Silver Scent Bottle Sampson & Mordan

A delightful sterling silver cylinder scent bottle case, with a hinged flip top ad glass inner bottle and stopper. The silver case is finely engraved in the Kate Greenaway style, with two little girls sitting on a fence, with a country house in the background. The top of the bottle has been engraved with an initial in a very decorative style and adds to the history of the piece. Height 5.5 cms. Diameter 2.5 cms. Assay matks for London, dated 1882. Maker Sampson Mordan & Co. This is an early example of Sampson Mordans Kate Greenaway designs and is particularly fine. Literature: Kate Greenaway was a prolific illustrator of childrens books, born in Hoxton in 1846, the daughter of an daughter of a draughtsman and engraver, John Greenaway. She popularised a style of drawing that is instantly recognisable as hers – delicate watercolours of children with animals and birds in the English countryside. Between 1882 – 1884 Greenaway pictures appeared on Mordan scent bottles almost always with children in the foreground and a house or church in the background.