CLEOPATRA'S BOUDOIR

Le Chevalier de la Nuit (Knight of the Night) was launched in France in 1923 by Parfums Ciro. It was introduced to America in 1924 according to some newspaper articles of the day.

It's exportation to the USA appears to have been halted in 1936 and was unavailable during World War II, it was  brought back as late as 1948, as it was advertised as " a recent arrival from Paris" and "Ciro's dashing perfume Chevalier de la Nuit, just returned in its elegant black bottle to make Christmas and linger with her all year long" according to two newspaper articles. I can not find any other newspaper reference to it after 1948. Ciro stopped making perfums in 1961.

The perfume was described as "a exotic, fascinating fragrance whose romantic overtones are beautifully expressed by its name, a lasting perfume, and particularly adaptable to furs. It has a singular sweetness,  not found in most heavy odors, and while it is a mysterious,intriguing and essentially a formal  perfume, it may be worn at any time of day."

A 1928 ad reads "Chevalier de la Nuit from Ciro is a perfume for the sophisticate. Smartly bottled and cased $10. And the toilet water is $8.50."

The bottle carries out the cavalier theme, in the shape of a suit of armor, a heart in its center, with it's stopper a visored, beplumed helmet. Its unusual bottle made it particularly appropriate for Christmas goft giving. The bottles came in black opaque glass, clear and frosted glass and also clear and frosted glass with gilded highlights.

The bottles were designed by Julien Viard and may have been made by Depinoix. Ciro's founder, Guy T. Gibson (JS Wiedhopf) filed a design patent for the bottle and was granted  patent number 68,779 on November 17, 1925.

The parfum bottles, in clear and frosted glass, came in various sizes:

• 7 1/2" tall
• 5 3/8" tall
• 4 3/4" tall
• 4 " tall
• 3 1/4" tall
• 2 3/8" tall

The black frosted glass bottle came in two sizes:

• 4 1/2" tall
• 4 3/4" tall

A Eau de Toilette bottle, in clear and frosted glass, was slightly different from the parfum flacon, and it had a shield shaped label, this bottle stood around 7 1/4" tall. 

Starting in 1931, a small cylindrical, clear glass bottle was also used, it had a small boule stopper made of clear glass and a tiny rectangular label. This bottle held 1 oz of parfum, stood 9cm tall, and was also used for other Ciro perfumes.