Highlights











































Description

Here is a very pretty vintage powder compact from the 1950s/60s. A circular compact from the Melissa brand, with a festive Christmas scene under a domed Lucite lid. The Victorian couple are busy decorating their fine big house for Christmas.Round the back, there is a very fine and delicate engine-turned spiral design skirting round the centre.

This compact measures 8.7cms in diameter (that's 3 1/4") and it has intact hinges and clasps on the exterior and the interior, which are all in good working order. This is one of those compacts where the lid and base are both slightly bigger than the sides, which earned them the nickname 'scone compact'.

I love this for its gorgeous 1950s version of a Victorian scene - very Hollywood... - so typical of that era - romantic and very idealised.

CONDITION:-
This compact is in excellent condition- probably due to the fact that it has its original felt cover.
Save from a few age spots, pits and scratches, especially on the reverse, this is a nice collector's item. Please see my photos !!
This has its original and unused powder puff with the Melissa crown brand logo, and original sifter with a very pretty peachy velvet edge, and it also comes in its original Melissa box.
This is in really great condition - no wear to the interior as far as I can see. Someone has taken reasonable good care of this, so it's a bit of a collector's item.

MELISSA
The Melissa company, according to the British Compact Collectors' Society, was a British brand made by Searchlight Products (Melissa) Ltd. and dates from around the 1950s-70s. Says one researcher: "Melissa is thought to have been based in Acton, London W3 from the early 1950s, but I found that by 1962 the company had premises in Arundel Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex. In 1970, the company was still listed at this address in a telephone directory, but by 1972 another company occupied the site. A local trade directory of 1976 listed Searchlight Products, so possibly the firm was still trading at this later date, but I have been unable to find out at what date it ceased manufacturing compacts."
That's all we know about this company - any forthcoming info will be added to this listing.