Rosine
Aladin, perfume
bottle
circa 1919
The Aladin scent was perfectly paired with
this rustic, almost mysterious, brown-stained flask. Its crescent shape and
black chain suggest that it could have hung from a kind of netsuke, perhaps one in toggle-form of two Persian slippers curled
together, like sleeping Siamese cats, painted in uncharacteristically bright
colours to offset - and even prelude - the surprise corked inside.
The relief design on the bottle's front
shows a rearing horse facing another, their back legs separated by a patch of
wild, flame-like leaves on the ground while above them, arcs of gadrooned
borders imitate a starry night. Whom was this perfume for? Nothing in the
bottle's appearance implies either the feminine or the masculine; it does not
explain itself clearly, or follow obvious rules - as neither did Aladin or the
genie himself - and it reveals very little about its Middle-Eastern motifs.
During the night, the reign of the moon changes features and distorts thoughts;
reflections tell of hidden stories; things transform. Imagining the horses are
untamed, as wild as the dancing plants overwhich they rear, one could interpret
either animal as being the mirror image of the other. The horse on the right
could be the guise of its daytime self, while that on the left is its truer,
even darker, side. Maybe this perfume inspired transformation. Maybe, like the relief
shows, this perfume was meant to be worn once night fell - once the confidence of
the wearer was able to release their real identity.
