Gilty Pleasures

Collect and Curate Vintage Gold Boudoir Accessories.

- Lidy Baars

EVERY WOMAN’S BOUDOIR OR VANITY should have gilt. The term “boudoir” derives from the French word bouder, which means to sulk or pout, and it originally pertained to a room where a lady could withdraw to sulk.

By the 18th century, this sulking room was transformed into a lavish dressing room with a vanity table resplendent with costly gold ormolu perfume bottles, mirrors and jewelry caskets. True ormolu pieces are rare to find, and quite costly. Ormolu gilding went out of fashion in 1830, as the danger of the process was considered too high.

Today, collectors are gathering gold-plated vanity pieces made in the early 1900s through the early 1960s. Collected to create a feminine dressing table or vanity space, or simply to display in a glass case, these jewelry caskets, perfume bottles and dressing table sets covered in a layer of pure 24-carat gold are exquisitely made, and beautiful to look at and use.

HISTORY

Gold-plated vanity accessories are most often Rococo style with ornate filigree work, birds and floral designs.