The Shape of Things

A celebration of sculptural perfume bottles.

For Christmas, my husband gave me a perfume bottle shaped like a snail.

The purchase was so insignificant—a quick, cheap grab on eBay—that he forgot what it was until I unwrapped it, but it’s among my favorite gifts I’ve ever received. An Avon artifact from the early 1970s, it is a perfect, palm-sized delight, a glass gastropod with a sinuous body and go…