Bernard Perrot Blue Glass Perfume Bottle

Moulded blue blown pocket flask, flattened pear shape, with small foot and pewter screw cap. Decorated on one side with three fleur-de-lys surmounted by a crown, and on the other with three hearts and a floral motif. Made circa 1690 in the Orleans glassworks of Bernard Perrot, active from 1649 to 1709. Descended from an Italian family of glassmakers who probably arrived in France following Louis de Gonzague, this flask illustrates one of his inventions: the use of molds with recessed decoration to cast molten glass into small flasks, goblets, medallions and vials, thus revealing the motifs in relief. Perrot specialized in colored glass, producing agate-paste glass, porcelain imitations in white glass and transparent red glass. The bottle is complete, but has a crack, visible in the photos.

This glass-blown molded object from Orléans represents the very first mass-produced glass perfume bottles, the trigger being the emerging bourgeoisie's demand for perfume, no longer the prerogative of the nobility.