Matchabelli, Christmas Angel, 120 ml. or 4 oz. Flacon, Eau de Cologne, 1955, New York, NY ..

Prince Matchabelli is a well known perfume line. It was first designed by Prince Georges V. Matchabelli who was an amateur chemist. Georges Matchabelli was a Georgian prince who worked as Georgian ambassador to Italy, but fled the Soviet Union and emigrated to the United States after the Russian Revolution. In New York City he and his wife, Princess Norina Matchabelli .. an actress whose stage name was Maria Carmi .. opened a small antiques shop, Le Rouge et le Noir, at 545 Madison Avenue.

The name Le Rouge et le Noir came from Stendhal's novel of that name, which they interpreted as the red for the aristocracy for him and black for the religious .. The Miracle, a famous religious play in which Norina had starred. They later established the Prince Matchabelli Perfume Company in 1926. Perfumes were personally blended for clients by Prince Matchabelli. The first three perfumes were Princess Norina, Queen of Georgia and Ave Maria. The company became known for the many color-coded, crown-shaped bottles designed by Norina after the Matchabelli crown and introduced in 1928 with labels on the underside.

In 1936 Princess Matchabelli sold the company to perfume manufacturer Saul Ganz for $250,000. Ganz then named his son Paul H. Ganz president of the company. In 1941 Prince Matchabelli was sold to Vicks Chemical Company. In 1958, Vicks sold Prince Matchabelli to Chesebrough–Pond's. Chesebrough-Ponds was acquired by Unilever in 1987. In 1986 the division had annual domestic sales of about $140 million, according to company officials. In 1993 the Chesebrough-Ponds division of Unilever sold the Prince Matchabelli brands to Parfums de Coeur.

The crown shaped bottles are highly collectible and some of them warrant higher prices, which is the case with the older perfume bottles. The older Matchabelli crown shaped bottles are all glass, including the cross shaped stopper. These seem to command better princes than their plastic counterparts. The older bottles have colored glass; the later bottles are colored enamel over glass. The tallest bottles stand 6 1/4" tall and the smallest measure just 1 5/6" tall.

The Prince used nothing but the very best ingredients in the creation of his perfumes: Tibetan musk, Abyssinian ambergris and civet, jasmine oil, patchouli, oak moss, Calabrian bergamot oil, resins, East Indian vetiver and dozens of other essences. The pay off was excellent as in 1928, Matchabelli's perfumes were awarded the Grand Prix with a gold medal at the expositions in Paris and Liege for their quality and originality.

Perfumes were also created for royalty. Some of these perfumes were Princess Norina, Princess Marie, Princess Nina, Queen of Georgia, Prince Georges and Princess of Wales. Other clients included the Duchess of York, for whom he created a special perfume in her honor, Queen Marie of Romania, and Matchabelli even created a personal perfume for Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt called "Inauguration". King Edward VIII was an avid user of Matchabelli's men's fragrances.

Prince Matchabelli's Christmas Angel is a vintage holiday cologne launched by the Prince Matchabelli perfume house in 1955. It is famous for coming in distinctive, rounded amber-colored glass bottles often embossed with the iconic Prince Matchabelli crown/logo and holiday-themed graphics or boxes.

It is long discontinued and highly sought after by vintage perfume collectors. It was also featured in holiday gift sampler sets alongside other seasonal scents like Holly Berry and Rose. Because Christmas Angel was released as a limited holiday novelty scent in 1955, Prince Matchabelli never published an official, modern-style fragrance note pyramid for it. However, community breakdowns from vintage perfume collectors who have unsealed and decanted well-preserved bottles describe the scent profile as a soft, clean, and festive vintage blend.

It opens with a distinct powdery sweetness, layered with a classic mid-century rose accord, and finishes with crisp, green holiday undertones that closely resemble juniper and poinsettia. Like many mid-century Matchabelli colognes .. such as its famous sister scent, Wind Song .. it heavily relied on a powdery, clean base to give it that "fresh out of the shower" elegance popular in the 1950s.

Here are two lovely old bottles of this sweet comforting fragrance. I have one with a black lid, and one with a white lid. The one with the white lid has a sticker on the front saying Christmas Angel, though there is slight damage to the paper. The one with the black lid is missing its sticker.

Choose one of the two .. lovely as a gift too ..