COLLECTIBLES : Dollars and Scents Go Into Perfume Bottles
Gloria Magidson of Trabuco Canyon has no intention of keeping her sweet-smelling collection bottled up.
About 2,000 of her perfume containers are displayed and available for sale at the Harbor Antique Mall in Fullerton.
She has been collecting the bottles for about 10 years and has had a booth at the mall since it opened about three years ago.
Magidson says many perfume bottle collectors specialize in a distinct type, be it commercial, art, novelty, miniature or “dummy.”
But Magidson has plenty of each.
“I have eclectic tastes; I like the wide spectrum of bottles,” she says. “I lean toward the commercial, though, so a sealed bottle with the perfume in it would have a bigger interest for me.”
Commercial bottles are those put out for sale by perfume manufacturers.
Art bottles are well-crafted, eye-catching pieces that contain no perfume but are meant to hold perfume.
“The French and the Czechs, in particular, are known for their elegant, etched or cut-glass art bottles,” Magidson says.
Novelty bottles are commercial bottles that come in fanciful shapes such as dogs or houses.
Miniatures, also commercial bottles, are replicas of the original manufacturers’ bottles that were given out as samples, she says. At the other extreme, dummy bottles are gigantic replicas of original manufactured bottles used for store display.
Prices range from a few dollars for some of the miniature bottles to $3,000 for a dummy of Salvador Dali’s “Lips.”
While the art bottles are known for their fine craftsmanship, there are many commercial bottles that also have a claim to style.
“Commercial bottles have been mass-produced going back to the beginnings of the 1800s,” Magidson says. “Woven into that is, the finest glass designers of the world--Baccarat, Lalique and others--were involved in the making of commercial bottles.”
In addition to the bottles currently for sale at her booth, Magidson will be selling her extensive personal collection, piece by piece, at the mall beginning in April or May, said Ann Lake, owner of the Harbor Antique Mall.
“She has thousands of bottles at home, some of which are the most expensive bottles ever,” Lake says. “Her Czechoslovakian bottles, in particular, are extraordinary.”
Magidson says that although many of today’s commercial perfume bottles are beautiful, it may be quite a while before they gain value.
“You can collect things from now, but the prices are prohibitive, so it may not be a sensible move to make,” Magidson says. “Take a . . . bottle that’s selling for $200 now. It’ll take you a long time to realize much true investment out of that.”
She says perfume bottles make great collectibles because they are easy to display, and the time and materials that went into making them is reflected in their beauty.
“I think it’s best to work on the assumption that if you like it, buy it,” Magidson says. “Liking it is more important than its investment potential, because even if it doesn’t gain value, you still have something you like.”
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Harbor Antique Mall
211 N. Harbor Blvd., Fullerton
(714) 680-0532
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
