___________________________________________________________________________________________

Dorman Perfume Vendor

Dorman Mfg. Co, Geneva, NY, c. 1905, 17 ³/₄". I bought this from a friend in March 2016 when it appeared on the "for sale" page of his website. I'd never seen one before and didn't recognize it, but it turns out that it's in Silent Salesmen Too (page 253) and I'd never noticed it. Having never seen one, the picture in the book is not that appealing and I guess I'd just glanced over it. But it looked good in the pictures on his website, and now that I know what it looks like live, the picture in the book looks better. I can't explain the psychological basis of that phenomenon, but my perception of the picture changed.

It's a wood case with the guts to delivery a spritz of perfume for a penny. I mean "guts" as in "mechanism," not "guts" as in "oh, what a brave little machine it is!" You can see 'em here. Most perfume vendors keep the product in a bottle, but this has a metal box with a cork into which the vendor would pour the perfume. I'll bet that was a hassle, but I'll also bet he didn't have to refill it often. It was designed to be wall-mounted, but sits level on a shelf for display purposes, if one is so inclined. The marquee is important to the machine's appeal; without it it's a pretty wood box, and with it it's so much more!

The example above is 100% original. It's the machine pictured in Silent Salesmen Too, and as far as I or anyone I know knows, it's the only one that currently exists.