Perfume Bottle
Unknown Artist
1830–70
Medium
Parian porcelain
Dimensions
H. 4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm); Diam. 3 in. (7.6 cm)
Classification
Perfume bottle
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Dr. Charles W. Green, 1947
Accession Number
47.90.45
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate perfume bottle, in Parian porcelain between 1830 and 1870, exemplifies the refined decorative arts of mid-19th-century America Standing just over 4 inches tall with a 3-inch diameter, its unglazed, matte-white surface mimics the translucent glow of Parian marble from the Greek island of Par—hence the name. Popularized in the 1840s by British potters and quickly adopted in American manufactories like those in Bennington, Vermont, or East Liverpool, Ohio, Parian porcelain allowed artisans to create elegant, biscuit-fired objects that rivaled marble sculpture in sophistication witho...