1949 Crown Trifari "Schéhérazade" Jeweled Powder & Lipstick Compact, Unused
United States · Gold Plate, Glass Cabochon, Rhinestone, Velvet Case
$2,399.95
- Maker
- Crown Trifari · Alfred Philippe
- Origin
- United States
- Era
- Crown Trifari · Schéhérazade · 1949
- Materials
- Gold Plate, Glass Cabochon, Rhinestone, Velvet Case
- Condition
- New old stock, unused; age spotting to mirror and case
- Provenance
- New old stock from Trifari's 1949 Schéhérazade collection, designed under Alfred Philippe. Retains its original velvet carrying case, original powder and original ruby lipstick. Photographed on an original Trifari presentation mat of the kind used in fine department stores; the jewelry shown alongside is not included.
On this piece
Alfred Philippe designed the jewels for Trifari's Schéhérazade collection in 1949, and then he designed the thing a woman would carry alongside them. This is that compact: a framed panel of Moghul jeweling set into the lid, its powder and its deep ruby lipstick still inside, still nested in the original velvet carrying case where it has sat for seventy years. Other Schéhérazade compacts exist, and all of them are nearly impossible to find, but one unused and complete with its case is another matter entirely. The jeweled panel looks lifted from the wall of a maharaja's palace, and the engineering beneath it is as considered as the design on top. It is not mint, and we would rather say so: the mirror has spotting from age and whatever moisture reached it over the decades, the velvet case carries a few small age spots from sitting in one position for seventy years, and the lipstick shows wear from its own case. Everything else is as it was. The compact measures 3.25 by 2 3/8 by 7/8 inches, the framed jeweled portion 2.25 by 1 3/8 inches. Very possibly the only one of its kind still complete.