Antique French Palais Royal White Opaline "Egg" Casket, Perfume Bottle

Antique French Palais Royal White Opaline "Egg" Casket, Perfume Bottle

Large antique French white opaline glass & gilt ormolu 'egg' shaped casket, a unique perfume or cologne bottle piece in fabulous condition! We're thrilled to bring this spectacular and pristine early 1800s Palais Royal French opaline 'egg' to our customers. The condition is, as noted, pristine. Brilliant gilt ormolu framework hasn't a flaw other than a slight bend or two. A unique aspect to this one is that the interior IS the perfume vial, flask, flacon or bottle rather than just having a perfume bottle resting inside. With this piece, the bottom half of the egg creates the bottle, hinged gilt cap and all. The casket's hinge and clasp are working perfectly well but it's missing the inner glass stopper. Can you imagine a boutique there flanking the promenade of the old Palais Royal, filled with all the colored opalines, lined and displayed in all their splendor there in the famed old Richelieu Palace, Paris? Certainly the late 1700s to early 1800s visitors and patrons of the social scene therein would have been fascinated by all the colors. The closest I can think of seeing such a sight was in London, coming upon the shop of a friend, Alexis Amato, who was featured along with our own shop and one in New York in a lovely article about the French opaline sugar caskets, published some years back in House Beautiful Magazine. The Antiques & Uncommon Treasure Facebook page has a copy of that article in one of our albums (We've been published) and you can read it there. But I digress - my point was to say that the few dealers who are left who deal exclusively in these opalines have a splendid display and come close to giving that 1700s to early 1800s awestruck impact inherent in a large collection of these lovely old French glass objects. We deal in them only on occasion, these days, but I am still infatuated by them, nonetheless. This one is superb!

Very good condition. One small surface nip on the outside of the egg and, as noted above, the ormolu legs have a slight bend or two. See pictures for measurements.

Item ID: 112wtegg

$995 $846 USD SALE

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