1920s René Lalique "Blackberry" Perfume

Appraised on: June 16, 2001

Appraised in: Miami, Florida

Appraised by: Louise Luther

Category: Glass

Episode Info: Jackpot! (#1116)

Originally Aired: May 7, 2007

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (1:49)

GUEST: Well, it was about 20, 23 years ago we bought this at an antique show. We had an antique dealer who's a very good friend of ours. And he told us to buy this little bottle, that'll be worth a lot of money someday. We had no idea what it was, but we did pay $110 for it. Then we brought it home, took it apart and start examining it, and we noticed it's an R. Lalique bottle.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: We also noticed it was numbered on the top and on the bottom.

APPRAISER: It is indeed a Lalique perfume. It is called "The Blackberry," and it has what we call a tiara stopper. You see how narrow it is and it fits on there like a tiara on a crown of a lady's head, and fits in there very nicely. It has a number on the bottom. And the number on the bottom of the perfume itself corresponds with the number on the stopper. When they ground the stopper to fit the base, rather than get it mixed up with somebody else's stopper, they would put the same number on the base as on the top. Although Lalique made perfumes in the beginning of his work... First he did jewelry, then he did some perfumes. And made this one in about 1920, the early 1920s, '21 perhaps, shortly after World War I. He made it in black with a black top and black stripes on the base. And he made it in an amber color, almost a reddish amber color. But blue is rare. He made a darker blue than this one. This is very unusual. And I think you are very fortunate to have bought it at the level you did. This perfume today is worth roughly $20,000 to $25,000. And it's because of the color. It's a great color, Lou.