Parfums de Hennessy

Parfums de Hennessy was one of the most glamorous and theatrically imaginative perfume houses to emerge from New York during the early 1930s. Established in 1932 by Frank Reilly at 1457 Broadway in Manhattan, the company represented a fascinating fusion of American marketing flair and French luxury aesthetics. Although headquartered in New York, Parfums de Hennessy also maintained a branch in Paris, allowing the house to cultivate an aura of continental sophistication at a time when French perfumery still dominated the world’s imagination. The company flourished during the depths of the Depression era, paradoxically a time when escapist luxury goods such as perfume became emotionally important to consumers seeking fantasy, elegance, and emotional transport.

The Hennessy perfume line was remarkable for its sheer theatricality. Few American perfume houses of the era produced fragrance names so cinematic, romantic, and evocative. Rather than relying simply on floral or abstract names, Hennessy created entire moods and stories through perfume titles. Scents such as First Night at the Empire, New Year’s Eve in Havana, Moonlight on the Ganges, Two Hearts in Waltz Time, and Strictly Dishonorable evoke vivid scenes of nightlife, romance, travel, and intrigue. These perfumes did not merely promise pleasant fragrance; they invited the wearer into miniature worlds of glamour and imagination. The names feel distinctly rooted in the golden age of Broadway, Hollywood, ocean travel, and cosmopolitan nightlife — all especially seductive fantasies during the economic hardship of the 1930s.

Many of the fragrances also reflected contemporary popular culture. Strictly Dishonorable, for example, took its name from the famous 1929 Preston Sturges play that became a successful film in 1931, suggesting that the perfume was intended to capitalize on sophisticated theatrical scandal and modern romance. First Night at the Empire almost certainly referenced the glittering premieres and theatrical openings associated with New York’s grand cinemas and theaters, while New Year’s Eve in Havana conjured tropical nightlife, rumba rhythms, cocktails, moonlit balconies, and exotic escape. Even names such as L’Heure des Thé (“Tea Time”), Le Message de Violette, and Après Midi reveal the house’s distinctly French-inspired elegance and poetic sensibility.

The fragrance list itself was extraordinarily varied. Some perfumes emphasized floral romance, such as Jasmin, Moonlight and Roses, Rose Noire, Roses of Picardy, and Rose-Ebene. Others explored exoticism and atmosphere: Moonlight on the Ganges suggested an orientalist fantasy popular in the interwar period, while Jardin des Baghdad drew upon romanticized Middle Eastern imagery fashionable in Art Deco design and perfumery. Names such as Caballero and Sérénate carried Latin or Mediterranean overtones, hinting at passion and serenading romance. Even Deep Night — also known by its French title Nuit Profonde — possessed a dark, velvety sophistication entirely in keeping with the moody glamour of early 1930s evening perfumes.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of Parfums de Hennessy was the company’s devotion to luxurious presentation. The house commissioned exquisite crystal flacons from Baccarat, one of the world’s most prestigious glassmakers. At a time when many American perfume houses relied on relatively modest packaging, Hennessy embraced the highest level of French decorative arts craftsmanship. Baccarat created elegant Art Deco bottles for perfumes such as First Night at the Empire, New Year’s Eve in Havana, Nuit Profonde, Strictly Dishonorable, Two Hearts in Waltz Time, Moonlight and Roses, Caballero, Sérénate, and Rose-Ebene. These crystal flacons transformed the perfumes into objets d’art as much as beauty products.

Particularly striking was the Baccarat Art Deco bottle featuring a crescent moon-shaped stopper, used for Nuit Profonde and New Year’s Eve in Havana. The crescent moon motif perfectly reflected the nocturnal fantasy embedded in the perfume names themselves — moonlight, tropical evenings, jazz-age romance, and mysterious glamour. The bottle’s elegant silhouette later proved so timeless that modern niche perfume house Annick Goutal would eventually adopt the same Baccarat bottle form for its fragrance Songes. This continuity demonstrates the enduring sophistication of the original Hennessy presentation designs.

Several fragrances were later rebranded under new names while retaining their luxurious Baccarat bottles. Sérénate, for instance, was a renamed version of Caballero, presented in Baccarat design no. 734, while Rose-Ebene was a rebranding of Strictly Dishonorable. Such renaming practices were common in vintage perfumery, allowing houses to refresh marketing themes or adapt perfumes to changing tastes while continuing to use expensive existing bottle molds and presentations.

Today, Parfums de Hennessy occupies a fascinating niche in perfume history. Though the company does not appear to have survived beyond the mid-1930s, its surviving bottles are considered among the most beautiful examples of American Art Deco perfume design. The combination of poetic fragrance names, lavish Baccarat presentations, and the intoxicating glamour of Depression-era escapism gives the house an almost cinematic aura. To modern collectors, Hennessy perfumes represent more than fragrance alone — they are crystallized fragments of a vanished world of Broadway lights, midnight orchestras, tropical fantasies, and the sophisticated dream-life of 1930s luxury culture.

The perfumes of Hennessy:

• 1930 Guernsée
• 1931 Après Midi
• 1931 Deep Night/Nuit Profonde
• 1931 Easter on Fifth Ave
• 1931 First Night at the Empire
• 1931 Hennessy
• 1931 Jerzee
• 1931 L'Heure des Thé
• 1931 Le Message de Violette
• 1931 Molnar
• 1931 Moonlight on the Ganges
• 1931 New Year's Eve in Havana
• 1931 Strictly Dishonorable
• 1931 Two Hearts in Waltz Time
• 1932 Jasmin
• 1932 La Defaite du Corsaire
• 1932 Moonlight and Roses
• 1932 Rose Noire
• 1932 Roses of Picardy
• 1933 Caballero
• 1933 Drezden
• 1933 Sérénate
• 1934 Rose-Ebene
• 1935 Easter Parade
• 1935 Jardin des Baghdad

Bottles:

Hennessy produced exquisite luxury presentations using the finest Baccarat crystal flacons. The following perfumes were housed in Baccarat bottles: First Night at the Empire, New Year's Eve in Havana, Nuit Profonde, Strictly Dishonorable, Two Hearts in Waltz Time, Moonlight and Roses, Caballero, Serenate, Rose-Ebene.