I wanted to bring to your attention, a cleverly crafted fake Guerlain perfume bottle. While this may simply have been crafted by a hobbyist for their own benefit, it undoubtedly made it's way into the open market and was being offered for sale. A suspecting buyer had asked some questions to some of use on the IPBA members facebook group and we all chimed in with our opinions.
I for one immediately dismissed this as a fake bottle based on the sloppy baudruchage, the weird "label", the stopper, the overall look of the piece as a whole, as well as my own extensive knowledge on Guerlain's perfume bottles.
Let's talk about the baudruchage for a moment. On this bottle with see gold and white cotton baker's twine and red and gold sealing wax used to decoratively seal the bottle. We know that Guerlain did not use this sort of baudruchage cording - nor this type of sloppy sealing wax. Guerlain uses only the finest silk threads to finish the barbichage (bearding the silk threads), brossage (brushing the yarn into place), wax seal and signature Guerlain stamp - an art of bottling that the Dames de table craftswomen pass down from generation to generation, just like guildsmen.
The photos below illustrate the care that goes into Guerlain's baudruchage.
Ok, now back to the fake perfume bottle...the stopper. The stopper appears to be metal and embossed with an Art Nouveau floral pattern. While it is very pretty - Guerlain did not use this type of stopper.
The bottle shape itself. While the shape is similar to a bottle by Guerlain called the Flacon de Guerre (the wartime bottle), it is not exactly the same. The fake bottle features sharply sloping shoulders, while the flacon de guerre's shoulders have slight sloping and a ridge around the short neck of the bottle. Also the
Now let's get onto the label of the fake bottle. It does not follow any known form of an authentic Guerlain label. It is however most likely a header from a letter, advertisement, receipt or other sort of document. It is also from the 19th century as evidenced by the wording: "Guerlain Parfumeur Brevete de S.M. L'Imperatrice Des Cours de Russie, d`Allemagne et d 'Angleterre Paris Rue de la Paix ,15."
Please see the image below of an authentic Guerlain document:
