Bisque Porcelain Perfume Bottle with Applied Flowers, Basket-Form Stopper Massed with Roses and an Orchid, Separate Shell-Finial Dauber, Three Parts Complete
Viridian Eclection
The Piece A three-part perfume bottle in pale pink bisque porcelain, with flowers built petal by petal. The body is fluted, rising through a band of raised beading to a narrow neck, with a spra...
The Piece
A three-part perfume bottle in pale pink bisque porcelain, with flowers built petal by petal.
The body is fluted, rising through a band of raised beading to a narrow neck, with a spray of applied pink roses and green leaves laid against the shoulder.
The stopper is a basket, and it is the reason to want this. Massed across it are hand-formed flowers — open roses, buds, and a cattleya-type orchid with a stippled stamen cluster at its throat — with leaves worked in between them.
The third part is a separate dauber: a slender rod finishing in a small moulded shell finial, which passes down through the stopper into the bottle.
The surface throughout is bisque — unglazed and matte, so the porcelain reads as chalk rather than china.
The base is hand-numbered in black: 7491.
History & Provenance
Every one of those petals was rolled and set by a person. Applied porcelain flowers are made by hand at the bench: a thin sheet of clay is cut or pressed, each petal is shaped and curled, then assembled one at a time around a centre and fixed to the piece before firing. There is no mould that produces a flower like this. It is why the technique survives at all and why a basket of thirty petals costs what it costs.
The idiom is Capodimonte. The name belongs originally to the eighteenth-century Neapolitan royal porcelain works, but it long ago became shorthand for the whole tradition of applied-flower porcelain — carried on through the twentieth century in Italy and, at volume, in Japan, Taiwan and elsewhere, supplying the vanity and gift trade. Pieces like this were sold as dressing-table furniture rather than as art.
The three-part construction is the giveaway that it is a working object. A decorative flower basket is one piece. This is a bottle, a stopper and a dauber, engineered so the rod sits in the scent and the flowers ride on top — which means somebody expected it to be used every morning, not just admired.
The bisque finish is a deliberate choice. Leaving porcelain unglazed makes it read as matte and slightly skin-like, and it is the traditional finish for figural and floral work because a gloss glaze would fill the fine detail between petals and flatten it.
The only mark is the hand-painted 7491 on the base — a model or mould number written by a decorator, not a maker’s mark. No factory or country is indicated, and the piece is offered unattributed.
Product Details
| Object | Bisque porcelain perfume bottle in three parts — bottle, basket stopper and dauber |
| Dimensions | Approximately 6 in tall assembled |
| Form | Fluted body with a raised beaded band and applied rose spray at the shoulder; basket-form stopper massed with applied flowers; separate slender dauber with a moulded shell finial |
| Flowers | Hand-formed and applied — open roses, buds, a cattleya-type orchid with a stippled stamen cluster, and worked leaves |
| Finish | Bisque — unglazed matte porcelain in pale pink, white and green |
| Marks | Hand-painted 7491 to the base — a model or mould number, not a maker’s mark. Offered unattributed. |
| Era | Twentieth century, in the Capodimonte applied-flower tradition |
| Condition | Good, and complete in all three parts, which is uncommon — daubers are nearly always lost first. The bottle, stopper and dauber fit together correctly and the stopper seats properly. The applied flowers are crisp and well defined with their colour bright and unfaded, and the bisque surface is clean. There is minor loss to petal and leaf tips on the applied flowers, which is usual in this technique and visible only on close inspection. No cracks, no repairs and no restoration. Condition Guaranteed. |
| Availability | One of a Kind — 1 Available |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
The dressing table is the one surface in a house that is allowed to be entirely decorative, and this is what it was made for.
A bottle with a basket of porcelain flowers on top is unapologetically pretty, and it works precisely because it makes no other claim. Set among a hairbrush, a dish of rings and a scent bottle, it reads as the thing the rest of the table is arranged around.
Complete in three parts is the real find. The dauber is a thin porcelain rod that lives inside a bottle, and it is the first thing to get broken or lost — most surviving examples are a bottle and a stopper and nothing else. This one still has all of it.
The matte bisque surface is what makes it sit well with other things. Gloss porcelain bounces light and shouts; bisque absorbs it and reads as soft, which is why it keeps company with linen, brass, old mirror glass and painted wood without competing.
It does not have to go in a bedroom. On a bathroom shelf, a powder-room windowsill, or a bookshelf among small objects, it does the same job — a small piece of handwork that rewards anyone who leans in.
And it still works. Fill it, drop the dauber, and it does exactly what it was built to do in a way no modern bottle does.
A note on care, and the first rule matters most. Never wash it and never soak it. Bisque is unglazed and therefore porous — water carries dirt into the surface and stains it permanently, and there is no way back.
Dust with a soft dry brush, never a cloth. A cloth catches on petal edges and snaps them off. A clean makeup brush or a soft artist’s brush reaches between the flowers.
Lift it by the body, never by the stopper or the flowers. Applied petals are the thinnest porcelain on the piece and they break under almost no pressure.
Keep it out of direct sun, which yellows unglazed porcelain, and store the dauber in the bottle rather than loose in a drawer.
Every piece is packed with professional-grade materials: multiple foam layers, double-boxing, directional and fragile handling labels. For large furniture we use custom timber crating. We photograph packing before dispatch and can provide images on request.
White-glove delivery is complimentary within 100 miles of Reno, NV. National shipping quotes provided at checkout. All shipments are photographed and documented. Damage claims must be filed with the carrier; we provide all documentation needed to support your claim.
Local pickup is available at Viridian HQ (Reno, NV) with 2–4 days notice. Contact us to arrange. Private viewings also available.
All antique and vintage items are sold as described and all sales are final. Each listing includes detailed condition notes and photographs so you can make a fully informed decision. We encourage buyers to ask questions — about condition, dimensions, finish, provenance — before purchasing.
Antiques are irreplaceable and one-of-a-kind. Carrier handling is outside our control once a piece has left our facility, and major carriers including FedEx do not insure antiques. We do everything within our power to ensure safe transit, but cannot accept liability for carrier damage. If damage occurs in transit, we will provide full documentation to support your carrier claim.
Have a question? — we're happy to provide additional photos, condition detail, or discuss the piece directly.
