The $4,200 Bottle of Perfume

Chanel No. 5. The perfume that’s considered the world’s most iconic by many a fragrance fan. But if you’re still shopping for Mother’s Day, why settle for just any bottle of the “now and forever” scent …

 

 

I am not a bit surprised by the $4,200 price tag for this exquisite bottle of Chanel perfume. For one it is a 30 oz bottle.  Most perfume bottles of this size are factices or dummy bottles filled with a colored liquid that is made to look like a perfume. However, this super-sized bottle is filled with actual parfum (extrait).  Another thing that makes this bottle extremely collectable is it’s rarity and it’s provenance.  There was only a limited amount of bottles made and this bottle can be linked to, if not created for the celebration of the 2013 No. 5 Culture Chanel exhibit at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.  The molded bottle is placed in a chic Chanel case, which only adds to the value.  

So this gem of a perfume bottle falls into cross collecting categories for it appeals to Chanel collectors, perfume bottle collectors, glass collectors, bottle collectors and fragrance collectors. In my 10+ years of collecting perfume bottles  I’ve seen perfume bottles easily go for over $60,000.  You never know, that $4200 investment in a perfume bottle could one day pay off big time. 

The cosmetic veteran mentioned in the article above (I’m not trying to rock the boat so I won’t repeat her name) implies that she is skeptical about the idea of a large 30 oz bottle of perfume with such a large price tag.  She states  that once opened a bottle of perfume will keep it’s original scent for only 2 to 3 years.  Therefore this 30 oz bottle of Chanel will most likely go bad before the lady has the chance to use 4 oz of it.

While I do not collect perfume bottles for the fragrance, I am solely a bottle collector.  However, I am one of the leading sellers of vintage perfume bottles and I have sold hundreds of vintage perfume bottles on my website Quirkyfinds.com over the past 10 years.  Many of my bottles date well over 50 years old.  I am very careful as to how I store my bottles (they are always stored in a cool, dry place).  Many if not most of my old bottles surprisingly tend to hold their scents.   This is not only for  the sealed bottles but for the open partial bottles as well.  Now I’m not saying that a shift can not occur in some fragrances because it can.  What I am stating is that just because a bottle of fragrance is old, it does not mean that it is no longer usable.  I have tons of customers that collect the highly sought after vintage Guerlain fragrances for the juice inside, not just the bottle and they often prefer the fragrance once it has turned to a dark brown syrupy state.  Like they say, “The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice.”

So yes, to many $4,200 for a perfume bottle may seem a bit steep and yes I doubt that anyone would ever use that much perfume in their lifetime.  In reality this bottle is really not meant to be used, just adorned.  For all of the perfume aficionados, glass collectors, bottle collectors, collectors of French fragrances and avid Chanel lovers this is not just a perfume bottle, but it a rare highly coveted work of art.  I’ll take 2 of them please! :)