Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Mastery of Design: The Dame Joan Evans Scent Flask, 1650-1700

Click image to enlarge.

Scent Flask
Europe, 1650-1700
The Victoria & Albert Museum



From the collection of Dame Joan Evans, now at the Victoria & Albert Museum, we have this gold scent flask in the shape of a double gourd.

Made to hold fragrance, the flask was worn, suspended on a ribbon or chain, around the neck, allowing an olfactory distraction from the inevitable stink of any city in the late Seventeenth or early Eighteenth Centuries. The maker of the piece is unknown. We can only guess that it was made in Western Europe—based on stylistic cues. 


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