1914 ANTIQUE ART NOUVEAU RED FEATHER ROUGE COMPACT REMILLER CO. PERFUMERS NY

Description

RARE Red Feather Compact ULTRA RARE CONDITION for a Compact that is Over a 100 Years Old Antique Red Feather Rouge compact case made of brass. These hinged compacts are collectible and recognizable by their characteristic repousse image of a red painted feather with a square label on the quill marked "quality". The case is also marked "The ReMiller Co. Perfumers, New York". Owned by Richard Elgin Miller owner of Owl Drug Co. Red Feather would become Owl Drug’s first comprehensive cosmetic brand. This compact dates between 1914 - 1921 and is in GREAT condition for its age.
I combine shipping just ask Before You Pay Please** I have over 550 Vanity Items Listed probably a 1,000 more to go Follow Me as the Items Unfold I live in Daytona Beach Shores Florida Average Age is 65 it’s Fondly Called Gods Waiting Room Tons More to List a Million More to Find & Explore Great Vanity items for the Collector or for Period Era Movie Props
A Little Info for the Compact Collector
There are few collector items as glamorous
and feminine as a vintage compact mirror. Maybe it is the image of Greta Garbo reaching for a diamond-encrusted compact in an old black and white movie. Or maybe it's the thought of a young woman from the 1940s treasuring her compact mirror emblazoned with a patriotic message to support the boys on the front. Now you can collect a bit of history. Before face powder was mass-produced in plastic disposable containers, every woman carried a pretty compact mirror in her handbag. Some ladies owned several, often gifts from a suitor or family member
A Little History of Red Feather
RARE Antique Red Feather Rouge compact case a collectible and recognizable by their characteristic repousse image of a red painted feather in Repose case is also marked "The ReMiller Co. Perfumers, New York". Owned by Richard Elgin Miller owner of Owl Drug Co. Red Feather would become Owl Drug’s first comprehensive cosmetic brand. This compact dates between 1914 - 1921 and is in great condition for its age.
Between 1912 and 1914 Owl Drug trademarked its first four toilet good brands. One of the four was a product that was, appropriately enough for a company with the name Owl, called
Bird.  Bird
was produced as rouge, face powder and theatrical rouge and it is unclear whether Owl Drug created the brand name or acquired it from a third party. In any event, although use was claimed from 1911, it was not until 1914 that a trademark was eventually obtained. Two years earlier, in 1912, two other brands had also been trademarked –
Exceda
for perfume, face cream and rouge but not face powder – and
Red Feather
for a large range of perfume and cosmetic products.
Red Feather
would become Owl Drug’s first comprehensive cosmetic brand. A fourth brand –
Jacrose -
was trademarked in 1913 having been acquired from Chicago-based perfumer Charles Gordon Buck.
Jacrose
had made its appearance in Chicago as early as 1890 but curiously there is no mention of the brand in Owl Drug advertisements.
Of these first four brands only two –
Bird
and
Red Feather
-
would have face powder and rouge packaged in portable containers. In the case of
Bird
products there is no evidence that they were ever sold in metal vanity cases but by 1913 advertisements for
Bird
rouge were appearing and by 1914 both rouge and face powder were being advertised as available in containers (probably cardboard) that were fitted with a puff and diminishing mirror. These
Bird
containers are extraordinarily rare and like the Passenger Pigeon they may even be extinct!
rt of the reason for
Bird’s
rarity is probably due to the success of the appropriately named
Red Feather
line
.
Its introduction coincided with Miller’s decision to put more effort into the operations of his New York Office and to use it as the main base for perfume and cosmetics manufacture.
Red Feather
products were originally branded as being manufactured by
The Red Feather Co
and curiously
Red Feather
toilet preparations were initially not sold in Owl Drug Stores perhaps because Miller wanted to test whether the brand could stand on its own without being associated with the increasingly successful Owl Drug chain.
Having been on the market for two years it would not be until early 1915 that advertisements show that
Red Feather
products were being sold from Owl Drug Stores. Late in the same year
The Red Feather Co Inc,
with its offices listed at 230 West 17th St in New York, changed its name. In honour of the president of The Owl Drug Co, R E Miller, the new company was named
The Remiller Co
.
For compact collectors,
Red Feather
metal vanity cases do exist but are still quite rare. For those that do emerge
collectors will find that time has not treated most of them kindly. Made of brass these hinged, gold-toned, boxes are recognizable by their characteristic repousse image of a feather painted red The earliest examples identified are for a
Red Feather
rouge,compact and
Red Feather Poudre Compact
.