Ganna Walska's short-lived company introduced its first perfume, the aptly bittersweet oriental
at the Palais de Glace Exposition in Paris. She may have also displayed her
perfumes. Photo below shows
s stand at the 1927 Salon de Parfumerie (Palais de Glace).
Maison Dorin would have displayed their line of cosmetics including their face powders and rouges contained in compacts. It may have also displayed the perfume Un Air de Paris.
Following down the line of booths we would have come to the fabulous booth of D'Orsay. D'Orsay was established in 1908 by a well organized investor group who selected the D'Orsay name and coat of arms to create the aristocratic and luxurious image of a long-established French company. The investors even went so far as to purchase a castle as their headquarters. The name for the company was a tribute to Alfred d'Orsay, known as the Comte d'Orsay (Count of Orsay), who was a French amateur artist, dandy, and man of fashion in the early- to mid-19th century.
In 1925, D'Orsay was awarded the Grand Prix at the Art Deco exhibition in Paris. Several bottles were manufactured by Baccarat and Daum Nancy, such as the bottles for Toujours Fidele and Le Dandy. Other bottles and presentations were designed by Louis Süe and Andre Mare such as Le Dandy. Some bottles were designed by Paul C. Delaize in the 1920s and received American patents. However, the real showpieces of the D'orsay line were those produced by Rene Lalique. The bottles for Mystere and Ambre are beautiful examples of his work in opaque black glass. The bottles for Le Succes and Roses featured adorable figural stoppers.
Moving on over to Les Parfums Godet's booth, we might see an arrangement of various perfumes including Fleur Noire, Nuit de Mystere, Chypre, Sous Bois, Cuir de Russie, Secret d'Amour, Petite Fleur Bleue, Forget Me Not, Fleur Noire, Divin Mensonge, Folie Bleue and others. The perfume Chant du Soir could have also shared the exhibition shelves with its masterful blend of jasmine, spicy carnation, rose, lily of the valley and citrus on a chypre base. Godet's perfume bottles displayed some of the finest labels of the era and many of their perfumes were housed in Baccarat crystal and some were made by Depinoix. Other bottles to be noted are the red opaque glass flacons made by H. Saumont, these bottles were also used by the Lionceau perfume company for their perfumes.
The Godet Perfumery was established at 37 rue saint-Lazare, Paris in 1901 by Julien-Joseph Godet. The company sold perfumes, toiletries and cosmetics, such as the popular Ma Poudre (My Powder) in 1911, which proved to be an avant garde presentation for its time. Godet succeeded in becoming a major international company by 1913, sadly the same year in which Julien-Joseph Godet died. The company was then taken control by his widow Louise and the company's director, Abel Ravaud.
The company won a gold medal at the 1925 Exposition in Paris for their lovely perfume Folie Bleue, with its composition artfully blended with notes of bergamot, violet and woods. I would think this prize winning scent would be on prominent display in the 1927 expo as well.
I don't even need to go on about Maison Houbigant's wondrous fragrances, but I will. This house goes all the way back to 1775. Throughout it's long history, Houbigant was patronized by the royal set and was appointed parfumeur to Marie Antoinette of France in 1790, Empress Josephine of France in 1805 , Princess Adelaide d’Orleans in 1829, Queen Victoria of England in 1839 , Empress Eugenie of France in 1857 , Emperor Napoleon III in 1870, Tsar and Tsarina of Russia in 1890, Queen Victoria of Spain in 1922, and Queen Marie of Roumania in 1923.
Houbigant celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary in 1925.Displays bedecked with bottles of Quelques Fleurs and Parfum Ideal in gleaming Baccarat crystal. Often regarded as the first true multi-floral scent, Quelques Fleurs was the springboard for this type of perfume. Ideal was presented in a Baccarat crystal bottle and packaged in a fabric covered box that replicated an Oriental patterned rug that Alfred Javal had remembered seeing.
Houbigant's exhibit would have also included other Baccarat bottles holding the woodsy floral Parfum d'Argeville in the gilded Regency apothecary bottle, Subtilite residing zenfully in the Buddha bottle, the spring floral essences of Parfum Inconnu, the soft oriental Un Peu d'Ambre, and the rarest roses of Grasse were housed inside the bottle for La Rose France.
Isabey's company conveyed the image of long-established, refined French artistry. Because they were well-financed, the company had all the earmarks of success: only the highest-quality perfumes with luxurious presentations and a most splendid shop. So great was their success that they had considerable exports to the USA. Many of their bottles were designed by Julien Viard and produced by Baccarat, Bobin Freres Glassworks, Moser, Depinoix and Rene Lalique.
Isabey's booth would have been stocked full of their beautiful bottles holding Mimosa, Chypre Celtique, Sourire Fleuri, Tresor Cache, lotus laden Bleu de Chine, Le Lys Noir, Ambre de Carthage, Mon Seul Ami, and La Route d'Emeraude.
Also on display at Isabey's booth, would be the unusual "Perle Flacons" designed by Andre Jolivet and manufactured by the Nesle Normandeuse Glassworks around 1925. These iridescent flacons were in the shape of pearls and came in various sizes, each was presented in a purple leatherette case. The most famous of these presentations was the six bottle "Le Collier d’Isabey", which mimicked a pearl necklace housed in a demi-lune shaped case, which won them the Gold Medal at the 1925 Paris Exhibition and was awarded gold, not bad for a company that was barely one year old. In addition to perfumes, Isabey also produced lipsticks, face powder, compacts, dusting powder, and a facial cleanser called Lait du Concombre, or milk of cucumber.
Les Parfums Lydes:
Walking around the exhibit, we would have encountered the booth for Les Parfums Lydes. Established in 1918 by Eugene Philippe Rodie, their most successful perfume was their first, L'Ambre des Pagodes, which interestingly did not bear the name Lydes. The company became well known practically overnight and exported their luxurious presentations worldwide. Lydes' booth would probably have had bottles of the oriental perfume Nolka, Le Dernier Dieu, the floral bouquets of Dear Mado, J'aime des Fleurs and Rose Bengale, a sumptuous rose soliflore perfume. Perhaps other shelving would have held the hesperidic eau de cologne Au Cachet du Roy and the woody floral amber perfume To Cya Mi, subtitled "le Parfum Hindou", I would expect the newly launched perfume Bibelot to be on display in its black glass cube flacon. Several of the Lydes perfume bottles were designed by Julien Viard and Andre Jolivet.
Marcel Guerlain:
Please note that the Marcel Guerlain perfumery company was not affiliated with the Pierre-Francois Guerlain family although Marcel Guerlain was the same name as one of the heirs to the Guerlain family, there was no other connection. In light of this confusion, the famous Guerlain family adopted the slogan "Nous n'avons pas de prenon" (We have no first name) and brought a successful lawsuit against Marcel Guerlain, who then changed his company's name to the Societe des Parfumeurs Francais. Marcel Guerlain was then using his own slogan when advertising in the USA: "no connection with any firm of similar name".
Marcel Guerlain founded his own company in 1922, and despite the controversy, produced high quality perfumes and cosmetics. He opened a splendid shop at 86 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honore in Paris. He had an office in London and had a shop in the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
Marcel Guerlain’s perfume bottles were often made by Baccarat and Depinoix, in fact, the perfume bottle for 8 et 9 was made by Depinoix. He most likely would have displayed his beautiful Caravelle perfume in its black crystal sailing ship flacon, also made by Depinoix. His iconic brand Masque Rouge would have been prominently displayed. Perhaps his other fragrances such as Le Roy le Veult and Pavillion Royal would have taken up space on the display shelves. One of his perfumes, Rolls Royce came out in 1926 and may have been a centerpiece in the collection. It's bottle sitting inside a wooden base complete with bakelite wheels represented the radiator grille on a Rolls Royce automobile. Today this is considered a very rare bottle and highly coveted by serious collectors.
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He also formed seven other perfume companies such as the Hughes Guerlain company and launched several fragrances, probably manufactured in the late 1920s, 1930s and early 1940s. Other companies are Helene Gys (using HG initials), Gys, Marcel & Hughes La Societe de Parfumeurs Parisiens, Les Parfums d'Agnes, and Parfums Marlaine et Cie. It is interesting to note that some of the perfume names are recycled between the different companies.
Marquis:
Marquis was active during the 1920s and produced toiletries, perfumes and cosmetics, as well as producing such items for other perfumers for use under their own name, primarily for export. A small booth for Marquis of Paris most likely displayed their perfumes that were housed in opaque glass bottles manufactured by Depinoix, including the vibrant orange glass for Brise de Monte Carlo and the aqua bottle for Fleurs de Grand-Mere. The mysterious oriental perfume Niradjah was housed in a black opaque glass bottle and fitted with a red glass ball stopper, this held 2 ounces of perfume and retailed for $14.89 in 1922. Also available may have been their single floral line including Lilas, Rose, Muguet, Violette, Cyclamen and Jasmin in addition to the ubiquitous Chypre.
Les Parfums de Mury:
Parfums de Mury's stand was made to look like an elegant garden, it comprised of a flower bed surrounding an electrified water fountain inlaid with a blue-and-green mosaic floor. At the time, Mury was known for their elegant presentations.
Perfumes displayed here would have been their popular Le Narcisse Bleu, Notturno, Caresse d'Amour, Patricia and Amadis. Le Narcisse Bleu was a floral oriental perfume with notes of rose, tuberose, jasmine and ylang ylang with additional oriental base notes including sandalwood. Amadis was a spicy perfume with pungent notes of carnation.
Notturno, released in 1926, was a rival to the very popular Christmas scent Nuit de Noel by Caron, and it too was housed in its onyx Baccarat crystal bottle, its fragrance was said to "interpret the spirit of a starlit night". Caresse d'Amour, a mixed floral bouquet perfume, was advertised on New York City's Fifth Avenue buses in 1922 which led to successful sales in the United States. The perfume Patricia was contained in a beautiful glass bottle with pink and gold enameled floral design, and housed in a gilt lacquer box, this retailed for $30 in 1927.
LT Piver:
The firm of LT Piver first became involved with the selling of perfumes when they offered perfumed gloves and were awarded the title of "Parfumeur-Gantier" in 1769. Originally established by Michel Adam between 1769 and 1774, succeeded by family member, Paul Guillaume Dissey and Pierre-Guillaume Dissey, and later in 1813 by Louis-Toussaint Piver, whose name was adopted as the new company name in 1823. Alphonse Piver succeeded LT Piver .
The company participated in all of the major exhibitions in the 19th and 20th centuries. Piver was frequently a leader in new perfume designs and concepts. Some of his best known presentations included the most beautiful Alphonse Mucha inspired-Art Nouveau floral graphics for the Floramye, Azurea, and Safranor lines. Many bottles were produced by Baccarat, namely the bottles for the following perfumes: Astris, Reve D'Or, and the tribute to electricity, the perfume Volt imprisoned in a light bulb shaped flacon. Rene Lalique produced the very lovely perfume bottle for Misti in 1912.
Piver's
Reve D'Or was originally launched in 1889, it was a soft rich floral fragrance later presented in a flacon by Cristalleries de Baccarat design in 1919. This fragrance is still produced today.
Pompeia was one of their best selling lines and included parfum extrait, cologne, lotion, brilliantine and powder. I would think the most popular fragrances and soaps would be offered at Piver's booth. Perhaps a newly added perfume such as
Carminade may have made an appearance with its vibrant red glass Art Deco bottle made by Cristalleries de Nancy, this bottle was also used for the perfume
Galuchat.
Rigaud:
Rigaud was established in 1854 and participated in several 19th century exhibitions and was awarded gold medals in 1878, 1889, and 1900. Rigaud produced many luxury presentations. They are best known for their all time best selling perfume - Un Air Embaume, which is classified as a floral woody oriental fragrance for women with a dry woody amber chypre base. It was created by Marius Reboul of Givaudan who used a base known as "Sophora", a Givaudan base of vetiver acetate, coumarin and bergamot. The sumptuous flacon for Un Air Embaume is very distinct and made up of clear and frosted glass, the sides are molded with nudes rising in smoke emanating from perfume burners, the bottle was then decorated with applied sienna colored patina. The bottle was advertised as being manufactured by Lalique, but there is no existing reference to this being made by the firm in any of the Lalique literature. The bottle was actually produced in the Bresle valley in France by the Darras Glassworks.
Rigaud was the first perfumery to add Oriental names to their perfumes such as: Melati de Chine, Kanaga-Osaka and Pagoda Flowers. Famous Parisian actresses were among Rigaud's best clients-theatre themed perfume names included: Actrices, Prince Igor, Mary Garden, Marthe Chenal and Geraldine Farrar. The floral chypre perfume Vers La Joie, launched in 1927, features bergamot, roses, lily of the valley, jasmine, sandalwood, oakmoss, musk, amber. Today, Rigaud lives on, but only as a name known for its high quality scented candles.
Roger et Gallet:
Roger et Gallet would have put several of their most luxurious of perfumes on display such as Pavots d'Argent, Tentation, Rose Rouge, Fleurs d'Amour, Triomphe, Flausa, Narkiss, Cigalia and Le Jade.
Le Jade was an oriental fragrance for women with a rich chypre base. It was housed in various bottles of the years including a lovely crackled glass version, but its most beloved and coveted is the opaque jade green glass flacon by Rene Lalique. This bottle has a design of tropical birds molded in relief and is shaped like a Chinese snuff bottle. In a previous exhibition, Roger et Gallet displayed the large crackled glass bottles of Le Jade, so I would think they may have done the same for the Palais de Glace expo.
Lalique also produced the bottles for a newly launched perfume called Pavots d'Argent, "Silver Poppies". Described as "the fragrance of your sweetest dreams" the display would have looked particularly striking with its color combination of pink, black and silver.
Rosine:
Couture fashion designer Paul Poiret's firm Rosine made an appearance with their lovely fragrances. Two years earlier, they participated in the 1925 Art Deco Exposition in Paris. The perfume Coeur en Folie was introduced at the 1925 Expo and Rosine displayed their other perfumes - the oriental Nuit de Chine, the woodsy Tout la Foret, D’où viens-tu?, Hahna, Arlequinade, "1925", etc.
I would think these same perfumes would be shown in 1927 as well as other popular perfumes such as Maharadjah, Borgia, Le Fruit Defendu and Coup de Foudre. Perhaps it was here that the newly created Spirit of St Louis perfume was introduced to the public. Described as a "blend of many flowers, exquisitely sweet", it was a tribute to American aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh who became the first pilot to fly non-stop and solo New York to Paris in 1927 in 33 hours with his plane, Spirit of St. Louis.
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I entertain the notion that the sweet orange blossom perfume Connais tu le Pays would have been on display at the Rosine booth as a representative of France. Poiret had honored sixty years of the opera "Mignon" by Ambroise Thomas in naming the perfume after the song "Connais tu le Pays" from Mignon. The first words of the opening air: "Do you know the country where the orange flowers?" The perfume Connais tu le Pays was housed inside of a round frosted glass bottle shaped like an orange, complete with a gilded leaf that acted as the stopper. The presentation box was in shades of pink, yellow orange, pale green, and forest green, with the label printed in red.
The perfume bottles for Rosine were produced by Depinoix and Lefebure as well as Poiret's own companies Atelier Colin & Atelier Martine. Most of the cologne bottles were hand painted at Atelier Martine. The working hours were from 8am until 7pm, and the factory workers were served a luncheon and wine each day.
Les Parfums de Vigny:
Walking further into the exhibition we would find the amusing bottles by Les Parfums de Vigny. The perfumes of Golliwogg, Le Chick Chick, Be Lucky and Guili Guili most likely would have been shown. Baccarat and Rene Lalique both contributed bottles to Vigny.
Vigny had an exhibit at the 1925 Paris Art Deco where they were awarded a gold medal. I imagine their 1927 booth would have had a lineup of the same perfumes. In a photo that shows the 1925 booth, Vigny had used a rack with five shelves to show off their perfumes. The top shelf had what was probably their most expensive fragrances. One was the Rene Lalique bottle for D'ou Vient-Il, a lovely triangle shaped container molded with butterfly motifs and figural double butterfly stopper. Also included was another Lalique bottle, this time for L'Ambre de Vigny which was also used for Le Lilas De Vigny. The top shelf also displayed Le Bosquet de Vigny, it was housed in a clear glass bottle, with a rounded arch top, crisscrossed in jade green enamel. A squatty conical stopper finished off the bottle. Both the bottle and the presentation box had lines simulating a wicker basket. Finally, the floral woody perfume Musky, housed in a ribbed Lalique flacon rounded off the items on the top shelf.
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The center shelf featured the entire line of Le Chick Chick perfume, which was contained within a whimsical Baccarat crystal flacon, originally made for Easter. The crystal bottle had gilded wings which formed the body of the chick, and had an oversized gilded cap which formed the head. The third shelf was reserved for the popular Golliwogg perfume with its stopper representing Golli's face made up of black glass and coiffed with silky genuine seal fur for his hair. The fourth shelf held Jamerose, an oriental composition blended with the essences of precious jasmine and roses in its Lalique flacon. It was joined with the perfume L'Infidele, housed inside of a tall, slim column of clear crystal by Baccarat with its fluted lines piqued out in gold enamel. The column was topped by a glass stopper molded with flowers.
The fifth shelf featured La Fleur Celeste, "the flower of heaven." Vigny commissioned Baccarat to create a bottle with an elegant floral theme. The large 2 ounce Baccarat crystal bottle is topped with a gilded glass stopper shaped as a flower head. The bottle was housed in a box simulating Chinese lacquer.
I believe I can see the perfume Guili Guili on the bottom shelf, it's head and foot of carved mahogany, the head resembled an exotic African mask covering the inner stopper, while the foot enabled the paneled crystal bottle to stand upright. This perfume was based on a real life magician and illusionist from Alexandria, Egypt, a competitor of Luxor Gali-Gali (Mahgoub Mohammed Hanafi, b1902-b1984), the names were often confused. Guili-Guili, who claimed he was 25,000 years old, often working in Egyptian costume, went thru a series of tricks including disappearing eggs, chicks and ended by pulling a string of flags out of his mouth.
Ybry:
Ybry's perfumes were advertised as being "the most expensive in the world". Ybry was a luxury perfume house founded in 1925 by a man named Simon Jaroslawski (also known as Simon A. Jaroslawski-Fioret) and went into liquidation in 1932. His other two perfumery companies are Fioret and Mÿon.
Baccarat produced the classic Ybry perfume bottle, a flattened square in colored crystal known as the "Deluxe Jewels". These beautiful "bijou" bottles were made by overlaying colored crystal on white crystal to create an opaque and unique luminescent quality, this same glass was also used for the short lived Myon perfume line. Each different color, was related to a particular perfume, and to a different gem. The colors range from a red to a pink, slag green to a darker green, jet black, orange to butterscotch, deep purple to lavender. Most of the time, the bottles had matching enameled and gilded metal covers. These covers were placed over the inner stoppers at an angle on one corner of the bottle.
The deluxe bottle in a velvet box came with a Lalique crystal medallion, this retailed for $30, a larger set retailed for $55. The presentation boxes were known as "Deluxe Jewel Cases" by Ybry and were covered with fine leather and often had color-coordinated small triangular segments and luxurious silk tassels. The bottles were further accented with an intaglio crystal medallion pendant by Rene Lalique, usually in a delicate heart shape or triangle.
were "$8.50 for the Debutante Flacon, and other sizes at $16.50, $30.00, $50.00 up to $400.00." To give you a concept of how expensive these perfumes really were during that period, I have used an inflation calculator to determine what we would expect to pay in 2021 currency:
