Silver Perfume Bottles

Perfume bottles come in a variety of styles and forms. Often cast in silver or blown in glass with sterling embellishments, they evoke the bygone glamour and Old World elegance of the Victorian era. It was during this period that perfume bottles featuring overlaying, a process by which sterling is electroplated on top of blown glass, became must-have items.

Like a fine cigarette case, flask, or umbrella, glass and silver perfume bottles are technically unnecessary items, since their disposable equivalents abound. Still, they are irrefutably stylish. Few accouterments suggest class and sophistication as much as a sterling perfume bottle fabricated by the likes of Tiffany & Co. or Gorham.

Perfume bottles are both dramatic and charming whether you're storing your favorite scent in an Art Nouveau glass bottle with a silver cap or an unembellished sterling vessel in the shape of a heart. These items are impressive pieces of art that are noticed and admired by guests.

Quick Facts

• Perfume bottles made by René Lalique and Emile Galle are among the most valuable and sought after
• Emile Galle glass and sterling perfume bottles often fetch upwards of $5,000 at auction
• While avid collectors will often spend many thousands of dollars to purchase Victorian-era sterling perfume bottles, fine examples abound at much more reasonable sums, often less than a few hundred dollars