Fan Toi by Fannie London (1920)

Fan Toi was one of the more visually distinctive and decorative American toiletry lines of the early 1920s, blending exotic fantasy, Art Deco elegance, and elaborate presentation into a fashionable boudoir luxury brand. Introduced around 1920 by the New York-based Fan Toi Company, the line centered not only on fragrance itself, but on the total decorative experience of the toilette table. The collection included perfume, bath salts, incense powders and cones, after-bath powders, potpourri, dried rose petals, dried lavender flowers, and both liquid and dry smelling salts. During an era when vanity tables and boudoir accessories were important symbols of feminine sophistication, Fan Toi successfully transformed ordinary toiletries into ornamental luxury objects.

The line’s name was inspired by the fictional character “Fan Toy, the Opium Queen,” reflecting the fascination with Orientalist fantasy that permeated fashion, theater, cosmetics, and perfumery during the 1910s and 1920s. Like many luxury brands of the period, Fan Toi adopted an atmosphere of mystery, exoticism, and theatrical sensuality. The association with an “Opium Queen” evoked images of lacquer screens, silk draperies, incense smoke, jeweled interiors, and cosmopolitan decadence — themes enormously fashionable during the Jazz Age. This type of marketing was less about cultural authenticity than about creating an alluring dream world around the products themselves.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Fan Toi was its emphasis on decorative packaging. The company treated its containers as luxury decorative arts rather than merely practical vessels. Products were housed in elegant glass bottles and jars adorned with gilding, silver overlay, black enamel trim, or delicately hand-painted floral decoration. Some pieces combined several decorative techniques at once, producing richly ornamented vanity objects intended to remain permanently displayed on dressing tables. In addition to glass containers, the company also sold products in colorful pottery jars that reflected contemporary taste for vivid ceramic glazes and artistic boudoir accessories.

The glassware itself came from highly regarded manufacturers, including Heisey as well as producers from Czechoslovakia, which at the time was internationally celebrated for luxury decorative glass production. Czech glass in particular was associated with fashionable enamelwork, colored overlays, cut crystal, and highly artistic vanity wares. Fan Toi’s use of imported and domestic art glass elevated the line above ordinary commercial toiletries and aligned it with the flourishing decorative arts movement of the 1920s.

The company became especially known for its vividly colored smelling salts, which transformed a traditionally utilitarian item into a fashionable accessory coordinated with women’s wardrobes and interiors. Trade publications in 1921 and 1922 described the company’s extensive range of colored smelling salts displayed in the Perfumery and Toilet Articles Division of the Bush Terminal Sales Building in New York. Unlike conventional smelling salts, which were usually sold in only lavender or green-tinted solutions, Fan Toi introduced a dazzling palette including red, old rose, pink, orange, yellow, blue, purple, lavender, and “American Beauty” red. Advertisements emphasized that customers could select salts to match gowns or boudoir color schemes, reflecting the increasing importance of coordinated fashion and interior aesthetics during the Jazz Age.

The salts were packaged in cut glass flasks of various ornamental shapes, some holding up to eight ounces and intended for permanent display on dressing tables. The larger boudoir sizes were described as luxurious decorative objects in their own right. Smaller versions were later planned for handbags, retailing for approximately thirty-five cents, allowing fashionable women to carry elegant perfumed smelling salts as portable accessories. This attention to portability, appearance, and personalization reflected broader 1920s trends in cosmetics and perfume, as beauty products increasingly became expressions of individuality and modern femininity.

The Bush Terminal Sales Building in New York played an important role in Fan Toi’s distribution and visibility within the perfume and toilet goods trade. The building served as a major commercial showroom center where buyers could inspect luxury goods from numerous companies. Fan Toi’s elaborate displays would have stood out amid the growing competition in decorative toiletries during the postwar cosmetics boom.

A significant figure associated with the line was George W. Minstrell, who was credited as the originator of the Fan Toi bath salts line. Minstrell had long served as a prominent toilet goods buyer for Bloomingdale's and later managed the toilet goods division at the Bush Sales Building. His death in 1929 was noted in trade journals, which described him as one of the best-known men in the metropolitan perfume and toiletries trade. His involvement suggests that Fan Toi was carefully developed with department store merchandising and visual luxury presentation in mind.

The fragrances themselves were comparatively restrained and traditional when compared to the flamboyance of the packaging. Scents such as Jasmine of Southern France, Rose, Bouquet, Verveine, and Eau de Cologne reflected classic floral and fresh fragrance traditions popular during the early twentieth century. The emphasis of the brand was less on avant-garde perfumery than on creating a complete sensory and visual toilette experience. Fan Toi products appealed to consumers who desired beauty objects that combined fragrance, decoration, fashion, and theatrical glamour.

Today, Fan Toi survives as a remarkable example of early twentieth-century American vanity culture and decorative toiletry design. Collectors particularly prize the ornate bottles, colorful salts, silver overlays, enamel decoration, and imported art glass associated with the line. More than simply a perfume brand, Fan Toi represented the transformation of personal toiletries into fashionable luxury accessories during the glamorous years of the Jazz Age.