Comments on: DUSKA https://vintagepowderroom.com/?p=397 a window into the past Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:38:32 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.38 By: Mike https://vintagepowderroom.com/?p=397&cpage=1#comment-7747 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:17:13 +0000 http://vintagepowderroom.com/?p=397#comment-7747 The Duska box’s fountain has often been attributed to Lalique’s fountain. A vaguely convenient comparison but totally wrong.
Duska was a cosmetics brand created in 1928 by The United Drug Company for its Rexall drug stores. Its creation came at a time when there was a minor (and brief) fascination in America for things Russian. In fact, Duska means “Little Soul” – or at least, that’s what the United Drug’s promotional material claimed in October 1928.

But enough of that. Back to the fountain. Your image of the actual fountain at the 1925 Exposition quite rightly bears no resemblance to the Duska fountain. We would be within our rights to ask why would United Drug even seek to perpetuate the memory of the Lalique fountain three years after the fact and in such an unfaithful way? The answer, I believe, is that United Drug was not thinking about Lalique nor even about Art Deco imagery (which was still in its infancy in 1928).

Where did the image come from? It came from a man named Holmes who designed crockery plates and who United Drug had used previously as the source for the imagery used with an earlier cosmetics line – Shari.

None of this detracts from the attractiveness of the Duska box, although the line was short-lived. Perhaps it was too red, too Russian or perhaps it was simply a casualty of the Wall Street Crash.

You have a fascinating Blog. Congratulations!

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