Welcome to Antiques & Moore!
This listing is for a nice Palais Royal novelty vanity top scent caddy dating from the Grand Tour era in the last quarter of the 19th Century. The fancy brass stand is decorated with embossed flowers and leaves and has a trinket tray/dish in the center of the base with two pierced decorated side compartments that hold glass perfume bottles. There is a beveled mirror mounted in the center back The art glass trinket dish is pale aqua opaline glass with crimped ruffled edge and hand painted white flowers with gilt stems around the inside border. The perfume/scent bottles are white opaline glass with enamel decoration and matching stoppers.
Measures 9 3/4" high, 9" wide (at bottles) and 4" deep (at base of stand). The perfume bottles measure 4" high with a 1 1/2" diameter base.
This lovely scent caddy/stand is in very good to excellent Estate condition with no major flaws other than one chip on the upper edge of one of the perfume bottles. The mirror has some minor wear in the silver backing at the lower corners but no chips or cracks and is otherwise very clean. There are a couple of faint no-harm chips on the bottom edge of the stoppers. We are unsure whether the bottles or the glass trinket dish are original to this stand but they make a beautiful presentation and fit the stand perfectly. The glass trinket dish is also in excellent condition with no chips, cracks or repairs.
Novelty vanity items were popular at shops on the Palais Royal when wealthy travelers visited Paris during the Grand Tour era. Often ladies would have perfumes made especially to their tastes which would then be taken home and placed in fancy bottles often in ormolu stands such as this one on their vanity.
We at Antiques & Moore have been in the Antiques business for over 30 years and try to describe our items as accurately as possible. Although all sales are considered final, if there is an error in our description or a problem with our item, we will issue a full refund of the purchase price if contacted within 3 days after receipt of the item, however, please note that we cannot refund shipping charges. We are happy to answer any questions and always appreciate your business!