The Silver Bottle Holder
THE LOST OBJECT OF THE SUN KING
Among the lavish inventory of Louis XIV's furnishings were two discreet objects, almost clandestine pieces of solid silver: two syringes, used by valets at Versailles to spray orange blossom essence, the sovereign's favorite perfume. Two instruments of striking ingenuity: before modern spray bottles, before industry, before chemistry, there were these silver needles which, with a quick flick, could release a royal mist. These syringes, however, did not survive the great fever of war. They vanished in the furnaces where all the royal silverware was sacrificed to finance the campaigns of 1689. No engraving, no plan, no precise silhouette exists. Barely a few whispers in the archives.
