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This entry is part of ANT 256 - Material Culture of the Old World (DePaul University). As a class we explored the object biographies of objects from the “Old World” in their original place and the places (museums, cultural and educational institutions) in which they currently reside. Our investigations have focused on Old World objects in Chicago institutions.
Le Golliwogg de Vigny Perfume Bottle
[edit]The Le Golliwogg de Vigny perfume bottle is a part of the Edward J. Williams collection and located at the Stony Island Arts Bank. The bottle, developed and sold by Vigny, was created in Paris, France and made its debut in 1919. Although the general history of this object is known, tracing this particular Le Golliwogg bottle only goes back to the moment it was purchased and placed in a private collection. In traveling from France to Chicago, this Le Golliwogg de Vigny perfume bottle has been subject to shifting interpretations of value.
Object History and Description
[edit]The origin of the Le Golliwogg de Vigny perfume has a history that begins in England and predates the creation of the Le Golliwogg bottle that is the subject of this biography. While the history of this exact bottle is not always clear, the various functions of the bottle can be explored by following the history and context of its imagery.
History of the Golliwog
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The image of the Golliwog first appeared as a children’s storybook character illustrated by Florence Kate Upton in the late 19th century. Raised in New York by British parents, Upton moved back to Europe when she was 20 and illustrated all of the Golliwog books while in England.[1] She based the image of the Golliwog on a rag doll she played with as a child.[2] The Golliwog’s features are reminiscent of minstrel shows popular at the time.[3] Jan Nederveen Pierterse states that “the golliwog stems…from the heyday of imperialism and colonialism, a culture in which blacks in America and England were the routine target of popular mockery with or without mob violence”.[1] Upton did not trademark the image and it soon became an image appropriated to sell commercial products throughout England. The Golliwog was soon found outside of England in various manufactured items. One of which was the Le Golliwogg perfume bottle that was designed by Michel de Brunhoff in France in 1919.[4]
Description of Le Golliwogg de Vigny Perfume Bottle
[edit]The Le Golliwogg de Vigny bottle was designed by Brunhoff, who later became the editor of Vogue Paris, and was intended to be a comical perfume designed for his brother-in-law’s perfume company Vigny.[4] The bottle is comprised of two main materials; glass and seal fur. The clear round bottle is made of glass and was manufactured by Verreries Brosse, a French glass manufacturer founded in 1892.[5] There is an off-white label that advertises the name of the perfume and a removable top that displays the representation of the Golliwog. The eyes are large and white and the mouth is composed of an overdrawn red-lipped smile. These features are contrasted against a jet-black face. The hair on the Le Golliwogg bottle is made of seal fur.[5] Although this bottle is in good condition, the seal fur has slight wearing on the back. This could indicate the position that this bottle has been stored in for a number of years
Provenance
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This glass perfume bottle can first be individually identified as a part of a private collection that was started by Edward J. Williams, a business man from the South side of Chicago. Williams began his collection of Black Americana objects approximately 30 years ago after finding an object in a store that he found so offensive that he left the building. He soon returned to the store and made a decision to purchase the item so that others would not see it. Williams continued this practice over the span of 30 years, but did not destroy the items that often depicted racist and stereotypical imagery of “black Americans and other Africans in the black diaspora.”[6] Instead, he continued to purchase items with the intent of removing them from circulation and kept records of his purchases. Despite this, the Le Golliwogg perfume bottle does not have a clear record of where and when it was purchased for the collection. There is a record of the price paid. Williams paid a total of $285 dollars for a pair of Le Golliwogg perfume bottles, one of which is the subject of this biography.
Although the Le Golliwogg de Vigny bottle somehow traveled from France into Williams’ private accumulation of memorabilia and historical objects, this private collection is not the final resting place for the Le Golliwogg bottle. After 30 years of acquiring items, Williams donated his full collection to Theaster Gates, a Chicago-based artist. After Williams donated his collection, Gates started a project to photograph each item. An indexed record and photograph of the Le Golliwogg de Vigny perfume bottle is included in this project.
Current Location in Chicago
[edit]The Edward J. Williams collection is now housed inside of the Stony Island Arts Bank, which opened in October 2015. A part of the Rebuild Foundation, the Stony Island Arts Bank is a community-driven art and archives venue located in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago.[6] The Stony Island Arts Bank holds several collections related to African-American culture and history. The Le Golliwogg de Vigny perfume bottle serves as a historical marker inside of a semipublic collection. Michael Pickering states that “[r]ace-based trademarks like the golly [golliwog] were derived from blackface imagery and discourse.”[7] In this context, the Le Golliwogg bottle offers one retroactive perspective on the commercial representation of the African Diaspora in England and France during the early 20th century. Today, the Le Golliwogg bottle and other objects within the collection are kept in a private room in an effort to maintain the spirit in which the objects were collected.
Further Reading
[edit]- D'Arcy, David. "Black Market." The Guardian. March 29, 2001. Accessed March 13, 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/mar/30/culture.features3.
- Elvin Montgomery. 2004 “Recognizing Value in African American Heritage Objects”. The Journal of African American History 89 (2). Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc.: 177–82.
- Gritz, Jennie Rothenberg. "New Racism Museum Reveals the Ugly Truth Behind Aunt Jemima." The Atlantic. April 23, 2012. Accessed March 13, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/new-racism-museum-reveals-the-ugly-truth-behind-aunt-jemima/256185/.
- Stacey Menzel Baker, Carol M. Motley, and Geraldine R. Henderson. 2004. “From Despicable to Collectible: The Evolution of Collective Memories for and the Value of Black Advertising Memorabilia”. Journal of Advertising 33 (3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.: 37–50.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Pieterse, Jan Nederveen (1992). White on Black. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 157. ISBN 0-300-05020-8.
- ^ Olson, Marilynn (2000). "Turn-of-the-Century Grotesque: The Uptons' Golliwogg and Dolls in Context". Children's Literature.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ MacGregor, Robert M. (1992). The Golliwog: Innocent Doll to Symbol of Racism. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State Universit Popular Press. ISBN 0-87972-527-3.
- ^ a b Groom, Nigel (1997). The New Perfume Handbook. London: Blackie Academic and Professional.
- ^ a b Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts,. "MFAH | The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston". collections.mfah.org. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b "Stony Island Arts Bank: Theaster Gates Opens a Repository for Cultural Assets of the Black Community". Newcity Design. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
- ^ Pickering, Michael (2013). Fun Without Vulgarity? Commodity Racism and the Promotion of Blackface Fantasies. Munster: Lit Verlag. ISBN 978-3-643-90416-4.