This perfume bottle archive was nearly lost. Now, it offers a rare whiff of fragrance history

Along with vertiginous hemlines, skyscrapers, and the Fox Trot, the 1920s brought on a golden age of perfume. Changing social mores, advances in chemistry, and savvy marketing gave rise to bold, hypnotic fragrances like Chanel No. 5, Guerlain Shalimar, Coty L'Aimant and Lanvin Arpège – all with luxurious bottles to match.

The Great Depression brought a halt to that champagne-fizz era and demand for fine French fragrances plummeted along with the stock market. Coty responded by slashing prices. Other companies simply shuttered.

One such business was the Cristalleries de Nancy, a French crystal manufacturer that was one of the nation’s finest (its founder, Jules Alexis Bayet, cut his teeth at Baccarat). At its apex in the mid-1920s, Cristalleries de Nancy was not only producing glittering homewares, like vases and glasses, but jewel-like art deco perfume bottles for Guerlain and Saks Fifth Avenue. Bayet even tapped Nancy local Jean Prouvé to design the door of the company's headquarters.

50 perfume bottle-design blueprints emerge for sale

In 1936, the glassworks dissolved, as did its creative legacy. But a remarkable discovery will inevitably have fragrance lovers and decorative art historians alike back on the scent of this historic crystal manufacturer. Paris-based book dealer Nicolas Malais heard through an intermediary that an archive of some 300 original drawings and blueprints from Cristalleries de Nancy had been located, among them, some 50 exquisite renderings of atomisers, cut-crystal perfume bottles and more.

‘I am always looking for archives linked to art nouveau and art deco,’ Malais explains. ‘Cristalleries de Nancy used to be as important as Baccarat in the beginning of the 20th century, and they were working everywhere, from Europe to the United States to South America.’

Highlights of the collection include drawings of a bottle criss-crossed by a jubilant, Jazz Age palm; a slender flacon topped by a zig-zag stopper; and cerulean blueprints showcasing designs for Saks Fifth Avenue.

Malais reckons the documents were passed down through the decades by a family member affiliated with the glassworks. The images, therefore, mark a rare survivor of art deco decorative art history while offering an unprecedented glimpse into the art of 1920s perfume-making. ‘It’s very uncommon to find blueprints and drawings about perfume like this. It's the memory of the art deco period,’ he insists.

Malais and his gallery, Cabinet Chaptal, will be offering the perfume archive for sale as part of the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, to be held at the Park Avenue Armory from 3 to 6 April 2025. The portfolio will be priced at approximately $7,500 (€7,000).

What kind of collector will be interested in such a find? ‘It could be different kinds of collectors,’ Malais reckons. ‘It could be a museum of decorative art. But it’s also possible that it will be sold to an artistic director, or someone who is working for a company and is looking for ideas from the past.’

No matter where these artefacts call home next, one thing is certain, says Malais: ‘If you are looking to be inspired by the past, this is a wonderful way to find it.’

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