The Imperial Crown Perfumery Co. was one of the great American perfume and toilet goods manufacturers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Established in St. Louis, Missouri in 1852 as a subsidiary of the powerful Meyer Brothers Drug Company, the company developed during a period when American perfumery was rapidly evolving from small apothecary blending operations into sophisticated commercial fragrance houses capable of competing with imported European goods. Imperial Crown Perfumery specialized in perfumes, colognes, toilet waters, cosmetics, and scented toiletries, producing an enormous catalog that reflected both Victorian floral tastes and the increasingly modern fragrance fashions of the early twentieth century. Despite its name, it should not be confused with the entirely separate Crown Perfumery Company of England.
The company emerged from St. Louis’ importance as a commercial and manufacturing center in the American Midwest. Through Meyer Brothers Drug Company’s extensive wholesale distribution network, Imperial Crown products reached pharmacies, department stores, and general merchants across the United States. Their perfumes were marketed as refined, fashionable, and accessible luxuries, often packaged in elegant presentation bottles and sold alongside soaps, powders, toilet waters, and cosmetic preparations. By the turn of the century, Imperial Crown had become one of the largest and most recognizable American perfume manufacturers outside the East Coast.
Imperial Crown’s fragrance catalog was astonishingly broad and reveals the changing tastes of American consumers over nearly fifty years. The earliest perfumes from the 1880s reflected classic Victorian floral perfumery, dominated by soliflores and romantic bouquet compositions. Perfumes such as Tea Rose, White Rose, Marechal Niel Rose, Magnolia, Stephanotis, Wood Violet, Heliotrope, Tube Rose, Orange Flower, Pond Lily, Wild Olive, and Night Blooming Cereus celebrated highly recognizable botanical themes. Many were intended to recreate the scent of a single flower as faithfully as possible, following the nineteenth-century fascination with floral language and sentimental symbolism. Others, such as Bridal Bonnet, Upper Ten, West End, and Newport Breeze, evoked fashionable society, leisure, and upper-class refinement.
The company also embraced the lush bouquet style popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Fragrances like Millefleurs, Ess Bouquet, Mousseline Bouquet, Coronation Bouquet, World’s Fair Bouquet, and Ottoman Bouquet likely blended numerous floral notes into rich, layered compositions. These names reflected the era’s love for opulent complexity and elaborate perfumed identities. Several perfumes drew direct inspiration from European sophistication and aristocratic imagery, including Marie Stewart, La Tosca Bouquet, Duchesse Eau de Cologne, Louis XV, Monte Carlo Eau de Cologne, and Parfum Imperial.
By the 1890s and early 1900s, Imperial Crown increasingly adopted exotic and cosmopolitan inspirations. Fragrances such as Circassian Frangipanni, Peau d’Espagne, Yatigan, Tonquin Musk, Ottoman Violet, Ottoman Lily, Blue Lotus, Nippon Cherry Blossoms, and Sandalwood reflected the era’s fascination with Orientalism and distant lands. Like many perfume houses of the period, Imperial Crown used evocative names to suggest mystery, luxury, and foreign elegance, regardless of whether the actual formulas contained authentic materials from those regions. These perfumes likely employed increasingly sophisticated synthetic aroma chemicals that allowed perfumers to reproduce exotic florals and fantasy accords at affordable prices.
Imperial Crown was especially prolific in violet perfumes, which were enormously fashionable during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The catalog included Imperial Violet, San Remo Violet, Swiss Violet, Violette Blanche, Violette de Parme, Rookwood Violet, Parma Wood Violet, Blue Violets, Ideal Violet, Hot House Violet, Symphony Violet, and Violita. This extraordinary number of violet fragrances demonstrates both the enduring popularity of ionone-based violet accords and the company’s skill at marketing subtle variations on fashionable themes. Violet fragrances symbolized refinement, modesty, and elegance, making them staples of feminine perfumery during the period.
The company also produced a large range of colognes and toilet waters, reflecting the importance of refreshing personal scents in daily grooming rituals before widespread indoor climate control. Their offerings included Florida Water, Bay Rum, Witch Hazel Eau de Cologne, Lavender Water, Imperial Crown Cologne, No. 54 Cologne, La Seule Cologne, and German Farina Eau de Cologne. Such products were often used liberally after bathing, shaving, or during hot weather and occupied an important place in American domestic toilette culture.
Imperial Crown demonstrated remarkable marketing adaptability by tying fragrances to contemporary events and social trends. Louisiana Purchase Centennial Perfumes likely commemorated the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and the centennial celebrations associated with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. World’s Fair Bouquet similarly capitalized on civic pride and international exhibition culture. Fragrances such as Auto Club reflected the excitement surrounding the rise of the automobile age, while Green Carnation may have drawn inspiration from the fashionable symbol associated with aestheticism and Oscar Wilde. Names like Butterfly, Enchantment, Fascination, Soul Kiss, and Winsome reflected the increasingly romantic and emotional marketing language of the early twentieth century.
By the 1910s and 1920s, the company’s perfumes adopted more modern, evocative naming conventions aligned with changing consumer tastes. Perfumes such as Favorita, Salome, La Premiere, Chantilly, Gardenia, and Lilacs of Sicily carried stronger cinematic, musical, and exotic associations than the straightforward floral names of earlier decades. This transition mirrored broader developments in perfumery, as fragrances increasingly became linked to mood, fantasy, glamour, and identity rather than merely floral replication.
Imperial Crown’s reputation reached an international level when the company won a Grand Prize in 1908, an achievement proudly used in advertising and labeling thereafter. Such awards were extremely important within the perfume industry, signaling technical skill, artistic refinement, and manufacturing excellence. Awards from expositions and trade fairs helped legitimize American perfumery at a time when French houses still dominated the luxury fragrance market.
The company’s extensive catalog also illustrates the evolution of American perfumery itself. Earlier perfumes emphasized straightforward botanical realism, while later fragrances embraced fantasy accords, modern marketing psychology, and increasingly abstract scent identities. Imperial Crown stood at the intersection of pharmacy, chemistry, cosmetics, and luxury goods manufacturing, embodying the transformation of perfume from a handcrafted apothecary specialty into a mass-market consumer product.
Today, the Imperial Crown Perfumery Company remains a fascinating example of America’s forgotten perfume heritage. Its vast fragrance list captures nearly every major perfumery trend of the Victorian, Edwardian, and early Jazz Age eras — from romantic florals and elegant colognes to exotic orientalist fantasies and modern emotional perfumes. Through its ambitious output, sophisticated branding, and national distribution network, Imperial Crown helped shape the development of American fragrance culture during one of perfumery’s most formative periods.
The perfumes:
- 1881 Arcadian Pink
- 1881 Bridal Bonnet
- 1881 Bouquet de Caroline
- 1881 Carnation Pink
- 1881 Cassie
- 1881 Ess Bouquet
- 1881 Frangipanni
- 1881 Heliotrope
- 1881 Honeysuckle
- 1881 Jasmine
- 1881 Jockey Club
- 1881 June Roses
- 1881 Ma Belle
- 1881 Magnolia
- 1881 Marechale
- 1881 Marechal Niel Rose
- 1881 Marie Stewart
- 1881 Mignonette
- 1881 Millefleurs
- 1881 Moss Rose
- 1881 Musk
- 1881 Musk Rose
- 1881 New Mown Hay
- 1881 Newport Breeze
- 1881 Night Blooming Cereus
- 1881 Ocean Spray
- 1881 Orange Flower
- 1881 Pond Lily
- 1881 Patchouly
- 1881 Reseda
- 1881 Rondeletia
- 1881 Rose Geranium
- 1881 Rose
- 1881 Stephanotis
- 1881 Spring Flowers
- 1881 Sweet Briar
- 1881 Tea Rose
- 1881 Tube Rose
- 1881 Upper Ten
- 1881 Verbena
- 1881 Violet
- 1881 West End
- 1881 White Rose
- 1881 Wild Olive
- 1881 Wood Violet
- 1881 Ylang Ylang
- 1893 La Tosca Bouquet
- 1896 Acacia Blossoms
- 1896 Alpine Rose
- 1896 Biron Perfume Line
- 1896 Blue Lilies
- 1896 Bridal Rose
- 1896 Circassian Frangipanni
- 1896 Duchesse Eau de Cologne
- 1896 German Farina Eau de Cologne
- 1896 Jericho Rose
- 1896 Monte Carlo Eau de Cologne
- 1896 Monte Carlo Sec Eau de Cologne
- 1896 Peau d'Espagne
- 1896 Purple Azalea
- 1896 Swiss Violet
- 1896 Tonquin Musk
- 1896 Violette Blanche
- 1896 Violette de Parme
- 1896 White Iris
- 1896 White Lilac
- 1896 Witch Hazel Eau de Cologne
- 1896 Witch Hazel Lavender Eau de Cologne
- 1896 Yatigan
- 1900 Bay Rum
- 1900 Cardinal Rose
- 1900 Chypre
- 1900 Colonial Rose
- 1900 English Hawthorn Blossoms
- 1900 Extrait Vegetale Toilet Water
- 1900 Florida Water
- 1900 Imperial Lily
- 1900 Imperial Pink
- 1900 Imperial Plum Blossoms
- 1900 Imperial Rose
- 1900 Imperial Violet
- 1900 Louis XV
- 1900 Mousseline Bouquet
- 1900 Narcissus Buds
- 1900 Orchidenia
- 1900 Peach Bloom
- 1900 San Remo Violet
- 1900 Wedding Bells
- 1900 White Hyacinth
- 1903 American Beauty Cosmetic
- 1903 Amorilas
- 1903 Bridesmaid Rose
- 1903 Chu-Chu
- 1903 Clover Links
- 1903 Divine Violet
- 1903 Doraflora
- 1903 Flora Bell
- 1903 Ideal Violet
- 1903 Imperial Crown Cologne
- 1903 La Seule Cologne
- 1903 Louisiana Purchase Centennial Perfumes
- 1903 Moller's German Colognes
- 1903 No. 54 Cologne
- 1903 Ottoman Bouquet
- 1903 Ottoman Lily
- 1903 Ottoman Pink
- 1903 Ottoman Roses
- 1903 Ottoman Violet
- 1903 Pansy Flower
- 1903 Riviera Toilet Water
- 1903 Rookwood Violet
- 1903 Royal Adonis
- 1903 Rubiline
- 1903 St. Elmo Lavender Water
- 1903 White Anemone
- 1903 White Clover Blossoms
- 1903 Wild Locust Blossoms
- 1905 Belleview Violet
- 1905 Blue Violets
- 1905 Enchantment
- 1906 Auto Club
- 1906 Blue Lotus
- 1906 Butterfly
- 1906 Coronation Bouquet
- 1906 Crab Apple Blossoms
- 1906 Fascination
- 1906 Floral Queen
- 1906 Forest Flowers
- 1906 Golden Locks
- 1906 Green Carnation
- 1906 Honey Bee
- 1906 Lavender
- 1906 Lily of the Valley
- 1906 Lotion Vegetale
- 1906 Nippon Cherry Blossoms
- 1906 Parma Wood Violet
- 1906 Purple Lily
- 1906 Queen Louise
- 1906 Rose and Violet
- 1906 Toilet Cologne
- 1906 Violet Ammonia
- 1906 Violita
- 1906 White Heliotrope
- 1906 White Rose
- 1906 World's Fair Bouquet
- 1908 Briar Rose
- 1908 Pretty Poppy
- 1908 Usona
- 1908 White Tulip
- 1910 Florelei
- 1911 Apple Blossom
- 1911 French Rose
- 1911 Hot House Rose
- 1911 Hot House Violet
- 1914 Brookside
- 1914 Corylopsis
- 1914 Eidelwild
- 1914 Favorita
- 1914 La Corona
- 1914 La Premiere
- 1914 Salome
- 1914 Soul Kiss
- 1914 Trailing Arbutus
- 1914 Winsome
- 1914 Wistara
- 1917 Gardenia
- 1917 Lilacs of Sicily
- 1917 Symphony Lilac
- 1917 Symphony Violet
- 1921 Chantilly
- 1930 Apple Blossom
- 1930 Boketia
- 1930 Easter Lily
- 1930 Flower Garden
- 1930 Carnation
- 1930 Crab Apple
- 1930 Lilac
- 1930 Lilac Blossoms
- 1930 Nifty
- 1930 Red Rose
- 1930 Sandalwood
- 1930 White Carnation
- 1930 White White Rose
- 1930 Wild Locust
- Althea
- Blossom Drops
- Dixie
- Fleur de Lys
- Ouisatche
- White Trefle