'NUTS & BOLTS' AFTER SHAVE LOTION FOR MEN BY COLTON (1968)

A men's cologne bottle shaped like an orange slotted fillister-head screw designed in 1968 by the famed Italian industrial designer Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014) for the Colton Company of Boston, MA. The bottle still contains most of its original contents and is in excellent vintage condition. The plastic lid has no cracks, discolorations, or scratches. The black lettering is intact, and the glass bottle has no chips or damage to the orange coating.

NUTS & BOLTS was a line of men's toiletries produced by the Colton Company at the end of the 1960s. The line consisted of cologne, aftershave, aftershave conditioner, deodorant, and a nut-shaped soap-on-a-rope. The scent is described as a 'spicy, woodsy fragrance for men,' with top notes of citrus zest, middle notes of spices and vetiver, and base notes of oakmoss, sandalwood, amber, musk, and patchouli.

The clever industrial orange nuts and bolts shaped bottles and soaps were a constructive concept designed by Masimo Vigneli at the height of the Pop Art movement. The shape of the plastic screw-on top indicated the product inside the glass bottle. The round-head screw was cologne, the Fillister-head screw was aftershave lotion, the flat-head screw was aftershave conditioner, and the hex bolt was deodorant. The soap-on-a-rope was a hex nut.

Vignelli wrote bout this project in his 1981 monograph, design: "In 1968, we were asked to design a line of toiletries for teenagers. It was the height of the Pop Art movement, and the notion of transforming an object by changing its size was in the air. The Nuts & Bolts line was conceived in this climate, and the different caps fitting over the same threaded bottle created a sensation...The concept behind this line of toiletries was achieving product identity through creating an object rather than through graphics on labels."

Nuts & Bolts was in production from approximately 1968 until it was discontinued in 1972. It remains one of the most elusive of men's fragrances today.

NOTE: Thanks to Cleopatra's Boudoir for the background information

https://cleopatrasboudoir.blogspot.com/2014/01/nuts-bolts-colognes.html