New On-Line Article

My latest article for the on-line Museum of Aquarium and Pet History, entitled "Floating Folk; Badekinder and Bathing Beauties" features bobbing bisque bathers.

All Bottled Up

This 14-inch tall clear glass bottle features a bathing beauty pressed against a pillar of stone as she appears to ponder whether to enter the unseen waves.

The modeling is extraordinarily detailed, from her flowing tresses held back with a scarf, the ribbed pattern on her bathing suit, and even the ballet-style ties of her bathing slippers. Underneath the bottle is marked "Depose," which is a French word indicating that the design has been registered. There is a rough pontil point in the center of the bottom. This bottle is attributed to Legras, a French maker of fine and utilitarian glass objects.

Legras was founded in 1864 by Auguste Legras at St. Denis, France. The company made elegant decorative glassware, including enameled and cameo cut pieces in the popular art nouveau and art deco styles. However, the company, which at one point employed nearly 1,300 workers, also specialized in more utilitarian glassware, including novelty liquor bottles. This image is a page from a catalog of  Eugéne Vincent & Cie, a Lyon wine and liquor distributor, illustrating some of the novelty bottles its adult beverages could be ordered in. On the center row, second to the left, is what appears to be the same bathing belle bottle. Legras was sold in 1928, becoming Verreries et Cristalleries de St. Denis, but continued manufacturing art glass based on Legras models through the early 1930s. I would date the bottle from the late 1880s through 1900.