Additions

To see the Catalogue of the Collection as of 2004 click here

(For additions to the group of Italian 800 compacts and other compacts depicting works of art see Reflections of Beauty)

SCROLL DOWN BELOW CANES TO SEE MORE RECENT ADDITIONS

Since 2004 I have added a number of cane compacts to my collection...

They include (from left):

Sterling powder compact with a niello scene of a mosque and palm trees by a river...

Goldtone powder and rouge (probably La Mode ) with guilloché and hand painted roses...

Sterling powder compact with white guilloché and hand painted corn flowers...

Goldtone powder and rouge (marked "La Mode" with advert for refills from La Mode - Ripley and Gowan inside) with blue guilloché and hand painted roses...

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Silvertone powder compact in green guilloché with hand painted roses as the base of an umbrella handle. The compact unscrews and reveals a perfume bottle within the handle...

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Engraved sterling powder compact (marked "sterling 1907") as head of a 36" yardstick cane...

Continental sterling (probably Austrian) powder compact with blue and white guilloché and hand painted scene of an 18th century couple in miniature. The entire top is only 1.5" in diameter...

Sterling turquoise guilloché and white enamel powder and rouge vanity with an ivory or bone base on an ebony handle...

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Goldtone turquoise and white guilloché powder and rouge (probably La Mode) on a mother-of-pearl base. The compact unscrews to reveal a sewing kit with thimble, scissors and needle case fitted into holes...

Silver (875) Russian powder compact (Russian marks) with painted scene of bears in the woods...

Goldtone powder and rouge compact (marked "La Mode") with white guilloché and hand painted flowers...

Other additions to the collection:

Exceptional sterling (935) compact from Austria with Deco geometrics

Unusual celluloid fan with attached compact featuring a Pierrot motif

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Unusual celluloid fan with cut-out decoration of dancers and cupids and attached compact

Chair compact marked "Original by Robert" and "Fabulous Boutique Originals by Robert"...

Golden Gesture with playing card motif by Volupte...

Collapsible pli with case marked "Supra Paris Bte S.G.D.G." ...

WWI helmet compact...

Tiny (1.75" with loop) skull compact, likely from a chatelain, marked "Le Neant" (nothingness, emptiness)...

Sterling compact with Egyptian motif with lid and base made from solid pieces of gold flecked lapis lazuli...

Silver (Arabic script marks) large pancake with symbols and scenes front and back of ancient Persepolis (now in Iran), the ancient Persian capital...

Sterling (marked "925" with British marks) with guilloché and painted scene of the pyramids at Giza from the Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo...

Ramses (Paris) vanity with swing-out powder well and rouge well beneath...

Tango compact in bone or ivory with image of ram with a human face...

Sterling vanity, marked "Made in Austria" with a view towards St. Peters from the Roman Forum done in intarsia with various colors of mother-of-pearl...

Cardboard powder box with decoration inspired by ancient Roman painting...

Cardboard powder box with ornate decoration depicting the goddess Psyche inspired by Pompeiian wall painting...

Brass nécessaire with dark brown niello-like finish and Egyptian motives inside and out...

Powder compact marked "VANUDIER Industria Argentina" with Egyptian motif in cloisonné...

Sterling (British marks) and guilloché powder compact with painted Egyptian inspired scene...

Brass compact and rouge with Egyptian motif, probably DEERE by Reich-Ashe...

Powder compact with Femme on a swing motif in Deco colors, leather base...

Silvertone tango vanity with Deco enamel motif marked "E.A.M. Elginite"...

Brass and bakelite "Zou Zou" bracelet compact by Flamande signed Josephine Baker on original box. In 1924 Ms. Baker starred in "Zou Zou" with Jean Gabin. Flamande was a company known for bracelet compacts inspired (or possibly designed) by various artists of the day.

Brass "whoopee" vanity with image of Amos and Andy as seen on the sheet music for "The Perfect Song" the theme song of their famous radio show (1928-1953).

Brass compact by Evans documented from the estate of Lana Turner, engraved "LANA" on the front

Evening set in black satin with gold embroidery by Lin Bren with compact and comb and name plate reading "Lana Turner". Documented from the estate of Lana Turner.

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Ruth Etting .......................................................................................................Jack Dempsey

Two screw-top compacts with portraits. No Marks. The people depicted must have been so famous that they needed no identification. During the period when these were made, probably the middle to late 1920s, there were only a few who could qualify. I believe these two are Ruth Etting, America's Sweetheart of Song (left) and Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler.

Ruth Etting

Rising to fame in the twenties and early thirties, Ruth Etting was renowned for her great beauty, her gorgeous voice and her tragic life. She starred on Broadway, made movies in Hollywood , married a mobster, had numerous hit-records, fell in love and was known as America 's Sweetheart of Song.

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Born in David City, Nebraska on November 23, 1897, Ruth left home at seventeen for Chicago and art school. She got a job designing costumes at a night club called the Marigold Gardens and when the tenor got sick, she was pulled into the show since she was the only one who could sing low enough. That led to dancing in the chorus line and eventually featured solos.

By 1918 she was the featured vocalist at the club and the Chicago mob entered her life. A Chicago gangster, Moe Snyder married Ruth in 1922 and managed her career for the next two decades. Her numerous radio appearances during these years, led her to become known as Chicago 's Sweetheart.

In 1926 she was discovered by a record company executive and immediately signed to an exclusive recording deal with Columbia Records, which led to nation-wide exposure. In 1927 Ruth was ready to hit New York and she was an instant success. Irving Berlin suggested her for the Ziegfeld Follies and she was hired after Ziegfeld checked her ankles, not her voice. She appeared in the Follies of 1927. In 1929 she starred with Eddie Cantor in Whoopee! and in 1930 she made 135 appearances in Simple Simon with Ed Wynn. In 1931 she appeared in the very last Follies, shortly before Ziegfeld's death.

The blond hair and blue eyes and stunning voice all led to her being dubbed the Sweetheart of Columbia Records, America 's Radio Sweetheart, and finally America 's Sweetheart of Song. She began to experiment with tempo and phrasing during this period in her career. Her trademark was to change the tempo - alternating between normal tempo, half-time and double-time to create and maintain interest.

Ruth had over sixty hit recordings. Among her best in the Jazz Age are “Button Up Your Overcoat” and “Mean to Me”and in the Depression, “Ten Cents a Dance”. Her versions of “Shine on Harvest Moon”, “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”, “You Made Me Love You” and “Love Me or Leave Me” became her signature songs.

Next she headed to Hollywood and made a string of movie shorts and three full-length features. Her big break came in Roman Scandals with Eddie Cantor and Lucille Ball in a bit part. Then came Gift of Gab and Hips Hips Hooray!.

It was in Hollywood that her loveless marriage finally fell apart. In 1937 Ruth fell for her accompanist and in a rage, Moe shot him. The musician survived, Snyder went to jail and Ruth ended up divorcing him and marrying her accompanist. But the scandal was too much for her career to survive. She made a few attempts at a comeback, but her days as America 's Sweetheart were over.

Ruth Etting made her first record in 1926 and her last in 1937. Completely lacking in the performer's ego, she called her early recordings corny and kept none of her original 78's. In 1955 her story was made into a movie, ultimately nominated for six Academy Awards and winning the Award for Best Story. Love Me or Leave Me starred Doris Day and James Cagney as the Moe Snyder. Ruth Etting died on September 24 1978, in Colorado Springs .

Jack Dempsey

Born in Manassa , Colorado on June 24, 1895, William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey rose to sports stardom in the 1920s. As a nomadic traveler from 1911 to 1916, Dempsey began boxing in the small mining towns of Colorado under the name "Kid Blackie." He emerged from numerous saloon floor-boxing matches to rein victorious in over 80 professional fights by the meager ago of 24. Dempsey was perhaps best known for his thrilling knockout victories, many of which occurred in just seconds of the fight's onset.

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Dempsey proved his phenomenal ability in a battle of "David and Goliath" match of fists. His iron strength and killer left hooks allowed Dempsey to beat Jess Willard in 1919, leaving the giant bewildered and shattered. This victory awarded Dempsey both the heavyweight title and the nickname of the "Manassa Mauler, " the name that soon haunted potential opponents all around the country. Dempsey became a ring warrior through his tough defense of his title six times in just seven years.
On September 23, 1926 he was defeated by Gene Tunney and lost his heavyweight title. Ironically, this match yielded the largest paid attendance in boxing history. Tunney and Dempsey went head to head and fist to fist again in 1927 in hopes that Dempsey would reclaim his title. Dempsey lost this rematch, which was coined "The Battle of the Long Count" because of a call by the referee that Dempsey did not return to a neutral corner after Tunney had fallen. Tunney won the match three rounds later.

Dempsey continued boxing in exhibitions after his defeat but retired from professional boxing in 1940 and went on to be a successful restaurant owner in New York . Dempsey retired with an astounding record of 60-7-8. Fifty of these wins were knockouts. He was a universally accepted sports star.

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Vienna State Ball Souvenir Dance Compact/Program (1912) by Wilhelm Melzer (marked “Wilhelm Melzer Wien VII”).Since it includes a mirror (for primping?) I consider it to be a compact. It also includes a program of the music played that night at the ball.

Wilhelm Melzer was an artist in book binding and metal work with the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops) at the beginning of the 20 th century in Vienna , Austria . This group evolved from the Vienna Secession, founded in 1897 as a progressive alliance of artists and designers. From the start, the Secession had placed special emphasis on the applied arts, and its 1900 exhibition surveying the work of contemporary European design workshops prompted the young architect Josef Hoffmann and his artist friend Koloman Moser to consider establishing a similar enterprise in Austria . Finally in 1903, with backing from the industrialist Fritz Wärndorfer, the Wiener Werkstätte was born. From three small rooms, it soon expanded to fill a three-story building with separate, specially designed facilities for metalwork, leatherwork, bookbinding, woodworking and a paint shop. Later furniture making, jewelry making and textile weaving were included as well. The group had a clear aim: to make all facets of human life into one unified work of art. This included the creation of advanced working conditions for the craftsmen, and the philosophy that everything, utilitarian objects as well as decorative objects, should be created entirely anew. The aim of the group was to create objects of outstanding individuality and beauty, and great value was put on originality and exquisite craftsmanship. This idea was reflected in the organisation's motto: "Better to work 10 days on one product than to manufacture 10 products in one day." The group eventually opened workshops in many European countries as well as in the United States . Some famous names associated with this movement in addition to Josef Hoffmann include Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Maz Kurzweil, Egon Schiele, Mathilde Flögl, Lotte Föchler-Frömmel and Dagobert Peche, among many. Melzer is mentioned in Joann Skrypzak, Design Vienna - 1890s to 1930s. Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003.

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Screw-top compact marked "Parisian Novelty Company Chicago" with a photo of movie star Constance Talmadge. Talmadge was born on April 19, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York into a poor family. Her father, Fred, was an alcoholic and left them when she was still very young. Her mother, Peg promoted Norma as a model for title slides in flickers , which were shown in early nickelodeons. This led Connie, as well as her two sisters, Norma and Natalie, into an acting career. She began making films in 1914, in a Vitagraph comedy short, In Bridal Attire (1914). Her first major role was as The Mountain Girl and Marguerite de Valois in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916). Her friend Anita Loos, who wrote many screenplays for her, appreciated her "humour and her irresponsible way of life". Over the course of her career, Talmadge appeared in more than 80 films, often in comedies like A Pair of Silk Stockings (1918), Happiness à la Mode (1919), Romance and Arabella (1919), Wedding Bells (1921) and The Primitive Lover (1922). She is quoted, "I enjoy making people laugh. Secondly, because this type of work comes easiest and most naturally to me, I am not a highly emotional type. My sister could cry real tears over two sofa cushions stuffed into a long dress and white lace cap, to look like a dead baby, and she would do it so convincingly that 900 persons out front would weep with her. That is real art, but my kind of talent would lead me to bounce that padded baby up and down on my knee with absurd grimaces that would make the same 900 roar with laughter."With the advent of talkies in 1929, Talmadge left Hollywood. Her sister Norma did make a handful of appearances in talking films, but for the most part the three sisters retired all together, investing in real estate and other business ventures. Only a few of her films survive today. Like her sister Norma, Talmadge succumbed to substance abuse and alcoholism later in life. She also had many failed affairs and relationships.Along with her sister Norma, Mary Pickfordb and Douglas Fairbanks, Talmadge inaugurated the tradition of placing her footprints in cement outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. She left a trail of five footprints in her slab.Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6300 Hollywood Blvd.

Heavy silver compact marked for London 1913 with painted scene of Venice over a guilloche background.