Details

Title

Scent Bottle Stopper

Artist/Maker

Bernard Perrot's Verrerie Royale d'Orleans

Date

ca. 1700

Medium

Black glass mounted in pewter

Dimensions

2 7/16 x 1 1/2 x 1 5/8 inches

Credit

Purchase with funds from the Decorative Arts Acquisition Trust

Accession #

1994.23

On View

Currently not on view

The black, glossy surface and facial features of this perfume stopper reveal that it was crafted to represent a person of African ancestry. During centuries past, Africans in Europe included both individuals of high social status as well as enslaved people. Bernard Perrot was a notable glassmaker in Orléans, France, who specialized in the Venetian style of glassmaking, a tradition that drew from Islamic techniques.