The bidding started innocuously with a price that was not unheard at the Decorative Arts sale. So when the sweet little amber perfume bottle with the gilt (gold leaf on metal) dragonfly started at $375, I didn’t blink.
Even the auctioneer expected it to sell for a couple hundred dollars, he told me later. Then the price kept rising – first in $25 increments, then $50 and then $100 with no end in sight. Two bidders – one on the internet – were in a freefall for the perfume bottle, and they went at it fiercely.
$375 … $500 … $1,000 …
Neither was giving up.
$1,500 … $2,000 … $2,500 …
Those of us in the audience were both bemused and amused. We always love a good show. I was very curious about what was the allure of this bottle. I had not examined it before the auction, and didn’t know if it was signed or not. The bid sheet’s description was pretty sparse:
“Vintage Dragonfly Perfumer Perfume Bottle. Gilt metal dragonfly with amber glass bottle. Dimensions: H: 4.75 inches: W: 3.25 inches: D: 3 inches.” This means that it was not signed.
$2,750 … $3,000 … $3,250.
The auctioneer went from $3,000 to $3,500, but dropped to $3,250 after the bid hung in the air and it wasn’t clear if the internet bidder was ready to stick with it. That bidder finally took the bid and went for it. The opponent was not so hesitant and jumped on the next bid.
$3,500.
And that’s where the bidding ended, and the internet bidder lost out. The auctioneer/owner Tim directed the auction-house staffer – who had been patiently and carefully holding up the perfume bottle for us to see – to put it safely away in the office.
All of us were incredulous about the final price of the item, including Tim. But he shouldn’t have been so surprised. He said that the bottle had generated a lot of interest after it was first listed on liveauctioneers.com. That auction site, invaluable.com and others like them have been a boon to auction houses like Tim’s Uniques & Antiques in Ashton, PA. They can now sell their high-end items to buyers across the country and the world, and garner prices similar to the perfume bottle’s sale.
The inquiries about the perfume bottle, Tim said, were from folks wanting to see photos of the bottom of the base (which was a little messy), wanting to know if there were cracks (there were none), and wanting to determine if the bottle could still be opened (it could).
Right after the bottle was listed, Tim added, one woman wanted to offer the consigner $1,000 for it. That was a dead giveaway that this bottle was something special. He speculated that the amber tint of the bottle may have contributed to the intense interest.
Some perfume bottles sell well and are very collectible, especially those made by famous companies or people. Some auction houses even hold auctions that consist solely of perfume bottles. A couple years ago, I went to an exhibit of perfume bottles at Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia, and some of those bottles were works of art. But they all had a pedigree.
Did this bottle have one that I didn’t know about? Tim said that he had done a cursory search on the web for the bottle but could find nothing. I did the same and could not find that particular bottle, but I did find lots of them with the dragonfly motif.
You can buy one for $10 or $300 (from glass artist Loy Allen). The famous Lalique design house offered a 2013 dragonfly bottle (it contained perfume) for $1,800. At the other end, Lenox was selling a bottle for $39.99. I found a 19th century bottle with a sterling silver dragonfly that sold for $495.
An auction house in Michigan offered a Milon Townsend perfume bottle valued at $3,000 to $3,500 for sale a few years ago, but it did not sell. The National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia was selling one for $9,600 made by Japanese glass artist Shinichi Higuchi.
Finding so many dragonfly perfume bottles on the web, I wondered if the insects held some special significance. For various cultures, they represent change and transformation. That seems to be reflected in the animals’ ability to move and stop quickly, and fly up, down, sideways and backwards, and hover, and their translucent and iridescent wings. Cultures throughout the world have ascribed symbolisms to them.
Dragonflies as symbols of change were prominent during the Art Nouveau period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in jewelry. Rene Lalique’s dragonfly woman brooch is considered one of the era’s finest.
I’m not sure what the buyer at the auction had in mind with that purchase, but I’d surely like to know. What do you think of this?
