MIRROR-MIRROR IN MY PURSE: The Story of Vintage & Collectible Compacts By marks4antiques.com
As the corseted and crinoline Victorian era gave way to the age of the flapper, the changing status of women revealed itself in curious ways. Among them was the unspoken right of liberated ladies to smoke and to powder their noses in public. Out would come the powder compact - often enameled, sometimes even bejeweled - from the beaded, velvet or silver-mesh bag. In its myriad shapes, materials and designs, the compact was more than a fashionable accessory, more, even, than "the Matching pair of Purse and Compact in Silver & Gold weapon of a fantastic coquetry," with Crystal accents, both signed Judith Leiber as Vogue magazine put it in a 1923 issue. It was often an object of impeccable period beauty, and that period, more often than not, was Art Deco. Today these little relics of social history are being snapped up in increasing numbers at flea markets, antiques shops and shows, and auction houses by a host of collectors, most of them women, who enjoy both their looks and their affordability. While the most lavish compacts - those made by such jewelers as Boucheron, Carrier and Tiffany sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, the mass-produced compacts of the type used by most women from the 1920s right through the 1950s sell for much less. Many cost under $100 in smart shops. Others can literally be picked up for pennies, if one knows where to look: one collector bought a trio of never-used enameled compacts at a house sale for fifty cents each. Early ancestors to the powder compact were the oriental ointment jar and the Egyptian kohl container, makeup of many kinds having always been a part of the aeons-long quest for self-improvement and beauty. Powder itself is one of the oldest known cosmetics. In ancient Rome women rubbed on chalk to whiten their faces, and even before then small cakes of white lead were used. The most
immediate precursor to the compact was probably the round powder box used by fashionable European ladies - and sometimes men - in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Not intended for use in public, these boxes were often made of gold, enamel and precious jewels. Not until the first two decades of the twentieth century, when women began to enter the labor force in large numbers and to assert themselves in other ways, did face powder boldly come out of the boudoir and into public use by women of all classes. Manufacturers and advertisers played a major role in popularizing the novel, portable compact, as did the trend-setting stars of the silver screen. From there on in, powder boxes, compacts, necessaires and vanity cases - all variations on the same basic item - were as indispensable to a woman as an appointment book is today. There was even, in the mid-1930s, the elegant minaudi'ere, which was the French jeweler Louis Arpels's copyrighted supercompact: a vanity case with compartments for powder, rouge, lipstick, comb, sometimes even a watch. The early minaudi'eres were gold and silver; manufacturers soon began producing cheaper varieties in chromium and nickel-plate. While some Art Nouveau compacts come onto the market from time to time, the compacts generally available today are very much products of Art Deco, a style at once streamlined and floriated, refined and flamboyant. The style, which spanned roughly 1920 to 1940, took a highly experimental approach toward everything from silverware to skyscrapers. That compacts can be premier examples of Art Deco design is seen in the attention the little powder boxes are garnering among collectors and connoisseurs alike. They have been included in a number of museum exhibitions on the period.
An extraordinary early 20thC Continental Enameled Sterling Silver Compact depicting a miniature painting of a courting scene of Royalty playing chess
The period compacts most often available today are of essentially two types. There are the elaborate, expensive objects made by jewelers and the more affordable items made worldwide by metalcontainer companies, often for cosmetics firms such as Richard Hudnut, Coty, Helena Rubinstein and Houbigant, but sold directly to the customer as well. Too,
there are compacts made of early forms of synthetic materials - Lucite and Bakelite, for example. And there are exotic compacts of leather, snakeskin and alligator as well. Makers’ marks or hallmarks are frequently tell-tale signs of a good quality compact. Although some vintage compacts are admired for the beauty only, a maker’s mark renders them as more authentic and valuable to a collector. You can browse through our images of marks in our marks4silver section of our services at marks4antiques.com to identify your marks and discover when and by whom it was manufactured. This information can help you determine a fair price when selling or buying and adds a sense of confidence in knowing what you have. The exquisite jewelers' compacts of precious metals and stones are the ones that are illustrated today in auction catalogues and displayed in the cases of fine shops. They can sell for upwards of $5,000. Though a few are unmarked, the name of the maker is usually visible in some discreet location. French jewelers abound, among them Cartier, Boucheron, Maubousson, Janesich, Chaumet; even Rene Lalique, the famed French glassmaker, contributed a striking design of stylized gold and white powder puffs on an orange background for the products of his cosmetics-maker friend Francois Coty. There are also elegant designs from American and other European firms, including Tiffany, Buccellati, Charlton and Company, and Black, Starr and Frost. At the opposite end of the price and social scale were the mass-produced metal, wood and plastic compacts. Like the expensive variety, these compacts made ideal gifts, and most women had several, including an extraspecial one for evening use. (One popular style featured a delicate chain attached to a finger ring to make it easier to hold while out on the dance floor, where a quick pat on the nose might be necessary). The ordinary powder compact - the one tucked away in Grandmother's bureau drawer or discovered amidst the A few vintage Compacts, mostly in the Art Deco costume jewelry at a flea market - is style, signed with maker’s marks for Langlori, generally made of brass or sterling or Clarice Jane, Richard Hudnut, La Mode any one of a variety of alloys and often nickel or chrome or even gold plated. It can be covered with varicolored enamels,
synthetic stones, butterfly wing and at times needlepoint. It can be shaped like a square, heart, seashell, fan or even like a camera or a sailor's hat. The Art Deco designs on these cheaper, popular pieces are sometimes stunning, even inside, where the simplest of metals may be adorned with arresting interlaced zigzags or striking outlines of ladies very much a la mode. These compacts, if in very good condition - ideally, unused - can sell for over $100 today; originally they may have cost five or six dollars. There are also a host of whimsical souvenir or novelty compacts that depict vacation spots such as World's Fairs and famous landmarks, such as the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower. Nowadays, compacts are selling very well, even better when they can be converted into cigarette cases for king-size cigarettes (older cases cannot accommodate because they were meant to hold the short Chesterfields and Lucky Strikes). For this reason, some compacts have the mirrors and fittings are taken out, removing much of the weight and making room for cigarettes. Antique compacts are often also used as cases for keys, pills and change. The more available - and affordable powder compact that is found at flea markets and at vintage clothing stores is also the more practical one to use. Other than as purely a collectible, very few use their compacts for the same purpose as the original owners. Prices of vintage or antique compacts can be found in our values4antiques section of our marks4antiques.com services. Just search for “compact� to locate numerous examples sold at auction to compare with yours or simply to learn more on the extraordinary variety of these fashionable items. Finding the right powder and puff, however, is often a difficult task. One collector of antique clothing said that she likes to carry compacts and even wear vintage makeup along with her fifty-year-old dresses to achieve a totally authentic period look. Caveat emptor, however, for the ingredients of the older cosmetics are not always up to present-day Food and Drug Administration standards and should be used with caution, if at all. In the long run, a compact collection may not contain a classic Cartier, Boucheron or Van Cleef & Arpels masterpiece, but the makers' and trade names etched onto the fittings of a cheaper metal piece - names like Zanadu, Rex Fifth Avenue, Volupte and Princess Pat - and the charming, classy or kitschy designs with which they are covered, are evocations of the same era. The workmanship and design of an enameled brass compact can be admired and appreciated just as much as a similar design in gold and lapis lazuli. To learn how to identify marks on Silver, Silverplate, Jewelry or Metal Ware and find prices for all types of antiques and collectibles, please visit our http://www.marks4antiques.com service.
About marks4antiques.com - Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary of service, marks4antiques.com is dedicated to providing the largest and most updated research tools to help its members identify and appraise antiques & collectibles. Registered members have access to comprehensive visual reference methods with thousands upon thousands of images of makers’ marks & hallmarks displayed in Shape or Letter Categories for fast access or can use the proprietary Name or Initials Search features. Also includes a huge database of millions of actual auction records and uses a ‘smart’ search that quickly deciphers key terms using advanced software technology to yield accurate and relevant results. The company is located in the San Francisco Bay area and has been in operation since 2004.