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A Note From The Founders...

Seven incredible years of Perfume Passage! So much has changed from our grand opening in 2019 to today; our journey has been remarkable in more ways than we could have ever imagined!

We’ve added a treasure trove of new items to our collections, introduced exciting experiences for our visitors and expanded our tours to make your time with us even more enjoyable.

In this issue, we're happy to share some of the changes we've made and showcase the expanding exhibits throughout the galleries. Join us as we celebrate our journey together!

Sincerely,

Jeffrey and Rusty, Co-founders

Perfume Passage began as a vision to capture the history and beauty of perfume. It soon became a labor of love to create the ideal environment to inspire others about the world of perfume, vanity items and ephemera through the ages!

The four galleries at Perfume Passage tell a story from the ancient to the contemporary, showcasing everything from Victorian elegance to Art Deco flair. There's also a fully restored American drugstore from the 1880s, which offers visitors a glimpse into the past.

Jeffrey shared his enthusiasm, saying, "We've both worn cologne since our college days, and that grew into a passion for collecting vintage men's fragrances and contemporary scents. We love the memories tied to scent -- where we were, why we chose a particular one, and what drew us to it. Our excitement for exploring, collecting and wearing fragrances is still going strong!"

"When we began planning Perfume Passage, we knew we wanted to create a place that would preserve the history, artistry and beauty of perfume bottles and related vanity items," Rusty added.

We celebrated the grand opening of Perfume Passage in May 2019, coinciding with the International Perfume Bottle Association’s annual convention. Over 350 attendees explored the galleries, becoming the first visitors to view the exhibits.

Immediately after opening, we began offering individual and group tours, made changes to exhibits, added new acquisitions and rotated displays.

Our goal is to make Perfume Passage a must-visit destination for both first-time and returning visitors, collector groups and perfumers!

Tours begin in the Passageway, where the skylights bring the outdoors inside, giving you the feeling that you're taking a journey back to the Golden Age of Perfumes, strolling through the early 1900s Parisian shopping arcades!

The storefront windows chronicle the changing times, but the beauty, luxury and grandeur of the collections are timeless.

The displays are filled with artifacts and decor from iconic French and American perfume houses like Caron, Coty, Guerlain, Houbigant, Richard Hudnut, Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein and Vantine.

Exciting new pieces have been added to the window displays that you won't want to miss! 

A new display of Penhaligons is featured in the Passageway. Founded in 1870 by William Penhaligon, the British perfume house began as a barbershop in London. They've been known for luxurious and innovative scents ever since and are a favorite of Jeffrey and Rusty!

A beautiful porcelain hot air balloon has a basket that holds a bottle of Caron's Nuit de Noel fragrance. With only 300 pieces made, this limited edition is number 71 from the early 2000s. It's now front and center in the Caron window in the Passageway!

New items added to the Richard Hudnut window include this perfume lamp and other display pieces.

The Mt. Washington Soda Fountain and Drugstore in Haverhill, MA opened in 1882. The apothecary offered all the goods and services of a typical drugstore from the turn of the 20th century.

They were in business until 1984, when the interior was disassembled piece by piece and stored in a warehouse for years. It was purchased in 2013 and completely restored with the original cabinets, drawer pulls and leaded glass fixtures.

The interior soda fountain features a marble counter and original syrup fountain that still works. Ice cream can be served to visitors as they view all the items on display in the drugstore!

The 130 "discovery drawers" in the Perfume Passage drugstore, which once held medicines and toiletries, now house a variety of unusual items from our collection. Jeffrey, Tai and Rusty opened every drawer, adding new treasures and rearranging the displays! You'll love opening them all to see what surprises await you!

The inspiration for the deco gallery at Perfume Passage came from the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris.

The Rene Lalique display in the shape of a circular case was situated in the center of the Expo's perfume pavilion, and the glass ribbons on top of the case symbolized a water fountain.

When visitors enter our deco gallery, Lalique's fountain designs at either end of the room are immediately noticeable, and the breathtaking atmosphere of the gallery transports you back in time.

The fountain theme continues throughout the room from the light sconces to the custom stained-glass doors of the gallery. Even the flowing water and ribbons of a water fountain appear as part of the design of the terrazzo floor.

As you wander in the gallery, you'll discover an array of showcases featuring deco-designed perfumes, compacts and powder boxes. In addition, the room houses the Lalique, Devilbiss and Czech collections. 

Additional displays highlight the perfume bottles and vanity items created by a variety of fashion designers, including Chanel, Dior, Schiaparelli, Patou, Rochas and Lanvin.

Contemporary perfumes introduced by well-known entertainers have been added to the deco gallery.

Newly acquired Czech perfume bottles and vanity items can be discovered in the display, located at the west end of the room.

Recent additions to our Italian collection are on display!

The piece de resistance of the Perfume Passage galleries is the Vault, highlighting some of the oldest, most cherished and coveted treasures of the collection!

Custom murals line the walls of this showcased room, illustrating the timeline and magnificence of perfume through the ages!

New items have been added to several of the displays throughout the room.

The art of cameo incrustation, called "sulphide," was introduced around 1750 and the images found on perfume bottles are often related to historical events and well-known people. Sulphides were cast from a mixture of ceramics and glass paste and then encased in glass and then fire-polished and finished.

There were several established glass makers in Europe that produced sulphide perfumes, jewelry, glassware and paperweights. Apsley Pellatt was an important English glassmaker during the early 1800s and his London Pellat and Green company produced quality sulphides from 1819 to around 1850. Several of the bottles in the display were made by Pellat and Green.

Napoleon Bonaparte sparked interest in Egypt in the early 19th century, a fascination that continued through the building of the Suez Canal in the 1860s and surged after the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb. 

Tutankhamun, or King Tut, ruled Egypt from 1333 BCE when he was just nine, until his death in 1323 BCE, when he was still in his teens.

The unearthing of his tomb ignited a widespread demand for Egyptian-inspired design, and the Egyptian Revival style (1880-1930) soon influenced everything from decorative arts to architecture.

A wonderful display of Egyptian-themed perfume bottles is on view in the Vault.

Serge Mansau (1930-2019) was a well-known French sculptor, artist and designer who specialized in creating perfume bottles for nearly every fashion and perfume house for over 50 years.

He began working with Helena Rubinstein in the late 1950s, designing a perfume bottle for her new "Skin Dew" fragrance.

Mansau gained international recognition in the perfume industry, creating over 300 perfume bottles for many well-known cosmetic houses.

In the vault, you will discover prototypes of several bottles and marketing concepts created by Mansau as well as additional perfumes found in the past few years, designed by him.

As passionate collectors, we're always on the lookout for perfume bottles and vanity items that spark our curiosity. Researching the stories behind these treasures, including the perfumers, designers and manufacturers, is never-ending! The internet, catalogs and auction catalogs are like gold mines, often revealing surprising details that never cease to amaze us. 

Since our grand opening, we’ve expanded Perfume Passage displays into the lower level, showcasing nearly 30 additional perfume and vanity exhibits and displays!

Enjoy a sneak peek at some of the items waiting for you on your next visit!

Factices are perfume bottles made by manufacturers for display and advertising purposes. Perfume lovers and collectors often used them for decoration and interior design filling them with colored water.

A factice wall was recently constructed adjacent to the stairway going from the lower level to the second floor. The lighting in the cabinets make the bottles glow!

In the early 1920s, even though public use of cosmetics was still frowned upon, the sight of women using makeup in public was becoming more common.

More than ever before, women – especially young women – wanted to have their essential cosmetics available any time they needed to use them. This demand coincided with the increasing manufacture of ladies' compacts that included face powder, rouge and lipsticks. 

The changing times allowed courageous women to establish businesses that provided a variety of beauty products.

An expanded display showcasing trailblazing female entrepreneurs, including Helena Rubinstein, Elizabeth Arden, Madame CJ Walker, Dorothy Gray and Harriet Hubbard Ayers, among others, is located on the lower level.

Paris-born Jean Paul Gaultier is a legendary French fashion designer known for his daring and unconventional creations. From striking corsets to playful motifs like tin cans and iconic stripes, his designs are anything but ordinary!

Gaultier launched his own fashion label in 1982 and introduced fragrances in 1993, beginning with Classique. He was also the creative director for the French luxury fashion house Hermes from 2003 to 2010.

One of Rusty's all-time favorite fragrances is the original Jean-Paul Gaultier Le Male from the 1990s, with its eye-catching green striped bottle! 

Although face powder has been used for centuries to whiten and add color to the complexion or to hide beauty flaws, the colorful decorative cardboard face powder boxes became popular in the late 1800s through the 1940s. 

These cardboard boxes came in round, square and sarcophagus shapes, and many of the boxes were decorated with colorful images inspired by Art Nouveau and Art Deco designs.

A beautiful display of powder boxes and vintage powder puffs is now on display on the lower level.

Formerly called the California Perfume Company (CPC), Avon was founded by David H. McConnell (1858-1937), a traveling book salesman. He gave free samples of perfumes while doing door-to-door book sales and soon realized his female customers were more interested in his perfumes than his books.

In 1886, McConnell formed the CPC and blended all of the company's perfumes until 1896, when he hired an experienced perfumer.

In 1939 the company changed its name to Avon Products Inc. Today, Avon has grown from a small New York perfume company into a global cosmetics and fragrance industry. Avon has created jobs to help support women, and some men, around the world. There are now Avon representatives on five continents and in over 100 countries.

A variety of vintage ladies' accessory items, including purses, enamel powder boxes and vanities, are now showcased on the lower level. The display also includes exquisite gold and sterling powder compacts and lipsticks adorned with gemstones, crafted by renowned jewelry houses like Tiffany, Cartier and Boucheron!

Perfume fans refer to the following:

• fans that are perfumed 
• fans that advertise perfumes or a perfume company
• fans that are perfumed and advertise perfumes or a perfume company

L.T. Piver, one of the oldest French perfume houses, produced some of the most beautiful perfume advertising fans in the early 1900s. Nearly 40 different Piver designs have been found on advertising fans!

Additional well-known French perfume houses that used perfume fans to promote their products include Rosine, Bourjois and Rigaud.

A new display with a variety of perfume fans, along with ladies' hatpins is located on the lower level.

A beautiful vintage wrought iron vanity table, is now located on the lower level adorned with dresser items. A stunning silk robe made by the A.A. Vantine company from the mid-1910s is on display next to the vanity. Similar robes were offered for sale in the Vantine catalogs from $3.00-$7.00.

Perfume Passage accomplishements over the past seven years include:

• Increasing our presence across social media, sharing information and our collections on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at @perfumepassage. Tai Auran is the Social Media Director at PPF and his videos sharing the collections and their histories have generated thousands of followers!

• Expanding the Perfume Passage Library to include nearly 4,000 books, catalogs and magazines. In addition, educational materials were developed, including this bimonthly PassageWAY eNews and Journal magazine, both highlighting the known history of specific items and manufacturers in our collection.



• Establishing PPF Publishing, directed towards collectors and authors, to provide educational content and resources on vintage perfumes, compacts, related vanity items and ephemera.

Construction is moving full speed ahead, and every week brings visible progress. The walls, ceiling and display areas are taking shape, and the transformation is becoming more exciting by the day. We can’t wait to share the next phase with you as the space continues to evolve.

Here are a few women waiting to attend the grand opening. Each is a perfume bottle released by the Italian company La Ducale. The porcelain was made by Porcellane Canova in Padova, Italy.

Follow us on Instagram to see the progress and updates and upcoming news about the grand opening. We look forward to hosting your visit in the autumn.



The Art of Montral - Powder Watch Compacts, 1927 - 1931

In the bustling streets of Paris during the late 1920s and early 1930s, a short-lived yet immensely creative company emerged whose designs captured the glamour and elegance of the Art Deco era. The French Montral company epitomized the spirit of the time, and authors and collectors Howard W. Melton and Anne de Thoisy-Dallem capture the previously unknown history of Montral in their book, The Art of Montral Powder Watch Compacts 1927-1931.

Through documentation, patents and known compact examples, this rich history tells a tale of luxury, creativity and the pursuit of beauty in an era marked by unprecedented social and cultural transformation.

Upcoming tour dates are now available on our site with more dates added often.

Our mission is to preserve the history, beauty and artistry of perfume bottles, compacts, ephemera and related vanity items. Through education, outreach, and awareness of the Perfume Passage collection and library, our goal is to inspire art lovers, collectors, artists and curators to keep this history alive. 

Perfume Passage Foundation perfumepassage.org