Blown and cut colorless glass with flat floral bouquet in base, each stopper with pink flower in top.

These two bottles were probably made to contain perfume. They combine two pairs of glassmaking techniques: (1) blowing and cutting crystal glass and (2) flameworking and encasing paperweights. The Saint-Louis glasshouse was highly regarded for both of these processes. In the mid-19th century, it set the fashion for colorful floral paperweights. The disk in the base of each of these bottles, like the flowers in its stopper, was pre-assembled from opaque colored canes. The bottles themselves are made of decolorized lead glass. This glass was first used in continental Europe by Saint-Louis in 1781, following its successful introduction by British glasshouses, and it was perfected and widely produced as late as 1830 to 1848. The Compagnie des Cristalleries de Saint-Louis was registered under that name in 1829, but the firm was formed from glasshouses that had been founded in Münzthal, northern Lorraine, in 1586, and re-established under the patronage of King Louis XV in 1767. This rare pair of bottles was bequeathed by Dena K. Tarshis, a longtime friend of the Museum, president of its Fellows, and a passionate and knowledgeable collector of glass. For more on the Saint-Louis glasshouse, see Gérard Ingold, From Glass to Crystal Glass: The Story of Saint Louis, 1586–1986, Paris: Denoël, 1986.