BRITAIN smelled awful in the past. Refuse filled the streets, sanitation was primitive and people were strangers to regular bathing. To fend off the stench, the Georgians took to carrying around, suspended from a chatelaine (belt hook), little silver boxes containing a sponge soaked in perfume or aromatic vinegar. These vinaigrettes, as they became known in the 1780s, could conveniently be lifted to the nose whenever an offending smell attacked the nostrils and the scent wafting through their perforated grilles would provide immediate respite.
Soon, style matched function: the plain boxes with hinged lids and grilles of the late 18th century developed into real works of art. Much the same evolution happened to the collection of Laurie Hearn, who bought his first silver box a little more than 20 years ago and over time, graduated to these tiny decorative-art masterpieces, exquisitely crafted by
