The blue bottle returned home – again

We got a visit from Kirsten Karlshøj and Leon Lindevang at Einar Willumsens headquarters in Brøndby. They brought us an old blue glass bottle with 5 liters of lemon essence. This bottle is an original Einar Willumsen bottle. A little bit of the liquid has evaporated in 50 years since it was made. These blue bottles were used in our production until 1975 but unfortunately, we do not know when this specific bottle was produced.

We were so excited to hear the story of this bottle; where did it come from and how did it get to Kirsten?

Kirsten told us that 42 years ago she was studying the art of decoration under Frank Hansen who was known as a skilled decorator in Næstved. He decorated store windows for local businesses and taught students at a local decoration school. Frank also had a painting workshop where he would meet with friends and students who shared his passion for painting. They would gather in the workshop every Tuesday. Kirsten also went to Frank’s workshop to paint. She remembers a nice blue bottle on one of the shelves there.

Frank Hansen died in 1990’s and his workshop was shut down. Frank’s daughter decided to offer everyone who used to frequent the workshop to pick one thing from there to remember her father. Kirsten chose the blue bottle and took excellent care of it through the years.  “… but now it’s time it went home”, she told us. Therefore, we were so lucky to get a visit from Kirsten Karlshøj and her husband Leon Lindevang.

Einar Willumsen has been manufacturing lemon essence since 1901 and continues to this day. Nobody knows where Frank has gotten his bottle or whether he used it for window decorations – but we are happy it has returned “home”.