‘La Reine D’Egypte’ by Erasmic
Perhaps among the most intimate objects in the collection, ‘La Reine d’Egypte’ perfume from a long-gone family dressing table includes the perfume bottle with its original box and the matching container of talcum powder.
First appearing in 1911-1912 around the time excavations at Amarna were uncovering increasing evidence of the beautiful Egyptian queen Nefertiti, ‘La Reine d’Egypte’ was one of many fragrances produced by Erasmic. As the trade name of J. Crossfield & Sons of London whose additional outlet in Paris explains ‘Erasmic Paris London’ on the packaging, this was all very Art Nouveau in style: voluptuous lotus plants form a border around the words ‘PARFUM LA REINE D’EGYPTE EGYPTIAN QUEEN’, and beneath a winged sun disc the central image of pastel shades portrays an ancient Egyptian garden by moonlight. Here a kneeling female figure and a boy bring in roses they present to the woman seated on the left with a small hand fan, presumably the ‘Queen of Egypt’ herself.
No doubt drenched in her signature fragrance which Erasmic’s advertising claimed was ‘exquisite’, it was available to anyone who could afford 2’9, 4’9 or 9’6 for the various sized bottles of perfume or 1’6 for the talcum powder. For a further 1’9 there were also bars of soap, sold in multiples in long rectangular boxes which in some cases could be reused as convenient storage for finds on excavations, the large quantities of faience beads found at sites like Esna donated to the Garstang Museum still inside an Erasmic soap box(1).
Dimensions: Height: 10cm (perfume bottle cardboard container), 10cm (talcum powder tin)
SKU: EM198, EM364
References:
- Part of the Lipscombe Collection formerly belonging to John Garstang’s daughter Meroe and recently donated to the Garstang Museum: https://garstangmuseum.wordpress.com/2019/04/19/ancient-technology-faience-beads-in-the-garstang-museum/
"La Reine D'Egypte" Perfume
