Roger & Gallet, Violette, Violet, 7.5 ml. or 0.25 oz. Flacon, Parfum Extrait, 1880, 1946, Paris, France ..

Roger & Gallet is a French perfume house founded by Charles Armand Roger and Charles Martial Gallet in 1862. The history of this house actually begins many years before the company was founded.

In 1695 Giovanni Paolo Feminis 'invents' aqua mirabilis. In 1806 Jean-Marie Farina inherits the formula and opens a perfumery in rue du Faubourg-St-Honore. In 1840 he sells the business to Leonce Collas of Goet et Rifflard, who in 1862 transfers it to his two cousins, Armand Roger and Charles Gallet. They changed the company name to Roger et Gallet.

The company made a name for itself with its luxurious bath soaps, which in 1879 first appeared in their signature round shape, with the crinkled silk paper and seal which are still in use today. In the 21st century, the company maintains its tradition of fragrances based on rare plants and essential oils, in chic and distinctive packaging that recalls the Art Deco era. Roger & Gallet now offers a line of perfumes, scented body products and candles, in a variety of scents for men and women. One of these most famous soaps was and still is Œillet Mignardise, a perennial treasure for all discerning French bathrooms.

"Long-standing perfume and toiletries giants Roget et Gallet launched Vera Violette in 1892 at the height of La Belle Époque. it was also the first violet perfume to combine natural violet leaf oil and synthetic alpha and beta ionones. Vera Violetta was released as a parfum essence in highly concentrated form. Its pretty, saccharine opening of violets veil a deeper, huskier core. A swelling herbaceous accord swims beneath the surface alongside a husky dry-grass note which furnishes the perfume with fathomless depth. There is a slightly animalic leathery facet which, whilst fleeting, renders this perfume an "abstract" of violets, and an incredible one at that. Sadly, whilst it has been reprised several times over the decades since, Vera Violetta has now retired and remains to this day a perfume pillar of yesteryear. The first violet perfume using ionone was Vera Violetta from Roger et Gallet created in 1895."

'Vera Violetta' was an operetta, with a libretto by Louis Stein and music by Edmund Eysler, additional music by George M. Cohan, Jean Schwartz and Louis A. Hirsch, about the flirtatious wife of a professor. Vera Violetta was the name both of her Roger & Gallet perfume and a waltz which celebrated it.

Napoleon also loved the violet flower greatly, and he would often keep a bouquet of the exquisite flowers on his desk, reminding him of Josephine on their wedding day when she wore violets. It is said that he mourned her by planting violets over her grave and kept one of the blooms in a locket until his death. Another royal, Marie Antionette, lover of all things floral, and had a floral perfume containing violet notes created for her by Jean-Louis Fargeon.

Violet perfumes are very polarizing. They can smell green, sweet, dry, fresh, old fashioned or modern. Violet pretty's face and delicate leaves conceal a complex fragrance. She is a multi-faceted floral .. the very definition of violet with notes of delicate flowers, green stems, beautiful woods, and fresh leaves. Her scent has graced royalty and her fragrance is found in many, many perfumes.

Violet .. Viola odorata .. carries within flower and leaf the ionones that give the fragrance of the tiny flowers a floral sweetness with powdery and woody notes reminiscent of orris. The absolute of the flowers, which is extremely rare and expensive, is an unparalleled and addictive scent. When the leaves themselves are extracted for scent, the green aroma is rich as a springtime woodland with nuances of cucumber, water, and metal.

The Duchess of Parma, Napoleon’s second wife Maria Louise of Austria, is often associated with the demand for violet fragrances and perfumers of that time pioneered the extraction of the violet flower’s scent in the early 1800s. Perfumers in Grasse also fell in love with the amazing aroma and grew the plant for perfumery using warm enfleurage initially then turning to solvent extraction. The low yield of the flowers and high cost of labor caused floral extraction to be discontinued but flowers continue to be grown in the area for their leaves.

Winning prizes at many World’s Fairs over the years, Roger & Gallet continued to go from strength to strength .. and the founders, in turn, were replaced by their dynamic sons, who satisfied their Parisian clientele’s longing for innovation with lines like Vera Violetta, Fleurs d'Amour, and Lilas Blanc, . These were available not only as an eau de toilette and a perfume, but always as a lotion, soap and rice powder. When synthetic molecules opened up a world of possibilities for perfumers in the late 19th Century, meanwhile, Roger & Gallet were at the forefront of modern perfumery, taking advantage of what these new ingredients could do to enhance the naturals which had always been their signature.

Launched in 1894, Vera Violetta by Roger & Gallet is a Floral fragrance for women. The nose behind this fragrance is Henri Roger. The fragrance features violet flowers and leaves.

I am providing this history of Vera Violetta, as it is the background fragrance for this newer and more modern Violette.

Offered here is a more lovely old quarter ounce flacon of this beautiful violet fragrance. While it has a screw top, the perfume has never been used and is in tact. Absolutely gorgeous and buttery. Violet lovers!!