Avon Calling
10.27.06By Lorraine NewberrySo many of us grew up playing nearby as the Avon lady showed her wares to our mothers in the living room. Today many of those Avon products and even their containers have become collectors items. While there are collectors for everything from Avon’s trinket boxes to photo frames, their perfume bottles are particularly popular. Available in figures ranging from hands to race cars, the surprising shapes of the Avon perfume bottles make them fun to collect and display.
Originally called the California Perfume Company, Avon started way back in 1886 with a single saleslady. As the name suggested, the company focused exclusively on perfume at first. The company quickly added more sales reps and expanded their product line to include cosmetics. In 1939 the California Perfume Company was renamed Avon Products Inc.
It was during the 1960s that Avon began creating the novelty perfume bottles. The first novelty bottles were a big hit and Avon continued creating them in shapes like guns, school desks, all sorts of animals, Victorian ladies, football helmets, chess figures - you name it. The perfume bottles often came in colorful, whimsically decorated boxes as well.
When collecting Avon perfume bottles, make sure that you have all the parts of the bottle, including caps. Avoid pieces with scraped paint, chipped or cracked glass, damaged labels or any other flaws. It’s always a good thing to have the box that originally came with the bottle (in good shape of course) since that can increase the selling price.
This site shows many of the Avon perfume and cologne bottles, as well as other Avon collectibles: http://www.robinsfyi.com/fun/hobbies/avon/avoncollecting.htm
