Collecting: La Castillere Scent Bottles

This guide explores a specific category of vintage mini perfume bottles that continue to captivate collectors today. Each of these charming bottles is distinguished by the mark "Made in France" inscribed on its base. This label not only signifies their French origin but also adds a layer of historical intrigue to these diminutive treasures.

Often encountered in various online marketplaces, these mini perfumes are celebrated for their elegance and craftsmanship. Despite their widespread availability, detailed information about their production and design remains elusive. This guide aims to shed light on these intriguing collectibles, offering insights into their historical context and the artistry behind their creation.

Initially, I assumed these miniatures were from the period between the 1920s and 1940s. However, after conducting thorough research, I was able to uncover their true production dates. This revelation offers a clearer understanding of their historical context and enhances our appreciation of these elegant, often elusive, pieces of perfume history.

La Castillere:

La Castillere was a short-lived Parisian luxury-goods company formally introduced in 1961 through a notice published in the Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales. Organized as a société à responsabilité limitée (S.A.R.L.), roughly comparable to a limited-liability company, it began with capital of 10,000 new francs. Its activities included the manufacture and sale of giftware, articles de Paris—fashionable decorative accessories associated with the Parisian fancy-goods trade—perfumes, jewelry and other luxury or novelty items, as well as their import and export. Its original head office was listed at 111 boulevard de Sébastopol in Paris, although a later notice gives the address as number 113.

The business began operating on January 2, 1961, after taking over an existing concern through a location-gérance, or lease-management agreement. The business assets were leased from Gabrielle-Adélaïde-Magdeleine Castan, née Beker, who was then a widow and became the company’s manager. Following her remarriage on August 2, 1963, she appeared in subsequent records as Madame Ollivier. She resided at 54 avenue de la Belle-Gabrielle in Nogent-sur-Marne, just outside Paris.

La Castillere also appears to have marketed a small perfume collection under its own name. The known fragrances are Chant d’Isles, meaning “Song of the Isles”; Pomme d’Amour, or “Love Apple,” the French expression traditionally associated with a candy apple; and Une Caresse, meaning “A Caress.” These romantic, evocative names suited a company specializing in attractive perfumes and luxury presentation pieces intended for the gift trade.

The company’s head office was transferred from boulevard de Sébastopol to 54 avenue de la Belle-Gabrielle, Nogent-sur-Marne, effective November 1, 1963. The lease-management arrangement granted by Madame Ollivier ended on November 1, 1966, and the company was formally dissolved on November 30 of that year. Madame Ollivier was appointed liquidator, and the cancellation of La Castillere’s registration was announced in 1967. Its documented existence was therefore brief—only about six years—helping to explain why its perfumes and surviving presentation pieces are now comparatively obscure and potentially difficult to find.

The Bottles:

La Castillere bottles are generally identified by the wording “La Castillere—Made in France,” either molded into the glass or printed on a label attached to the base. These marked examples date specifically to the 1960s. Their small, purse-sized format suggests that they were sold as affordable souvenir perfumes to tourists visiting French shops. They may also have been exported to the United States and offered through American department stores, gift shops and perfume counters during the same period.

The glass bottles were manufactured by Pochet et du Courval, the celebrated French glassworks that supplied flacons to numerous perfume houses. Its intertwined “HP” emblem can sometimes be found molded into the base. The bottles appeared most frequently in clear glass, although much scarcer examples were made in blue or milky opaline glass, sometimes described as opaline véritable. Their decoration could include silver-colored latticework, gilded details, hand-painted enameling or delicate etched patterns, giving even these small commercial bottles the appearance of miniature luxury objects.

Most examples were fitted with ornate silver-plated caps and an attached glass dauber for applying the perfume. The caps came in numerous designs, ranging from open Gothic-style filigree to richly cast floral patterns. Because the dauber is slender and fragile, it is often broken or entirely missing from bottles found today. Tarnished caps can sometimes be brightened with a tiny amount of mild silver polish, but they should be treated gently because vigorous polishing may wear through the thin silver plating.

Occasionally, a bottle survives with its original presentation packaging. The boxes were relatively simple, usually made from white cardboard covered in white or gilded paper and finished with a label bearing the perfume’s name. A small felt or suede pouch protected the bottle and gave the modest package a more luxurious appearance. Original boxes, pouches, labels and intact daubers add considerable interest to a surviving example.

When identifying a bottle, always inspect the underside carefully. A paper label may give the La Castillere name, the wording “Made in France” and the fragrance title, while other examples have “La Castillere France” molded directly into the glass. Since labels and daubers are easily lost, the embossed wording and glassmaker’s emblem can be especially valuable when confirming the bottle’s origin and date..

  

photos by etsy seller tropicalcreations

I believe that some of La Castillere’s unused bottles and presentation boxes were purchased by other perfume companies after the firm ceased operating. Although the glass itself is usually molded with the La Castillere name, surviving examples sometimes bear paper labels for Estee Lauder, Hélène Dale, Brajan or Oberon. These labels were commonly placed over the base, conveniently concealing the original molded wording while allowing the bottle to be marketed under a different brand.

When La Castillere was dissolved in 1966, its remaining inventory would have represented a valuable business asset. The liquidator may have sold unused bottles, caps, boxes and pouches in bulk to recover money for the company and its creditors. Surplus stock could have been acquired directly by another perfume house or passed through a glassware wholesaler, packaging supplier, jobber or liquidation dealer. A supplier holding La Castillere components that had been manufactured but never delivered might also have offered them to new customers rather than allowing perfectly usable merchandise to go to waste.

Purchasing this ready-made stock would have been economically attractive to smaller perfume firms. Designing a proprietary bottle required considerable expense for artists, molds, glass production, decoration and packaging. By acquiring finished or nearly finished La Castillere bottles, another company could introduce a perfume quickly and inexpensively, needing only to add its own fragrance and labels. The elaborate French-made bottles also gave an inexpensive perfume the appearance of greater luxury.

The placement of an Estee Lauder, Hélène Dale, Brajan or Oberon label directly over the molded La Castillere name strongly suggests deliberate rebranding rather than a simple retail sticker. However, unless invoices, liquidation records or trade notices are discovered, this remains a well-supported theory rather than a documented certainty. These unusually marked bottles are nevertheless fascinating evidence of how attractive packaging could outlive its original company and return to the market under an entirely different name.

Helene Dale:

The Hélène Dale gift shop operated at 5 rue de Presbourg and 7 rue Scribe in Paris, both conveniently situated in areas frequented by international visitors. The business appears to have begun around 1939 and was designed largely for the tourist trade. By 2001, Hélène Dale was listed at 37 boulevard des Capucines, another prominent location near the grand boulevards and the Paris Opéra district.

Hélène Dale was essentially a luxurious one-stop destination where travelers could purchase distinctly French gifts without searching through numerous specialist shops. Its selection reportedly included perfumes, gloves, beaded evening bags, leather handbags, umbrellas, dolls, mechanical French singing birds, scarves, wines, champagne, liqueurs, hats and men’s ties by leading designers such as Jacques Fath. This variety allowed tourists to buy presents for several people—and a few indulgences for themselves—all in one convenient location.

The shop was promoted to passengers aboard Air France flights as a reliable place to purchase gifts to take home. Such advertising reached tourists just as they were arriving in Paris and helped establish the store as a trusted, visitor-friendly destination. Travelers could bring the advertisement or remember the address, visit during their stay and select souvenirs that were easy to pack and unmistakably French. Perfume, scarves, gloves, jewelry and small decorative objects were particularly suitable because they conveyed Parisian luxury without requiring much luggage space.

Hélène Dale also encouraged purchases by offering discounts on costume jewelry when payment was made with travelers’ checks. Before credit cards became universally accepted, travelers’ checks provided visitors with a safer and more convenient alternative to carrying large amounts of cash. A shop accustomed to international customers could verify and accept them, while the advertised discount gave tourists an additional reason to spend their travel funds there.

The shop appears to have sold fragrance both under its own name and in bottles obtained from other sources. One known house perfume was Hélène Dale No. 7. Bottles carrying Hélène Dale labels but molded with the La Castillere name belong to the period after La Castillere’s closure—approximately 1967 through the 1970s—and should not be dated to Hélène Dale’s earlier years. These examples were likely drawn from surplus La Castillere stock and relabeled for sale through the Paris gift shop.

Oberon:

Oberon was a Parisian specialty shop located at 9 rue Scribe, an ideal position for attracting international visitors to the fashionable Opéra district. Active from the 1920s into the 1970s, the store offered the type of elegant French merchandise that tourists were eager to take home: Kislav gloves, fine handkerchiefs, beaded purses, dolls, neckwear, liqueurs, fashionable novelties and Haviland and other Limoges porcelains. Like Hélène Dale, Oberon functioned as a convenient destination where travelers could assemble an assortment of unmistakably French gifts in one visit.

Perfume formed an important part of Oberon’s selection. The store carried fragrances from established houses such as Fragonard, Lamballe, Nina Ricci and Mercœur, while also offering perfumes under the Oberon name. One of these was Une Caresse—“A Caress”—a name also associated with La Castillere. This overlap, together with bottles bearing La Castillere’s molded signature beneath Oberon labels, suggests that Oberon may have acquired and repackaged surplus La Castillere stock after that company was dissolved.

Consequently, an Oberon-labeled bottle molded with the La Castillere name should date from approximately 1967 through the 1970s, rather than from Oberon’s earlier decades. The age of the retailer alone does not determine the bottle’s date; the La Castillere glass establishes the earliest possible period for this particular combination of bottle and label.

A 1939 advertisement shows that Oberon was already marketing its own perfumes long before its association with La Castillere bottles. It promoted three “enchanting” two-dram fragrances—Gaiety, Gardenia and On Top—priced at one dollar. Their presentation was especially appealing: each bottle had a hand-cut crystal, jewel-like applicator top offered in rose, blue or champagne. These colorful miniature flacons combined fragrance with the appearance of costume jewelry, making them affordable yet glamorous souvenirs of Paris.

Brajan:

Les Parfums Brajan was established in Paris in 1926 by Ernest Weil and Georges Levy-Say. Located at 17 rue Saint-Florentin, the company introduced a range of fragrances during the late 1920s and early 1930s, participating in the flourishing perfume industry of the Art Deco period. Its fashionable Paris address and distinctive name gave the house an appropriately elegant identity for marketing perfume and luxury presentation pieces.

It is important, however, not to date every Brajan-labeled bottle to the company’s original Art Deco years. Any example bearing a Brajan label but molded with the La Castillere name must be considerably later, dating from approximately 1967 through the 1970s. La Castillere did not begin operating until 1961, and its remaining bottles apparently became available for reuse only after the company was dissolved in 1966.

These later bottles were probably filled and relabeled with the Brajan name after surplus La Castillere stock entered the wholesale or liquidation market. Their appearance therefore reflects the practical reuse of attractive French packaging rather than Brajan’s original 1920s production. When dating one of these bottles, the molded La Castillere signature is more reliable than the older perfume-house name printed on the label.