A Scented Time Capsule

Vivian’s Crackle Glass Perfume Bottle

My grandmother, Vivian (Faircloth) Geretschlaeger, was famous for putting family members’ names on the bottom of items within her home, as a way of earmarking the items to be passed on after she died. You could walk through her home and pick up nearly any item and find a name. She had a few pieces of carnival glassware (with the paint scrubbed out and the glass cracked) that came to me after she died in March of 2000. I take them out and use them for serving on a few occasions a year, but it’s her crackle glass perfume bottle that wasn’t earmarked for anyone but somehow landed in my care that I love looking at nearly every day. I’ve never used it. I’ve just enjoyed looking at it.

About a year ago I decided to photograph these keepsakes in case something ever happened to them. As part of that process, I wanted to learn more about each piece so that someday when they are passed down to another generation, there will be some background and context, making the keepsakes special. In the process of cleaning the crackle glass spritzer for the photo, I gently unscrewed the top and my grandmother came wafting out in the distinct aroma of White Shoulders. I was astonished that even after 23 years, the bottle retained the scent of her favorite perfume.

A crackle glass perfume spritzer from the 1950s still carries my grandmother’s favorite scent.

After doing some online research, I learned that White Shoulders perfume was introduced in the mid-to-late 1940s and marketed as “fine American perfumery” and “was meant to be the perfume to show that Americans could compete with the best of what was being produced in Europe.”¹ With its blend of classic florals including gardenia, lilac, amber, oakmoss and jasmine, it is considered elegant, sexy and subtle. At that time, Vivian was in her late 20s and these are qualities she admired and consciously endeavored to emulate. 

The bottle itself has a crackle glass finish. The pump mechanism is brass and the plastic piece on top is meant to look like marble. It’s probably from the 1950s and though not particularly valuable, it looks lovely and elegant. “Crackle” is a finish added to the glass while the piece is hot, by immersing it in cold water. The sudden and extreme change in temperature shocks the glass and causes it to crack. It is then reheated to smooth and strengthen, leaving irregular lines of crackling.²

To me, the crackle finish on the spritzer mirrors my grandmother’s life. She made an extreme change in her life when she decided that the only way to find happiness was to leave everyone behind – including her husband and children – creating lifelong fractures in her relationships. She did eventually return to her children, strengthened by her first experience in independence, and worked hard to smooth the bonds with them while also developing deep connections with her grandchildren. It took many, many years for Vivian to overcome the damaging consequences and find the stability and happiness she had longed for since childhood. 

For me, when coupled with the unmistakable scent of White Shoulders, this artifact is more than a simple perfume bottle – it is a scented time capsule, epitomizing all that was Vivian.

1. The Vintage Perfume Vault. 18 June 2020.​​ Accessed 19 Feb 2024.

2. Crackle Glass Focus on West Virginia. Leslie Pina. Accessed 19 Feb 2024.