Topic: Crown Perfumery Company Bottle, RD 260854 (2 March 1872) with dual markings

[agincourt17]

A cylindrical green pressed glass bottle with a ground glass stopper with a top  in the shape of a British State crown. One side of the bottle has THE CROWN PERFUME COMPANY LONDON in relief, and the base of the bottle bears the diamond mark for 2 March 1872 (Parcel 12) PLUS No. 260854 (the correct registration number corresponding with the diamond mark).  The registrant was, not surprisingly, The Crown Perfumery Co., London. There is no indication of who the bottle manufacturer might actually have been.

This is the first time that I can remember seeing a piece marked with diamond AND RD number. The replacement of the diamond mark with a serial number prefixed with the abbreviation ‘Rd. No.’ only started statutorily with No.1 on 1 January 1884.

Does anyone else have any other examples of pieces dually marked with diamond and serial numbers?

Does anyone have an example of this CRC bottle bearing the diamond mark without the serial number?

According to
http://www.perfumeprojects.com/museum/marketers/Crown.shtml
The Crown Perfumery was launched in 1872 in London by William S. (Sparks) Thompson, an American industrialist from Connecticut, so this bottle design was presumably registered in the very early days of the company’s existence.  Their perfumes were, apparently, favoured by Queen Victoria, though they don’t appear to have been issued with a Royal Warrant.

The company used these bottles as retail containers for a whole variety of perfumes, smelling salts and air fresheners over the years, and
http://antiquebottlehunter.com/salts.html
shows a collection of CPC crown-stoppered bottles in a range of shapes, sizes and colours.

Here also is a contemporary advert for CPC products illustrating the crown-stoppered bottles, which the company obviously promoted as a guarantee of authenticity..

[agincourt17]

This is a (seemingly very similar) cylindrical bottle (about 4 Ľ inches tall) with crown stopper and relief letting to one side but this time embossed on the base with a‘debased’ diamond date mark logo (the typical lozenge outline shape with ‘III’ in a part circle at the apex, but with the ‘Rd’ erased from the centre and figures or digits removed from the angles, and  ‘C.P.Co.’ inside it instead) and No. 160745.

This RD should have been allocated sometime in August 1888, but is not shown as a glass registration number in Thompson, Slack or http://www.great-glass.co.uk

[agincourt17]

Here is another cylindrical CPC crown-stoppered bottle marked with the ‘debased diamond’ logo and No. 160745 to the bottom, but this time in an ornate sterling silver two part case (sleeve for the  bottle and cover for the crown-stopper) hallmarked in Birmingham for Deakin and Francis, 1899-1900.

[agincourt17]

A crown-stoppered CPC bottle, with sterling silver sleeve to the bottle hallmarked for Birmingham, 1901, but this time the base is simply marked with a crown in relief.

Another crown-stoppered CPC bottle with sterling silver sleeve to the bottle hallmarked for Birmingham 1903, but this time the base is marked with what appears to be a trident (rather than a crown) and number 00 3 50 (?).

[agincourt17]

At
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/bottles-glass/153106-neat-little-smelling-salts-bottle-more-pics.html
a CPC bottle with crown-stopper is shown marked Rd No 417253 Made in England to the base (though again I can’t find a glass registration corresponding in Thomson, Slack or http://www.great-glass.co.uk  ). The ‘Made in England’ indicates 20th century, and the RD should have been allocated sometime in September 1903.

[Bernard C]

Compliments on your detailed and useful topic.

Thompson p.128:

"The 1884 onwards register has been edited, due to the large number of registered items.   ....."

Mostly bottles seem to be missing.   This deficient Thompson list goes up to February 28 1908.   After that date the blue book takes over, and I think it is complete, but I'm not aware of anyone doing a thorough check in recent times.   The others you mention sourced from Thompson or from Thompson's source, the MS list at Broadfield House.   Also these lists are Class III Glass only, and, as we have found here on the GMB, glass items were sometimes registered under a different class, most frequently Class IV Earthenware.   Two of the possible explanations are that it broadened the protection to pottery and china, and that it significantly reduced publicity, particularly to US glassworks, who would have regarded any Class III registration (or glass patent) appearing in PG as an OK to make it themselves.

Editing primary source material should be discouraged in the strongest terms.   Also praise should always be given to those who publish completely and without any editing, like Eric Reynolds (Walsh factory pattern books) and Pamela (trade catalogues).

See Marsh, M., Perfume Bottles — A Collector's Guide, Miller's, 1999, p.28.   This also shows a near spherical Crown bottle, not shown in your link.   My pencilled marginal note reads "1st Series Reg No 260854 — 2/3/1872".    Nice to know I got it right.   

There is at least one 1884 registration which has the Rd number inside the old lozenge, and it has been mentioned here on the GMB.   It conjures up a lovely picture of a mouldmaker being given the newfangled Rd No without any details of what to do with it — and then doing his best to cover any eventuality.   Wouldn't that be a wonderful subject for a collection — Registration mark errors and oddities.

Finally I have had your first bottle through my hands without any base marks at all, probably a late example.

Bernard C. 

[agincourt17]

Thank you for your kind compliments, Bernard. Much appreciated.

The Crown Perfumery Company is still in existence (though in a much attenuated form), and the crown-stoppered bottles were used throughout, so presumably bottles with no base marks (possibly manufactured by lots of different sub-contracted suppliers) could well have been used for many years with little or no means of distinguishing the date or source of manufacture.

[agincourt17]

Photograph of CPC crown-stoppered bottle, this time slab-sided rather than cylindrical. Has its original printed paper label for 'Lavender Salts' air freshener .

It would appear that the slab-sided bottle held a smaller quantity than the cylindrical bottle, so the shapes presumably reflect the different sizes.

Both shapes are shown the CPC  advert in my first posting, but in that case the slab-sided bottle held perfume and the cylindrical bottle was shown with the 'Lavender Salts' label (albeit with a slightly more ornate design).