As I was reading my current Emilie Loring book, Fair Tomorrow, published in 1931, I was curious about a perfume mentioned in the first chapter. Pamela Leigh has served an authentic Cape Thanksgiving Dinner to a couple. The young woman counterpart of the couple is wearing a scent that Pamela immediately recognizes as Nuit de Noel by perfumer Caron. Pamela recalls that in the 'good days' when she was independent and able, she'd once splurged 'recklessly' on a precious ounce of the perfume.
I was curious because Loring often made reference to current fashions, operas, plays, etc., in her writings, but this was the first time I recalled a mention of a named perfume. So I looked it up. What I found was a lovely little history.
Nuit de Noel was created in 1922 by the founder of Caron, Ernest Daltroff. Though Daltroff was Jewish, the scent, which translates as Christmas Night, was actually created with his beloved female partner and muse in mind. She adored Christmas and he wanted to give her something that paid homage to her most beloved holiday.
The perfume came in a black opaque Baccarat crystal bottle with a label inspired by a flapper's headband and gold threads wound about the cap. It was presented in a lovely green box with a tassel at one end which resembled a clutch purse.
The scent is described as Oriental Floral but one perfume enthusiast likened it to the aromas of a cabin filled with Christmas baking scents and a warm burning fire. Another describes it as a quiet gentle fragrance reminiscent of snowy evenings in the country. Apparently it's a scent that still conjures up romance.
As I tried to find information about the perfume, I discovered that you could still purchase old empty bottles from this perfume as well as some which still contained some portions of the perfume at prices that take my breath away, seriously. I love my perfume as you know, and so I began to look at what made this fragrance so popular for 60 years and why it still caused lovers and collectors of vintage perfumes to wax so romantically poetic over it enough to be willing to pay exorbitant prices even today for it. What man created this scent?
Ernest Daltroff was born to a middle class Russian immigrant family in 1867. His mother always put a tiny drop of perfume behind her sons' ears each night when she put them to bed.
He spent his young adult years travelling and then worked with a clothier but shortly after 1900 he began to learn the scents of flowers and fruits and quickly discovered that he had a strong olfactory memory. Without any formal training, he became a perfumer. He and his brother Raoul launched into business and in 1903, they moved to the former perfumer, Madame Anne-Marie Caron, business site and incorporated her name into the name of his new company with a vision of reaching an international audience. He established Parfums Caron, partly because the name was easily pronounced in many languages but also to avoid political conflicts due to his Russian last name.
A young milliner, Felicie Vanpouille, who worked on the same street, introduced him to her clients and became Daltroff's muse in 1904. The two were soon collaborators and it was Vanpouille who became responsible for the artistic design of bottles and packaging for Daltroff's scents. The company began to collaborate with Baccarat and Daums, premier glass makers.
The first famous scent, Narcisse Noir, made it's way to Hollywood and was so popular that in the 1940s the movie Black Narcissus was named for the popular scent, as well as receiving a mention from Gloria Swanson in the movie, Sunset Boulevard.
In 1918, Daltroff was invited to attend the Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries along with his rival Francois Coty. Daltroff walked away with the competition, and the American market opened before him.
Daltroff was inspired by current events. He created a special scent for those young women awaiting the return of lovers and husbands in WW1 called N'Aimez Que Mon, and after the war, when women began to openly smoke in public, Tabac Blond became a popular scent. In the early 1930's with the popularity of women aviators came a scent called En Avion
Daltroff created a prolific number of scents including Nuit de Noel. In 1923, he opened a store on Fifth Avenue in New York as well as a factory that produced three fourths of his business volume.
He continued to create lovely scents and finally launched a perfume meant for men, who had, until then, worn mainly colognes. His Pour Un Homme was launched in 1934 and is still popular today.
In 1939, Daltroff fled Paris due to strong anti-Semitism and moved to New York permanently. Daltroff died in New York in 1941. Felicie and her husband took up the reins of the Paris business and remained there until 1962. It was at this time that the company was acquired by another perfumer who trivialized the scents that had made Parfums Caron famous. But later, during another takeover by another company, the new company paid homage to Daltroff by again manufacturing his original scents as well as introducing new ones.
Many of the original scents are available today at the New York establishment. Some names are slightly changed from their original but the scents are the same. Among the collection is Nuit de Noel.
Daltroff's legacy as a master perfumer continues to live on and he is called 'artist' in the same vein that musicians and painters are artists.
I hope you all found this as interesting as I did. I enjoyed my little bit of research, all because an author of yester year liked a scent well enough to mention it in her book!
6 comments:
I am much better with it now but for over twenty years perfume made me so sick that I had to run from anyone wearing it. Church was a trial and we often had to get up and parade our entire family out of the service and go home. I am so glad that there seems to be less of it out in public now but I wish people could understand that it genuinely makes people sick and that wearing it makes others miserable.
How interesting!
I’ve never heard of putting perfume on children at bedtime.
Like you, I would love to smell this vintage fragrance.
Lana, I understand too well. I used to dread being near anyone who had on a heavy perfume and so many did! I love perfume but I try to choose scents that are light and not heavily floral. However, I have been across a parking lot from some men and women both and nearly gagged and got an immediate migraine because what they were wearing was applied too heavily.
Rhonda, Me too!
So very interesting! I love it when something I am reading leads to some interesting research - so fun. Like you, I have to be super careful with scents whether in cosmetics, perfumes or candles. Thanks for sharing!
This was quite interesting.
Wow! This was so interesting. Thanks for doing the research. I love stuff like this. I'd love to smell that scent too! Sounds very captivating.
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