beauty products

Antique Personal Possessions

Antique Personal Possessions by Silvia Druitt is a 1980 publication covering collectible personal items from 1860 to 1930. The book, measuring 10 X 7.5 inches, has just 128 pages (including small bibliography & index) and features illustrations — black and white throughout the text and 32 color plates — by Mary Camidge and Mary Sims.

If the 70 years seems like a lot of ground to cover in such a rather slim book, consider the breadth of collectibles included.

Here are the chapters (topics):

1. Toiletries and Dressing Table (vanity collectibles such as perfume, cosmetics, etc., as well as vinaigrettes, smelling bottles, soaps, and razors)
2. Hair (lotions & potions such as fixatives and pomades, hairbrushes, curlers, hairpins, etc.)
3. Accessories (jewelry, hat pins, fans, visiting cards and card cases, muffs, handbags and purses, chatelaines, lorgnettes and glasses, stocking suspenders, etc.)
4. Sewing and Writing (sewing accessories and sewing machines; pens, pencils, stationery, writing desks, etc.)
5. Smoking (snuffboxes, pipes, cigar cutters, cigarette holders and cases, cases for matches and/or wax vestas, smokers’ lamps, and other tobacciana)
6. Excursions (travel items, such as luggage, trunks, and baskets sets, muff and pocket warmers, damp bed detectors, travel clocks, battery lighting, thermos flask, umbrellas and parasols, shoes, skirt lifters, etc.)
7. Children (pottery sock dryers, baby bottles and feeders, diapers and safety pins, teething sticks and rings, nightlights, rattles, infant spoons, learning to write educational items, dolls and toys, etc.).

To Druitt’s credit, she notes in the book’s introduction that any such study or indeed collection of these items is limited:

In writing of personal possessions in the nineteenth century it is inevitable that one should find oneself speaking almost entirely about the more privileged sections of society, as it was their possessions, in the main, which survived. Such possessions as belonged to the very poor were liable to be handed on and on, to the point of destruction. The many examples taken from the periodicals and magazines reflect the same trend, less accentuated as the period progressed.

The accuracy of such realities is noted; but still, that’s a lot of collecting categories to attempt to cover in one book. However Druitt does a fine job. As she should; the author was, at least in 1980 when the book was published, employed by the Hampshire County Museum service, “an expert on the period covered.”

If you’re looking for in-depth information, you’ll probably want to get a guide book dedicated to a specific collectible category; but the beauty of this book is the context of seeing all these items with their contemporaries, gaining perspective on life a the time, the practicality &/or impracticality of the objects, and the desires of the people who used them.

The brevity is also tantalizing… At least for a history nerd like me. For along with the collectibles in context are a myriad of clues for those who love to learn about history and culture.

Illustrations in Antique Personal Possessions

I have a modest collection of vintage vanity items, including cosmetics etc., and this book taught me more about dirty tricks in ye olde beauty business; but I’d never really thought about collecting many of these other items… Like skirt lifters or chatelaines — mainly because I rarely see them.

And I don’t think I’ve ever heard of, let alone seen, pottery sock dryers or damp bed detectors. If I have, I likely didn’t recognize them. Considering them now — without the diapers angle, even — reminds me just how damp yesteryear was… It may be easy to romanticize delicate ladies drenched in lead-based cosmetics fanning themselves as they await the next gentleman listed on their dance cards, but to know the complete picture, we ought to at least remember that the ride home was cold and damp. As was the house when they got home. And need I remind you of the plumbing situation?

Since this book is now out of print, you’ll be looking for used copies; as it was published in the UK, most copies at Amazon and eBay are located in the UK, so US collectoras should look closely & consider shipping before committing to any purchase. But wherever you find a copy of Antique Personal Possessions, I think it’s worth it.

Women and their vanity — err, vanity items. Yeah, that’s what I meant.

Vanity Collectibles is a wide category. It spills with as many beautiful and odd items as any woman’s bedroom bureau and bathroom combined. It’s the clutter that makes many a man wonder, “Why does she need such junk?”, “What’s that for?” and “Does she ever even use it?”

Because both the questions and the objects themselves are easy to relate to (and often beautiful too), it’s a fascinating area of collecting.

There’s not much more telling about a woman’s life than the inhabitants of her handbag, her medicine cabinet, her boudoir dresser… These are the objects which make up Vanity Collectibles. These are the objects which speak directly about the lives of women. Were they vain, or merely living female lives as expected? Have women’s roles, their lives, changed? The standards of beauty may change, but what about the tools?

Women (and men) have been primping since at least ancient Egyptian times, and other than a brief stint in Victorian times when ‘painted women’ were seen as ‘professionals’ (of the street variety), cosmetics and beauty products have existed. The 1920’s flapper girl ushered in more than short hemlines, the bra (as we know it), and fooling ’round in cars — she brought her cosmetics with her too. But it wasn’t until WWII, when women began earning & spending their own money, that the beauty business began it’s big boom.

Prior to 1915, beauty had a standard (several really), but now the tools were more mass-marketed. It is the items from the 1920’s through the 1950’s and early 60’s which are most coveted by collectors. But these are not the only items collectors seek.

While some collectors are passionate about the sub-sets, such as perfume bottles or powder compacts, many of us find ourselves being much more general in acquisitions. There are fancy vanity sets, linens for vanities, bobby pins and other hair care items, and so much more.
Anything, and I mean any thing that would go on a vintage vanity, inside a purse, or be used for beauty, hygiene or general girly maintenance is acceptable to us.
I have a (pricey) vintage Lucite purse with built-in compact, yes, but I also have a kitschy (free) Lander’s Spice Stick Cologne too. I have fancy powder compacts, paper powder boxes and even powder mitts. But I also have facial cleansers and eyebrow tints.

Each is desired by me for their representation of practical needs. Yeah, sure, they are also more practical (cheaper) for me to get, but they do tell their stories as well. Stories of middle class citizens who, like me, had limited budgets. These are the products I would have owned had I lived then.

I also go for more modern items too. I’ll coo over the retro plastic hand mirrors as well as swoon over the vintage silver ones. (Little girls in the 60’s needed their mirrors too.) I’ll be as giddy as a school girl over a retro Cutex Junior Manicure Set, even if I faint over an exquisite Art Deco Manicure Compact. (Hey, both these women were as committed to their nails as their means allowed. I can respect that.)

It’s easy to fall in love with vanity items. These intimate, everyday objects paint a vivid story of private lives as surely as the red contents of the vintage lipstick tube painted the mouth of the previous owner.