SAMPLE ... Mandel Brothers, Havana, DECANTED SAMPLE from flacon, Parfum Extrait, 1940, Chicago, Illinois ..

Mandel Brothers was located at State and Madison Streets in Chicago’s Loop, and was one of the city’s largest and busiest department stores during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The firm was founded in 1855 by Simon Klein and his nephew, Solomon Mandel. Both Klein and Mandel were German immigrants from the small village of Kerzenheim in the Rhineland Palatinate. Their store, known as Klein & Mandel, was located on the corner of Clark and Van Buren Streets. In 1860, Solomon’s three younger brothers, Leon, Simon, and Emanuel, immigrated from Germany and began to work at the store as clerks. When Simon Klein died in 1865, the four brothers formed their own partnership known as Mandel Brothers.

The firm occupied several different locations during the early 1870s. The great fire of 1871 consumed the original store at Clark and Van Buren Streets. In the aftermath of the fire, they erected a new store at State and Harrison Streets, only to see it burn to the ground as well in the south side fire of 1874. After the second fire, the firm established new quarters at 121-123 State Street, reportedly at the urging of Marshall Field, who envisioned State Street as the future retailing center of city.

The State Street location proved a prosperous one for Mandel Brothers. Five years later, they added the five-story building at the northeast corner of State and Madison Streets and undertook a massive rebuilding project that joined all three State Street stores into one, increased their height to a uniform eight stories, and replaced their brick and stone fronts with an cast-iron facade designed to resemble those of the most fashionable Paris department stores of the era. The rebuilt structure, with its new elevators, eighth-floor cafeteria, ladies’ waiting rooms, and a series of street-level, plate-glass display windows, set a new standard for the city’s department stores.

As with all big department stores of the day, Mandel's had their own perfume department, and created popular and fashionable perfumes for their clients. Havana Bouquet Perfume was popular in the 1930s and featured floral notes with a powdery finish in beautiful distinctive bottles. These perfumes, often sold in ornate glass bottles with gold cord, are now collector's items, reflecting the store's upscale status and offering glimpses into early 20th-century fragrances from a major retailer.

Offered here is an opportunity to buy a decanted sample of the beautiful Bouquet Havana .. a long lost and beautiful fragrance produced by Mandel Brothers. It is a rich floral, with powdery notes, and some lovely woods in the finish. I detect some sweet tobacco flowers. This is a very rare piece, in a gorgeous bottle with an exquisite red glass stopper.

Top notes are Bergamot, Orange Blossom, Neroli, Petitgrain, and Lemon
Heart notes are Rose, Honeysuckle, Heliotrope, and Geranium
Base notes are Sandalwood, Cedar, Balsam, and Tonka Bean

I have a full sealed bottle for sale of this long lost beauty .. Super rare.