Empire perfume holder. France, ca. 1810

Perfume holder Empire. France, ca. 1810.
Glass, ebony, thuja wood and gilt bronze.

French Empire style and period perfume holder for two bottles. It rises on a prismatic structure enhanced with gilded bronze moldings. The bases on which the flasks themselves fit are decorated with jellyfish heads (or the Gorgoneion), one of the most recurrent and magnetic iconographic motifs. Their use was not merely ornamental: they fitted perfectly with the Napoleonic aesthetic that sought symbols of power, protection and authority in classical antiquity.