House of Gabler Rogaux
A few years back I became the lucky "winner" of this full coffrett of perfume samples from the House of Gabler Rogaux. Since then I've been attempting, albeit not terribly hard, to find more information on this perfume house. Last night I got a little closer. This entire coffrett, and perhaps the entire perfume house, came and went in 1940. What's pictured here is a sample box and every sample in it has some perfume left, each one smelling different than the next, but all carrying this weird aldehydic muskiness. The box itself is in excellent condition and each bottle is seated and glued into a depression in the lovely golden yellow velvet lined floor. I paid very little for this coffrett, somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 maybe? But I'd like to know more about it. About the house that created it, about the perfumes, not that there's anything particularly extraordinary about them. I just want to know what the heck I have here!There are 12 bottles in the coffrett, and their names are Apple Blossom Fragrance, Chypre, Dream Bouquet (which is actually quite nice), Gardenia Fragrance, Gypsy Myth, Heather, Naughty, Orange Blossom Fragrance (also quite nice), Royal Street, Sandalwood Fragrance, Spice and Will-o-the-Wisp.
So, anybody know anything about them?
I sure wish I knew about these. Every now and again I'll see a collection of something or other on eBay and then a week later kick myself for not seizing the opportunity to procure a piece of history.
ReplyDeleteThose caps look like bakelite.
They are bakelite, and they're attached to little glass daubers, like old-fashioned iodine bottles. All I know about them is that they're from the 40's. And the case is cool :)
ReplyDeleteThey haven't done iodine like that for some time, huh? Not really on topic, but I was talking to a coworker about applying iodine to a wart to kill it, and he looked at me blankly. As in, what's iodine? And they have it in what kind of bottle?
ReplyDeleteCripes. I felt old.
But back to bakelite, there's this great book called Plastic, the Making of a Modern Century (I think that's it?) which talks about the evolution of these plastics that were originally intended to take the place of more precious things like ivory and crystal.
This was my grandfather's perfume business. I grew up watching him fill the bottles Chambersburg Pa.
ReplyDeleteHis name was Daniel Cosey.
This was my grandfather's perfume business. I grew up watching him fill the bottles Chambersburg Pa.
ReplyDeleteHis name was Daniel Cosey.