CLEOPATRA'S BOUDOIR

In this guide I have listed the various perfumes produced by Gabilla  of 29 avenue Marigny, Paris.

Established in 1910 by Henriette Gabilla, a Syrian perfumer and cosmetician. Gabilla was a major exporter of luxury to lower priced presentations worldwide. It is reported by Nigel Groom that Gabilla started creating fragrances in the 1890s and her first perfume under her own name was Mon Cherie. Henriette moved to 6 rue Edouard VII in Paris and purchased a perfume factory in 1910 located 203 rue de Paris, Ivry-Sur-Seine.

Gabilla also created perfumes and presentations for other companies such as Ciro. Gabilla created the first perfume presentations for Ciro and La Grande Maison de Blanc introduced their own perfumes using Gabilla creations in 1926. La Grand Maison le Blanc bought Gabilla’s Moda fragrance and renamed it La Grand Maison le Blanc. The perfume Mae West was created for the voluptuous film star in 1934 and launched by her own label Wesmay. The perfume‘s slogan was “loaded with allure“. Gabilla created a perfume in 1920 named Tous Les Bouquets, and in 1923, sold it to Woolworth’s Department stores. In 1926, the perfume of Tout le Printemps was created, and later sold to Bourjois in 1932, who may have renamed it Springtime in Paris.

Gabilla also purchased perfumes from other companies, such is the case with Lubin’s perfume for Gaby, which Gabilla launched in 1920. The printing company of Marboef et Cie supplied Gabilla’s labels, papers and presentation boxes, most notably for the perfume Hossegor.

The best example of Gabilla’s influence over other designers would be for the perfume, My Sin. My Sin, first introduced by Gabilla in 1927 was created by in house perfumer Madame Zed. The flacon, of black crystal and gilded accents was designed by Julien Viard and produced by Depinoix. This beautiful perfume flacon and name had inspired Jeanne Lanvin to create her own version of My Sin, complete with a similar looking bottle by Armand Rateau. Interestingly, the Gabilla flacon was also produced in clear crystal, again accented in giding and used for other scents such as Minnie in 1920.

The whimsical and simplified floral motifs drawn by Georges Lepape and Charles Martin and Georges Barbier, were soon a favorite style of Henriette Gabilla’s and informal versions of these designs were found on her early labels and bottles. Perfumes such as Violette and Pour Changer were contained in simple, but graceful bottles.

Henriette Gabilla had made friends with notable French writers and poets, such as Colette and Edmond Rostand. One of Gabilla’s first perfumes, Musardises was named after Rostand’s first book of poetry. The 1912 flacon for Musardises was elegantly enameled and may have been created by Georges Lepape. Another perfume was introduced in 1912, Minnie, named for one of Colette’s plays co-written with her husband from 1905. In 1918, Minnie was reintroduced in a flacon created by Baccarat chief designer Georges Chevalier, and produced by their glassworks in a rare, silvered opalescent crystal. It has been said that Colette’s favorite perfume was Jasmin by Gabilla.

Another Baccarat flacon was created for the perfume Moda, which resembled the outline of a fashion sketch with a hat like stopper, decorated with an oversized gilded silk tassel and childlike enameled floral designs. The clear crystal flacon for Mimosa, from 1921, employed a large domed green enameled crystal stopper as the focal point for a rather bland Baccarat flacon. Gabilla won the Prix d’honneur in 1925.

Gabilla’s perfume, La Vierge Folle (The Mad Virgin) was directly inspired by the title name of a play by Henri Bataille about a young girl who fell in love with an older man. The perfume was first created by Henriette Gabilla in 1910 and the flacon was later produced by Baccarat in 1910.

An early Gabilla flacon was made for the perfume La Reve de Gabilla, the Dream of Gabilla. This gorgeous satin finished bottle was accented with sepia patina in the recessed. The exquisite presentation case was covered with red velvet and jeweled and gilded silk threads reproducing a fabulous Renaissance era tapestry found in the Cluny Museum in Paris.

Starting in 1919, a series of commemorative perfumes were created for the first World War, this included: Fausse Alertes, Fleurs de Victoire, Heures Breves, Minuites Breves, Minuites Cheres, Minuites Revées, Nuits d'Alertes, La Fruité des Heures , Oublions L'Heure and Tic Tac.

Julien Viard lent his imagination to an existing Baccarat flacon used for other Gabilla scents, this time, in 1924, he softened the angular lines and added delicate stenciled perfume names onto the front of the bottles. Each perfume had a brass cap that was enameled on the top. These enameled tops matched the particular colors of the presentations boxes for certain perfumes. These color coded perfumes were red for Fleur du Jour, green for Musardises and cream for Moda.

Although Gabilla is most noted for their sumptuous flacons, it is possible to find some Gabilla scents contained within Baccarat’s early apothecary styled flacons, this practice by Gabilla started in 1923 as a type of “reverse snobbery” and a return to more simplistic presentations.

The whimsical and simplified floral motifs drawn by Georges Lepape and Charles Martin and Georges Barbier, were soon a favorite style of Hernriette Gabilla’s and informal versions of these designs were found on her early labels and bottles. Perfumes such as Violette and Pour Changer were contained in simple, but graceful bottles.

The flacon for Chin-Li was completely different, a modern type of presentation by Depinoix for Gabilla, combined vivid colors of green, blue, red, orange and yellow in its presentation.

A very unusual presentation created for Gabilla was for the perfume for Mon Talisman. Consisting of an opaque white crystal flacon enhanced with gilding, this Baccarat produced bottle came in two sizes, from a very large 10 5/6” to a diminutive 3 1/2” tall example

. Other Baccarat flacons were produced for the following perfumes: Réveillon (Revillon), Folies de Femme, Tango, Tout le Printemps, Xantho, Mon Cheri, Gardenia and Mimosa.

I have seen a 1926 advertisement for Xantho perfume, it made clear that the perfume bottle could be purchased with different colored crystal stoppers, in sapphire, emeralda, black diamond, ruby and amethyst.

Rene Lalique supplied beautiful crystal flacons for Gabilla’s Jasmin, Tout le Fleurs, Glycine and Lilas. The box for Jasmin also a luxury object, echoed the bottle’s floral pattern, complete with a hanging floral paper medallion attached by a silken tassel.

The designer Daillet lent his imagination for the creation of the flacon for Violette in 1912, in both green and clear crystal, each bottle was accented with enameling and is very Art Nouveau in character.

The perfumes of  Gabilla :

1902 La Vierge Folle

1910 Mon Cherie

1910 Fleur de Jour

1910 Folle Passion, reissued in 1956

1910 La Vierge Folle, reissued in 1931

1910 Mon Cheri, reissued in 1931

1911 Xantho

1912 Minne, reissued in 1931

1912 Violette

1912 La Rose de Gabilla

1912 Le Bouquet de Gabilla

1912 Le Rêve de Gabilla

1912 Musardises,reissued in 1927

1913 L’Ambre de Gabilla

1914 Le Secret de Marguerite

1917 Pour Changer

1918 Moda, reissued in 1931

1918 Réveillon/Révillon

1919 Fausse Alertes

1919 Folie de Femme

1919 Heures Breves

1919 La Fruité des Heures

1919 Les Jeux et Les Ris

1919 Minuites Breves

1919 Minuites Cheres

1919 Minuites Revées

1919 Nuits d'Alertes

1919 Oublions L'Heure

1919 Tic Tac

1919 Vincha

1920 Gaby

1920 Amour Americain

1920 Tous Les Bouquets

1921 Longchamp

1922 Le Reve

1922 Ambre de Gabilla

1922 Le Succes

1922 Eau de Verveine

1922 Chrysantheme

1922 Fleuri

1922 Columbine

1922 Fougere

1922 La Bouquet

1922 Foin Coupe

1922 Ambre Merveilleux

1922 Marguerites

1922 Cordiality

1922 Petite Folie

1922 Musc du Tonkin

1922 L'Ambre

1922 Opoponax

1922 Pa-Ri-Ki-Ri

1922 Peau d'Espagne

1922 La Violette de Gabilla

1922 Tout le France

1922 Tout le Printemps

1923 L’Intrigant

1924 Chypre

1924 Gaby Deslys

1924 Hauthro

1924 Chin-Li

1924 Fleur de Jour

1925 De Tout Un Peu

1925 Jasmin

1925 La Violette

1925 Lilas

1925 Folies de Femme

1926 Bruyere

1926 Toutes Les Fleurs

1925 Millefleur

1925 Sais-Tu?

1925 Tango

1926 Bruyere

1926 Pois de Senteur

1926 Narcisse

1926 Mon Talisman

1926 Tout le Printemps

1926 Glycine

1926 Jasmin

1926 Gardenia

1926 Muguet

1926 Mimosa

1926 Xantho

1926 Rose

1926 Mimosa

1926 Heliotrope

1927 My Sin

1928 Bijou D'Amour

1929 Hossegor

1929 Seneca

1930 La Glycine

1930 La Jasmin de Gabilla

1930 Luce et Colas

1930 Œillet

1931 Longchamps

1932 XYZ

1933 Oui ou Non?

1933 Sinful Soul

1933 Vineuil

1935 Mae West

1936 Reve A Deux

1937 Tango

1938 Quadrille

1938 Intrigue

1940 Dream For Two

1940 Foolish Virgin

1953 Fredaines

These other names are recorded for Gabilla, but I am unsure of their launch dates: Chauve-Souris Paquette, Reve a Deux.

The House of Gabilla has been ressurrected, I will keep you abreast of any info..