HOUBIGANT One of the first compacts I bought when I began collecting was this little hexagonal Houbigant, which I d seen pictured in Juliette s Miller s Powder Compacts. Although the one I found is a single compact rather than the version with rouge that Juliette shows more of that later I love the finish on the lid, which is like a piece of marquetry on fine 18 th Century French furniture. The image of a basket of flowers, a phrase that sounds even more captivating in French, une corbeille de fleurs, evokes casually picking flowers in a country garden. Yet this basket, decorated with its blue ribbon, is pretty enough to be carried away from the garden and the flowers have been arranged to fall gracefully over its edge. This combination of elegance and rustic simplicity was very much in fashion for French aristocracy in the 18 th Century. Such taste reached a level of extravagance, when Queen Marie Antoinette played at being a shepherdess in the rural fantasy created around her small chateau, Petit Trianon. The French Revolution exacted a terrible revenge on such excess, but the name of Houbigant has survived and has a story to tell. The picture on this little compact takes us back to the origins of Houbigant, a classic French perfumery. Jean-François Houbigant was born in 1752 and opened a perfumery in 1775, when he was just twenty three years old. He chose premises in Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, which had already become a fashionable district. When Jean- François was opening at number 19, it was on the outskirts of Paris and considered to be in the countryside, fringed by the forest of Rouvray. A number of grand country houses had been built, but none grander than the Hôtel d'évreux, which by the mid 1770s had been enlarged by its new owner, Nicolas Beaujon, who was banker to the Court and unsurprisingly, fabulously wealthy. This great house is now the Élysée Palace, the official home of the French President and visitors to Paris will know that the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré is a wonderful shopping location for famous designer names such as Lanvin and Hermès. Houbigant was an early business catering to aristocratic and wealthy taste. Company legend tells the story that he arrived with a basket of flowers and had a sign made for his shop, À la corbeille de fleurs, using this name on his advertising handbills. He was a member of the Guild of Perfumers and Glovemakers, the two crafts being associated as perfume concealed the smell of the leather tannery. He made floral essences, pomades, wig powders and rouge, as perfume and make-up were used by both French aristocratic men as well as women.
Surprisingly, for a luxury business, it survived the Revolution and after Jean-François died in 1807 he was succeeded by his son, Armand-Gustave. Emperor Napoleon s wife Josephine used Houbigant scent and in 1838 Houbigant was appointed perfumer to Queen Victoria. The perfumery s clientele expanded during the 19 th Century and the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré attracted more craftsmen, such as Louis Vuitton, trunk maker and Thierry Hermès, saddler. Following Armand-Gustave s death in 1863, the business was taken on by perfumer, Paul Parquet. In the history of perfumery, he created a scent that marks the true beginning of modern perfumery, Houbigant s Fougère Royale. Perfume ingredients have always been expensive, derived from processing various natural substances. One such ingredient is coumarin, which was extracted from dried, fermented tonka beans. In 1882, Parquet was the first perfumer to use a newly formulated synthetic coumarin, which was considerably cheaper than the natural product. This was a great success story for Houbigant perfumery and the business expanded into premises world-wide. The company began some manufacturing in the USA where an office was opened in New York. Under Parquet s direction, manufacturing and laboratories were moved to Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, from where they were still operating in the 1930s, as early advertisements show. However, for compact collectors, Parquet s successor, Robert Bienaimé, created in 1912 the more significant scent, Quelques Fleurs, which was to prove the company s greatest success. With Quelques Fleurs Houbigant had a true multifloral scent and its compacts, powders and rouges came to be decorated with the image of a basket of flowers, evoking both this particular floral perfume and the company s heritage, À la corbeille de fleurs. Flower Baskets Three sizes of small, round compacts for compressed powder were advertised as a new presentation in 1923, designed especially for a lady s handbag. The caption reads, Un sac de dame n est pas complet sans la nouvelle Poudre Comprimée d Houbigant. ( A lady s bag is not complete without the new Houbigant compressed powder ) One of Juliette s archive advertisements shows that the flower basket design was available on these compacts and that powders were not only scented with Quelques Fleurs, but also Le Parfum Idéal, Mon Boudoir, Le Temps des Lilas, Un Peu D Ambre, La Rose France and Coeur de Jeannette. These days concern about allergies leads to cosmetic manufacturers advertising the absence of perfume in their products so different from earlier times when perfume was part of the attraction. A flower basket had become a popular motif in the 1920s and early 30s, so when compact hunting keep in mind that you might find it on other brands from this period. As an example, it is worth comparing the Houbigant basket with one used on small compacts for compressed powder by the English company, Dubarry Perfumery. Houbigant Dubarry c.1930 Houbigant hexagonal compact. Wood veneered effect with colourful flower basket. Inscribed Houbigant, Paris, New York on mirror frame. Powder godet with Houbigant impressed in powder. Perfect tiny silk puff with printed flower basket motif. Swirls engraved on gilt base. 50mm/1⅞ in. x 7mm deep.
Note the distinctive small latch to fasten the lid, which is found on other Houbigant compacts. The double compact can be found with either the mirror in the lid or in the centre and is deeper than the single version at 12mm/½ in. c.1927 Ref. advert from Ladies Home Journal shown in Laura Mueller Vol. 1, p.259, where it is pictured with flower basket motifs on the puffs and described as, the new double compact designed by a Parisian jeweler.
Insert included with a refill giving instructions for changing a powder godet and rouge godet.
Houbigant advertisement from the USA - May 1934
Pearl Grey hexagonal double compact A variation of the hexagonal compact with a flower basket was introduced c.1934 with a shaded grey background. At 55mm dia., it is slightly larger than the earlier double compact. Note the push-in catch rather than the familiar latch-style catch. Case is marked Houbigant on lid above catch. Metal lid covering the rouge serves as a mirror. Puff is marked Houbigant. Textured, silver-tone base. Ref. 1934 advertisement. Also Lynell Schwartz, on p.149 pictures an advertisement for 1934 in which this grey version is described, Houbigant, Inc. NewYork, has brought out a new double compact in a scratch-proof, chromium finished case with a pearl-gray top embellished in color with the Houbigant flower basket. The case is light in weight and convenient and contains the company s famous dull finish face powder. During the 1920s and 30s Houbigant regularly introduced new perfumes even after the creator of Quelques Fleurs left in 1935 to form his own business. A variety of new compact designs were advertised in the late 1920s and early 30s, including cases for mascara. Whilst showing fashionable art deco styles for compact cases, advertising emphasized the quality of the cosmetics inside. Although adverts in the mid-1930s were assuring customers in Europe and Australia that Houbigant do not allow their products to be made elsewhere, but in France a patent application for a vanity case with comb was filed by Houbigant, Inc. New York in 1931. During World War 2 luxury products in Britain and much of Europe were very scarce. However, perfume production did continue in France after the surrender of Paris in June 1940 to Nazi occupation and in 1941 perfumer Marcel Billot launched the scent Chantilly, which would become another Houbigant best-seller. In the same year, a new style slim compact was advertised in American magazines and was probably made in the USA. This slim style has a variation of the flower basket motif against a cream background with a diamond pattern resembling the mesh of a veil. Powder box c.1941 c.1941 USA Flower basket Slim style, cream with mesh pattern The style was available on rouge compacts and powder boxes and was used for Houbigant s new make-up range called Translucid, which also included liquid foundation in four shades. The range was described as New sheer make-up for sheer beauty. Tomorrow, see the beauty you ve dreamed of come true with Translucid Make-up thrillingly sheer created by Houbigant, treasure-house of fine beauty preparations for two centuries. Translucid is so diaphanous, so light a veil of beauty, it permits your own skin-tone to glow through giving you a loveliness that will thrill you and your mirror!
Hexagonal Golden Cockerel Highly unusual Houbigant double compact for compressed powder and rouge. The Golden Cockerel decoration is metal, not printed on or behind plastic and has the effect of damascene, which is typically a gold inlay onto steel. Date unknown, but likely to be late 1920s- early 1930s. Geometric Designs The full colour American advertisement for 1934 features several compacts that are likely to have been on sale a year or so earlier. For example, the silver-tone rouge and gold-tone powder compact at the top of the page and the lipstick and mascara are designs shown in a 1931 advert in The Ladies Home Journal. (Ref. Schwartz, p. 148) A patent for the striped quadruple vanity was first filed in 1931 by Jacques Manoha of New York, assignor to Houbigant, Inc. of New York and the patent was granted in 1932.
Segmented gold-tone compact Stamped Houbigant France on case. Engine-turned pattern on base. Framed glass mirror, sealed powder godet with Houbigant Paris impressed onto powder, which has undamaged cellophane cover. Green edged puff with paper label Rachel and label with Quelques Fleurs Houbigant Paris. With box. 35mm/1 ⅜in x 10mm/⅜ in deep. Dr. Mike Ashton advised that this compact was advertised in the UK in 1927. This small sized case was also used as a compact for rouge and a larger version at 47mm/1⅞ was available for compressed powder. Engine-turned modernistic design Platinum toned double vanity Ref. 1931 advert, The Ladies Home Journal for description, as shown by Lynell SCHWARTZ, p.148. It may have been available c.1929, i.e. a date for the larger triple vanity. Described on the box as a Necessaire 2 Pièces. Inner lid marked Houbigant covering the rouge. Compressed powder with unused puff. Cellophane over powder with Houbigant Quelques Fleurs Paris New York on label. Rouge has had cellophane removed. Framed glass mirror. Engine-turned base. 72mm/2 ¾ in. x 42mm/1⅝ in. A larger triple vanity, described as a Necessaire 3 Pièces, with a small lipstick in the centre and no inner lid covering the rouge, is shown by Mueller Vol. 2 p.90-91 with reference to a 1929 advert and called Platinum Tone. It is 3⅝ x 1¾ x ⅜ in. Both versions were also made in gold-tone.
Geometric striped enamel and silver-tone triple vanity. Vivid and beautiful enamelled lid with a fitted box marked Houbigant. Contains rouge, compressed powder and lipstick. 83mm/3¼ x 50mm/2 in x 10mm deep. Date unknown, but Schwartz shows a similar style with a chevron design on the lid. Ref. 1931 advert. Black, grey and silver-tone version. Case and lipstick marked Houbigant. Unmarked tortoiseshell small carryall with Houbigant lipstick This beautiful case has a compartment for cigarettes, a hinged framed mirror backed with tortoiseshell. A small latch-style catch, similar, but not identical, in shape to latches on many marked Houbigant compacts. The interior powder compartment is opened by a flange that overhangs the outside of the case. A metal clip holds a gold-tone lipstick marked Houbigant Paris that exactly fits the space. Pink swans-down puff. Date unknown. See Mueller Vol. 2 p. 198-199 for a carryall, which has a similar interior. Post War Houbigant struggled in the years post-world War 2 and by the 1960s was another once-great company that seemed out of step with changing fashions and the emphasis on youth. By the 1980s new finance into the business led to new perfume introductions, notably Raffinée (1982), Lutèce (1984) and Demi-Jour (1987). Quelques Fleurs was re-launched in 1988, but none of this worked for the company and in 1993 it filed for bankruptcy. In 1994, Houbigant sold the rights to produce 12 scents under its name to a new American company, Renaissance Cosmetics. This move was followed by litigation as Houbigant considered its brand name de-valued by the new owner s use of inferior ingredients and by taking the brand down-market. Houbigant had retained rights to Quelques Fleurs but by 1995 ceased to be independent. A company called Dana continued to sell Raffinée. In 2005, previous associates of the company acquired control of the name. The Houbigant name continues and its website shows that the present owners sell Quelques Fleurs in two versions, L Original and Royale, both of which were scathingly reviewed by perfume expert Luca Turin in his Guide. The Houbigant website also mentions a man s cologne, Duc de Vervins, launched in 1985 and still available. Perfume websites and blogs tell us that Houbigant s original scent, Fougère Royale had been re-formulated in conjunction perfume historian Roja Dove. It was launched in March 2011and priced at 105. Nothing remains of the cosmetics and compacts
that were such an important part of Houbigant s business those smart lipsticks and mascaras and deliciously scented rouges and powders sadly now history. Remember, when you add a Houbigant compact to your collection, you are preserving a little piece of a particularly French heritage of beauty and perfumery that began with a basket of flowers. From Face Facts editor Jenny Duncan This feature was first published in Face Facts May 2011 and has been revised for the website with additional photos in July 2015. I am grateful for information from Juliette. Advertisements featured are from Juliette s archive collection together with some compacts and other items. Other information from books cited below and internet searching. Members who have very kindly sent photos, supplied information or loaned compacts are: Jan Hynes and Mike Ashton. Compacts from the collections of the late Mary J. and Eileen G., which were pictured when the feature was first published, have been included. Thank you all for your help. References BARILLE, Elisabeth and LAROZE, Catherine. The book of perfume. Flammarion, 1995. EDWARDS, Juliette. Compacts. Juliette Edwards, 1994. EDWARDS, Juliette. Powder compacts a collector s guide. Millers, 2000. GROOM, Nigel. The perfume companion. Apple Press, 1999. MUELLER, Laura M. Collector s encyclopedia of compacts carryalls and face powder boxes. Vol.1 Collector Books, 1993. Vol.2 Collector Books, 1997. SCHWARTZ, Lynell. Vintage compacts and beauty accessories. Schiffer, 1997. TURIN, Luca and SANCHEZ, Tania. Perfumes The guide. Viking, 2008. www.perfumeintelligence.co.uk www.perfumeprojects.com