eau de toilette

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.

My dear friend Cara and I have known each other for well over a decade, but over the course of many dozens of letters sent back and forth from California to New York, I was never under the impression that she had material bonds to much of anything. When she began to enthusiastically send me articles about perfumes, I was intrigued. Before long, I discovered that she actually had a small but growing collection of perfumes and scents.

CD : How large is your collection at the moment?

Cara : 13, including minis, but not including samples

CD : What compels you to collect scents? is it the smell, or the bottle, or the cultural implications of perfume and gender? Some people collect vintage domestic stuff as an expression of changing femininity and such.

Cara : I don’t believe that perfume should limited to a particular sex. Perfume can be “gendered” as in a scent may be “masculine” or “feminine”, but not sexed. There is NO such thing as scents for “men” and scents for “women”, no matter what the marketers say.

CD : I think it’s a very common perception that the scents are very gender specific.

Cara : True, but that is a misconception. Historically, there was no such thing as “men’s” perfume and “women’s” perfume – just perfume. I think I should define what I mean by “gender” – gender is NOT the same as one’s sex. One is born male or female, [but] one choses to perform a gender and thusly may be many genders in one’s lifetime or even in one day. A perfume has a gender in the sense – no pun intended – of it’s energy. Some scents have an energetic, strong, Masculine feel to them. Others feel receptive, mysterious and Feminine.

Let me give an example – my work day scent is Burberry Brit for Men. Obviously it is marketed to men, but it has many Feminine qualities to it. When I first smelled Burberry Brit for Men, I was instantly reminded of Dame Judi Dench in the role of “M” in one the James Bond movies – a tough as nails broad who was warm and personable, yet well educated and professional. This is the kind of image I want to project at work so this is the scent I wear when I’m working or whenever I need to feel confident.

CD : So, your collection is based simply on things that you like to smell?

Cara : Yes. The bottles sometimes are pretty, but then, one doesn’t WEAR the bottle. it’s all about how the scent makes me FEEL.

CD : It’s not the kind of thing you can buy blindly online. You really need to go an experience them, then.

Cara : Absolutely!

CD : Where do you find yourself frequenting to experience scents?

Cara : I hang around perfume counters a lot and I purchase samples online.

CD : Do you have a favorite perfume counter?

Cara : Not really. Macy’s is closest to me but their scents are so modern and trendy as to be dull. They don’t carry anything avant garde.

CD : Is money an object when you find a scent that you want to wear?

Cara : Sadly YES. I would love to own a bottle of Bandit, pure parfum, but at 75 bucks an ounce, it’s out of my price range right now.

CD : Is that a holy grail of yours?

Cara : Oh YES. You could almost call Bandit my Signature Scent. I have the EDT – that’s Eau de Toilette – and it’s almost gone, “she said sadly”.

CD : Is there a perfume ‘news source’ that you frequent to find out about new developments in the world of scents?

Cara : Oh yes, my home page is set to Now Smell This!, a blog, and BoisdeJasmin, another blog. I learn a lot by reading both as they have totally different attitudes towards perfume.

CD : It’s interesting to talk to a collector whose collection is ephemeral, for lack of a better word. You use up and replace the things that you collect. Has there been a favorite scent that’s gone out of production?

Cara : There are many scents that have gone out of production and many that have been reformulated. Bandit, for example, has been reformulated. I have never smelt the original so I can’t say anything about it, but purists mourn its passing and some feel very strongly about reformulating the Classics. Worse, the companies often INSIST they didn’t reformulate, which angers some people.

CD : Kinda like when the re-release action figures with slightly different paint jobs! That I can understand. Are the originals still sought after, or do they lose a certain value now that they’ve been cloned?

Cara : Oh no, they’re VERY sought after and some can sell for hundreds of dollars. Some are only available to those in the perfume biz and via the perfume library in Paris, they are so RARE and so fragile.

CD : So, do you see your collection continually growing?

Cara : Yes, I want to have 17-20 bottles before I would consider it “finished”.

CD : So there IS an end in sight, even with the potentially infinite amount of perfumes out there?

Cara : Yes, I am collecting with a theme in mind, building my collection the way one would build a wardrobe. My fragrance wardrobe is unique because I am collecting a perfume for each of the chakras as I personally express them, [and] to this I am adding some situation specific fragrances such as the Perfect White Dress and Workday scent. Also, I am collecting one perfume for each of the seasons. When I am “done” I expect to have approximately 17-20 scents. These, of course, will change over time as I change as a person. A collection, after all, is never really finished.

CD : How would you suggest that an aspiring perfume fan start a collection of their own?

Cara : Get online and read a lot, frequent perfume counters and smell things, [and] soon you will discover what appeals to you and wears well on you. Perfume is an emotional seduction of the self, take your time and enjoy and don’t be afraid to try scents outside your comfort zone, like florals if you usually wear orientals or scents marketed to men. Perfume is scent and scent is a primal thing – the emotional reactions it can create are astonishing. When I first smelled Bandit, tears of joy sprang to my eyes. I had NEVER had such a reaction to a smell before. Perfume is art you can wear, music you can smell, [and] while there is a lot of pop culture garbage out there, there is beauty too, [so] take time to search it out. A girl who has no perfume is like a beautiful painting that has no frame – a little sad.

CD : Interesting analogy. Does the same apply to men?

Cara : Men deny themselves sensual pleasure too much – a holdover from our Puritan ancestors. A man who wears a scent that suits him can be compellingly attractive. I once giggled and blushed over a very ordinary looking man because he was wearing Estee Lauder’s Pleasures for Men. it just suited him so well and it suggested that there was something far deeper, more mysterious and interesting going on underneath his dull grey suit.

CD : What would you suggest for me? You know me fairly well. I normally just slather myself in butter, but it’s not really helping.

Cara : I could also see you in some of the avant garde scents like “Avingon“, a Gothic cathedral scent – very Old World. Or “Absinthe Absolu”, a Victorian Bohemian smell, very unusual.

CD : Is there one that smells like Legend of Zelda and LEGOs? Or would that just be sweat?

Cara : No, but I could see you in a scent that is playful and young! There is an Eau de Playdoh, no joke!

Cara left us with some essential articles for anyone thinking about pursuing a collection of scents. Enjoy!

The Fragrance Wardrobe

The Art of Seducing Oneself

Signature Scent

The Many Faces of Rose

Perfume and Gender