Antique Lynas Violet Supreme Perfume Bottle Logansport Indiana Art Nouveau Label
Excellent survivor — this is a circa 1910 Lynas “Violet Supreme” toilet-water / perfume bottle, made for Dr. J. B. Lynas & Son / J.B.L., Logansport, Indiana. The label reads “Lynas, Logansport, Ind.” — not Lyons. Tiny gold evening gown of a bottle.
Precise selling date: circa 1910. More safely: c. 1908–1915, with 1910 being the cleanest single-date call.
Why: Lynas was actively selling perfumes/toilet goods by this period; a 1908 wholesale perfume catalog is known for Dr. Lynas & Son; the company had moved into its Market Street factory/laboratory in 1906; and the bottle/label style is pure late Edwardian / early Art Nouveau commercial packaging.
The maker was Dr. J. B. Lynas & Son, of Logansport, Cass County, Indiana. Dr. James B. Lynas was born in Indiana in 1835, and the family business was incorporated in 1904 as Dr. J. B. Lynas & Son. In 1906 they moved to 517–519 Market Street in Logansport, with a factory/laboratory making medicines, spices, teas, sachet powders, toilet articles, soaps, extracts, perfumes, stock preparations, and related goods. By 1913, the company had agents working in nearly every state.
That makes this not just a random perfume bottle — it is a piece of small-city American beauty advertising from a company that started in the patent-medicine world and successfully crossed into household, vanity, and toiletry goods.
“Violet Supreme” was almost certainly a violet-scented toilet water / light perfume, not a medicine. “Toilet water” at the time meant a lightly perfumed splash: used after washing, on the hands, face, hair, clothing, or handkerchief. Violet was a very fashionable, “ladylike” scent in the late 1800s and early 1900s — soft, floral, refined, and parlor-friendly. Think dressing table, not pharmacy shelf.
The formula would likely have been alcohol/water-based fragrance, probably with violet fragrance compounds rather than a bottle full of actual crushed violets. Real violet essence was expensive and delicate, so commercial violet scents often leaned on perfumery chemistry and blended floral accords.
The bottle is better than average. The molded glass is heavily decorated with raised floral panels, geometric framing, stippled/frosted side panels, and a recessed label window. That recess helped protect the paper label, which is exactly why yours still looks so strong. Smart packaging — give the label a little moat.
The cork-style mouth and lack of screw threads fit the early 1900s vanity/toiletry period. Machine-made bottles were spreading rapidly after 1905, but plenty of small toiletry bottles from the 1908–1915 period still have that older cork-top look. Bottle-dating guides note that fully automatic bottle production grew from about 1905 onward, with early machine-made bottles especially common into the 1910s.
The label screams c. 1910 Art Nouveau / Edwardian beauty counter:
Gold metallic background = luxury, gift appeal, “premium” shelf presence. Violet flowers with curving stems = Art Nouveau botanical styling. Red script “Supreme” = romantic, upscale, cosmetic branding. Blue mosaic/lace corners = decorative exoticism/ornament, very early 1900s. “Lynas” in red, “Logansport Ind.” below = regional American maker borrowing big-city perfume glamour.
It is not yet full 1920s Art Deco. The flowers and soft curves keep it earlier. But the geometric blue pattern hints at the transition toward bolder modern packaging.
This bottle belongs to the Progressive Era, when American business, cities, consumer packaging, automobiles, and mail-order/traveling-agent sales were booming. The Library of Congress describes the early 20th century as a time of business expansion and progressive reform, with automobiles transforming daily life and cities growing rapidly.
Medicine and advertising were also changing. The 1906 Food and Drugs Act targeted adulterated and misbranded foods and drugs, shifting attention toward labels and claims. That matters here because companies like Lynas came out of the old remedy/patent-medicine world but increasingly sold safer-sounding toiletries, soaps, extracts, and perfumes.
Politically, this was the Wilson/Progressive period: Woodrow Wilson became president in 1913, progressive reforms included the Federal Reserve Act and Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. entered World War I in 1917.
Logansport in that decade
Logansport was not some sleepy dot on the map. Around this time it was a serious railroad/interurban town. Its population reached 19,050 in 1910, Broadway and North Streets were paved with asphalt in 1910–1911, and by 1913 it was said to have more cement sidewalks than any Indiana town of its size.
Transportation was huge: Logansport’s railroads and interurbans made it important enough that it was once considered second in Indiana in transportation importance. Interurban electric lines came into wide use before automobiles and buses began taking over around 1915.
