Art Deco Compacts
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Art Deco compacts are fun to collect and so chic and stylish, you can impress your friends by slipping one out of your handbag to powder your nose or touch up your lipstick.
Putting on makeup in public was just one of things which women got away with from the 1920s, along with smoking, drinking and kissing! It was all part of the growing emancipation of women which started during World War I as they had to work in factories and on the farm to support the war effort. Women remained in the workforce after the war, and their earning power and independence meant that they could afford luxuries like makeup, elegant compacts and cigarette cases to help them feel more glamourous and cheery after the war. No self-respecting flapper would go anywhere without her compact!
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Compacts were very popular and came in all kinds of materials to suit
all budgets. Top class jewelry designers like Cartier, Van Cleef von
Arpels, Boucheron and Sandoz made exquisite compacts in enamelled or
jewel encrusted gold and silver, in stylish Art Deco designs. Other
materials used could be Mother of Pearl or Butterfly wing.
Cheaper compacts began to be mass produced in chrome, wood, or Bakelite but the designs remained stylish and modern.
Geometric shapes, shell forms, sunbursts, all the Art Deco motifs appeared on compacts. There were lots of novelties such
as
bottle shapes, musical compacts or a little toy monkey, and the
advances in engineering of the day meant that there were all sorts of
clever mechanisms to open or close the compact, windscreen wipers to
clean the mirror, or little compartments with spring open clasps. Some
even came with a watch included like the Art Deco compact I recently
bought above! Inside are two little compartments one for powder and one for rouge which spring open when you touch a little lever. And the design is so typically Art Deco with the parallel lines in cream enamel.
Lots
of compacts came with a little finger ring, so you could wear them on
your hand on the dance floor, or at a cocktail party. Some were in the
shape of little handbags with chain to hand from your wrist. Those with
a lipstick attached were called a duo and those with a lipstick
attached by a chain were called a Tango. Why not find out more, from
one of the great books available on Amazon.com below.
In
France the compact was expanded to a necesssaire by some of the high end
jewellers. It was a slightly larger vanity case - which included
powder, lipstick, mirror and comb and hung from a silk cord. These were
often decorated with highly exotic motifs such as chinese pagodas or
birds of paradise, or Egyptian temples. Alfred van Cleef called his
version a "minaudiere" (minauder means to simper) after watching his
wife at the mirror! He replaced the evening bag completely, and had
matching cigarette cases, card cases and lipstick holders.
There
are compacts to suit all tastes and budgets, and its a fantastic
collecting area. They can be used today, don't take up much space, and
are the ultimate in feminine style and beauty.
Why not check out the fabulous Art Deco compacts I've selected for you from Ebay USA, UK and Australia and start your own collection.
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