was designed in the mid to late 1930s. Is it worth anything? The bottle is empty but can still smell the scent. Know it is original as I bought it from a lady who bought it in Paris before the war.
Answer:
The reader had come across a blog post I wrote four years ago about perfume bottles after viewing a wonderful exhibit at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. There was an array of bottles from some of the finest makers of perfumes.
One of those bottles held a fragrance created by Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and was modeled after the dressmaker’s dummy of Mae West’s designer. Schiaparelli had made West’s costumes for the 1937 movie “Every Day’s a Holiday.” The bottle is in the shape of a woman’s torso.
“Schiap,” as she was called by her friends, was a belle of fashion in the years between the first and second world wars, and counted French designer Coco Chanel as her rival. Schiaparelli’s “Shocking” perfume was introduced in 1937 (or 1936, depending on who you read) in a clear dome ringed with lace near the bottom.
She collaborated with several artists, the most famous of which was Salvador Dali. They produced some of the most infamous fashions of the period: the shoe hat, the lobster dress and the Tears dress.
At one auction, I was able to snag an autobiography of Schiaparelli titled “Shocking life” with a bright pink dust jacket, published in 1954.
I have picked up a few of the Shocking bottles before, with a little perfume still in them but without the signature glass flowers, label and other accessories that originally adorned them. I still have one of them, but I can’t test the perfume because fragrances irritate my senses. I love the shape of this very recognizable bottle, which was designed by artist Leonor Fini.
I had never seen one with a leather case, though. So when I got the reader’s email, I went looking and found several on the web. It seemed a bit strange to me that such an elegant perfume so carefully adorned would come in a somewhat plain case, even if Schiaparelli’s name was imprinted in gold lettering on the front. This may perhaps have been a later version of the perfume and packaging.
As for the reader’s empty perfume bottle, the prices on eBay and the web were all over the place. There seemed to be a ton of the bottles out there, so how much you get for your empty bottle depends on the condition, the accessories and how much a buyer is willing to pay for it right now.
A half-full bottle with the accessories and leather case sold for $195 on eBay. An empty bottle with accessories and glass dome sold for $150. Most of the bottles on eBay lacked the accessories and a number of them were empty. The prices of sold bottles ranged from $15 to $195.
If the buyer is interested in selling the bottle, I’d suggest trying eBay and setting the price based on what others with the same adornments are selling for.
