Venice:
Palazzo Mocenigo – Little Big Things Exhibition. At Palazzo Mocenigo, Study
Centre of the History of Fabrics and Costumes, the exhibition Little Big
Things, Masterpieces from the Storp Collection, until January 6, 2015. The
Storp family, which founded Drom Fragrances in 1911 in Munich, Germany, amassed
a rare and very important collection of flacons and perfume bottles over the
generations, a collection that today includes more than three thousand pieces
spanning six thousand years of history. The
exhibition underlines the fundamental role played by Venice in the origins of
perfume in terms of aesthetics, cosmetics and commerce, and is highlighted in
the new section of the museum dedicated to perfume. Exclusive works of art,
these tiny yet precious containers celebrate an ancient art that developed in
the Middle East and then spread to Greece and Rome, before returning to Asia
and back to Venice at the time of the Crusades. In the magical setting of
Palazzo Mocenigo, four sections, representing all eras, ranges from
extremely rare antique pieces such as a terracotta Egyptian oil jar from the
third or second century BC, glass flacons and cases, porcelain, and biscuits
dating from the 16th to 19th century to an extraordinary satin glass bottle designed
by Salvador Dali and the most famous noteworthy creations by today’s major
perfume and essence companies.
Above.
Linetti, Notte Di Venezia – 1948 – glass, earthenware. Decorative Model in
enameled earthenware made by Ker-Artis in Padua featuring a gondola with two
poles, with the glass bottle seated in the boat like a passenger.
Little
Big Things. Dr Ferdinand Storp, who with his brother Dr. Andreas Storp
co-manages Drom Fragrances. The Storp Collection was started by Dr. Ferdinand’s grandmother, Dora in 1921, he took
over from his mother, Ursula who dedicated her life to maintaining and
enhancing it. He describes this special
collaboration: “Venice as a city of the arts and craftsmanship provides the
perfect stage for this outstanding exhibition of flacon bottles, all being
relevant pieces of art and craftsmanship.
The fascinating thing about these scent bottles, is, that they are still
able to tell the same story that the fragrance inside these treasures told in
their time. The fragrance may have
evaporated hundreds of years ago on the velvet skin of a beautiful lady, but
you can still see the flacon and you can imagine her story. Which is another parallel to Venice where
every building, every corner, every stone is telling its own history. Therefore we are happy that the exhibition
Little Big Things will add some more precious facets to the history of perfume
shown in this beautiful museum here in Venice.”
Little
Big Things – The Divine.
This
section presents some exceptional pieces from antiquity and the pre-classical
era, illustrated using well-known mythological figures, a source of inspiration
for the most successful perfume brands and an allegory of angels, cherubs, and
putti.
Ointment Oil Vessel – Egypt (Syrian influence
?) – 300 B.C., Black Clay in the shape of porcupine.
Ring Aryballos – Corinth,
Greece – 6th Century B.C., clay with an ornament of two horse
riders.
Little
Big Things - The Divine
Vial
– Provincial Rome – 2nd Cent. A.D. - glass – slender vial with broad
opening, made in green glass.
Perfume
Bottle – North East Persia – 8-10th Cent. A.D. – glass – slightly
drop-shaped glass with elongated neck made of grey-pink glass with dark
coating, “eggplant bottle”.
Ointment
Oil Vessel – Persia - 9-10th Cent. A.D. – glass – oil vessel made of
emerald green iridescent glass with cutted decoration.
Perfume
Bottle – North East Persia – 8-10th Cent. A.D. – glass – bellied
bottle with long slender foot and elongated neck made of iridescent blue glass.
Little
Big Things - The Divine
Coty – Ambre Antique – 1910 – glass – glass
bottle in the shape of an alabaster showing four women draped in gowns, as
inspired by Greek mythology.
Little
Big Things - The Divine – The Angel’s Share
Angels,
cherubs, putti, and chubby children inspired by ancient Greek mythology,
symbolizing Love and the Divine, have fed the imagination of many creative
perfumers. These little people with
rotund body shape can be found represented in many bucolic and jocular scenes
on porcelain bottles and porcelain biscuit trinket boxes from the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. This symbol of
divinity nevertheless leaves room for a little frivolity and the power of
seduction of seemingly innocent young women.
Little
Big Things - Love
This
section presents the most classic and essential subject from the Enlightenment
to the present day. Especially during the Age of Reason, perfumes and their
containers become “accomplices” of seduction, the language of love, and gallantry.
During the industrial revolution in the mid-nineteenth century, rival brands
competed to come up with ways to portray love, continuing to this day, where it
resonates with all its past incarnations. Visitors have the rare privilege of
discovering the best pieces of the Worth perfume brand, which tell the exciting
story of love in its most poetic form.
“In the night, just before dawn,
because I cannot bear to say goodbye, I will return to you.”
This story of romantic love was the inspiration
for Worth perfumes for tens years and gave birth to Dans La Nuit, 1924 – Vers
Le Jour, 1927 – Sans Adieu, 1929 – Je Reviens, 1932 and Vers Toi, 1933. Each of these perfumes tells one chapter of
this love story. All bottles design Rene Lalique.
Little
Big Things – Love
Scent
Bottle – Germany – 18th Cent. – crystal glass, silver –
sophisticated flacon jewel in the shape of a heart suspended from a silver
chatelaine ornamented with a crown and angels. This perfumed jewel was
traditionally worn by young women in the Bavarian bourgeoisie during the
nineteenth century. Here, we can see how
very modern it was for its time, with its magnificence and baroque
sophistication echoing our own fragility.
Little
Big Things – Love
2 Pisseuse a Parfum – France – end 19th
Cent. – porcelain, plastic – female figure lying in an erotic pose.
Little
Big Things – Love
Paul
Poiret – Mon Peche – 1926 – glass – black glass art deco style bottle decorated
with flowers in relief. Paul Poiret was the forerunner by creating a fragrance
as an accessory to complement his fashion collection.
Palazzo
Mocenigo - Little Big Things – the curator Chiara Squarcina
Little Big Things – Love –
Satirical Scenes of Monks
Very
rare bottles whose exteriors recount the stories of illicit love affairs. When retuning from the market these monks hid
young women in the bales of hay that they were taking back to the monastery, to
use for their own enjoyment. The
eighteenth century was a time of love in all its different forms, from the most
romantic to the most risque.
Flacon
– Frankenthal – Germany – 2nd half 18th Cent. –
porcelain, metal – monk in brown cape with hood, with on its back a bundle of
spica with a woman hidden inside, marked: “Supplies for the Monastery.”
Flacon
– Frankenthal – Germany – 1760 – porcelain, copper - monk in brown cape with
hood, with on its back a bundle of spica with a woman hidden inside, marked:
“Supplies for the Monastery.”
Flacon
– Thueringen – Germany – 19th Cent. – porcelain – monk with on its
back a bundle of spica with a woman hidden inside, marked: “Supplies for the
Monastery.”
Flacon
– Meissen – Germany – around 1750 – porcelain, gold, silver – on grass
pedestal, bare foot monk with brown frock with hood and bundle where a young
girl is hidden.
Little Big Things –
Protection
The increasing spread of
Christianity in the Middle Ages marked a decrease in the use of secular scents
in the West. People were afraid of drinking water and the possibility of an
epidemic: perfumes therefore became a protective elixir for medicinal use.
Meanwhile, containers made from precious materials were worn as decorative
jewelry, for instance on belts and as pendants. In the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, new interpretations of the theme continued to develop, moving away
from the original meaning and becoming a symbolic illustration that was either
darker or, in some cases, more frivolous.
Cane with Vinaigrette –
Germany or Netherlands – 19th Cent. – ebony, silver – system cane
with vinaigrette with silver knob, richly decorated with reliefed flower
patterns perforated at upper part with a fragranced sponge inside.
Photograph and copyright
courtesy Drom Fragrances
Little Big Things –
Protection
Pomander – South Germany
– End 16th Cent. – gilded and engraved silver – rare pomander with
six flip-open compartments, ornamented with plants and birds and with hunting
scenes. On each compartment the
ingredient name is engraved: Civet, Amber, Musk, Lemon, Rosemary, Angelica.
Little Big Things –
Protection
Jean Marie Farina – Eau
de Cologne – Mid-nineteenth century – glass, paper - bottle in the shape of a
travel roller that Napoleon used to carry in his boots in case he got injured
or became tired.
Nina Theissen and Dr.
Andreas Storp
Little Big Things –
Identity
Perfumes
and their containers became the most obvious way for people to express their
individuality. With the development of niche perfumery, both the expression of
individual personality and the desire to stand out from the crowd became
fashionable in the late eighteenth century. At this time, a display case known
as “The cave a parfums” allowed people to mix their own perfumes in the privacy
of their living room. This trend continued into the twentieth century and led
to the emergence of perfumes linked to designer companies. Paul
Poiret was the forerunner of this new genre, creating a fragrance as an
accessory to complement his fashion collection. In the 80s, jewelers also began
to find ways to accommodate the new demand for individual style in their
creations.
Christian
Dior. In February 1947, Christian Dior presented his first collection in the
salons of Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Carmel Snow, at the time the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, coined
the historic phrase grace “new look”, which characterized this bold, young, and
ultra-feminine style with its clean lines and arched backs. A designer was born, and with him his first
perfume, Miss Dior, created the same year.
To mark the occasion, Christian Dior ordered a special bottle from
Baccarat, an amphora with a gracefully rounded body, a light base, a prominent
neck, and a tapered stopper, an image of based on the figure of eight and the
corolla, both distinctive features of the new look. Ever since the amphora has always held a
prominent place at Dior and has been passionately reinterpreted in a luxurious
and modern manner.
Christian
Dior: Miss Dior, 1947 – Diorissimo, 1956 - Diorissimo, 1956 – Diorling, 1963 –
J’Adore, 1999.
Little Big Things –
Identity
Perfume Egg – France –
around 1870 – mother of pearl, glass, onyx, brass – two refined shells on an
onyx base containing two crystal flacons on flower decorated ring handle.
Coco Chanel. For the
launch of No 5 in 1921, Mademoiselle Chanel designed a particularly refined bottle
that was inspired by cubism and completely out of sync with the frilly style of
the time. Featuring the designer’s trademark colors, black and white, this same
style has characterized Chanel perfumes up to the present day. During World War II, however, when she had a
dispute with her financiers, she abandoned this style and reinvented it in an
even more successful way. For four
years, some of her rarest creations had a unique look, with cylinders instead
of squares and provocative red replacing the more austere black. This gave her a wholly new identity, but one
that was still identifiably her own.
Chanel – No 31 – 1942 –
glass – design produced during World War II.
Chanel – No 5 – 1950 –
glass – design produced from 1950-1970.
Little Big Things –
Identity
Elsa Schiaparelli. In a
display dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli, visitors can discover how the
sublimation of pain can open the door to creativity and success. Following the
suffering she endured as a child, Elsa was able to offer her customers a bold
and utopian vision of beauty.
Schiaparelli – Le Roi
Soleil – 1945 – Baccarat crystal – bottle showing three-dimensional sea view
with a cap representing the rising sun.
Presented in a gold metal box in the shape of a shell. Created just after the end of World War II,
this perfume was Elsa Schiaparelli’s tribute to liberated France.