SAMPLE .. Guerlain, Vol de Nuit, 'Night Flight', Oriental Chypre, DECANTED SAMPLE from Flacon, Parfum Extrait, 1933, 1985, Paris, France ..

The House of Guerlain is one of the oldest perfume houses in the world. It was founded in 1828 when Pierre-Francois Pascal Guerlain opened up his first perfume store on 42, Rue de Rivoli in Paris.

Pierre-Francois composed and manufactured custom perfumes with the help of his two sons, Aime & Gabriel. His unique approach was to personalize perfume for a specific person, place or event. Honore de Balzac commisioned his own eau de toilette during the writing of Cesar Birotteau, and the periodical La Sylphide, le Journal des Elegances, scented each issue with a different fragrance by Guerlain.

Guerlain catered to the high society of Paris, and obtained a very loyal following. The perfume house was so successful that Guerlain decided to open a flagship store at 15, Rue de la Paix in Paris in 1840. The house was at its peak in 1853 with it's fragrance Eau de Cologne Imperiale. This perfume gained Guerlain the prestigious title of His Majesty's Official Perfumer of France. This in turn led him to create perfumes for other royals such as Queen Victoria of England, the Empress Sissi of Austria, the Queen of Belgium and Queen Isabella of Spain as well as other crowned heads of royalty.

Pierre-Francois passed away in 1854 and his sons inherited the perfume house. Aime became the master perfumer, a tradition that would be upheld for the next master perfumer in lineage. Gabriel managed and further expanded the house. Aime, created several fragrances for the perfume house, these include Fleur d'Italie, Rococo, and Eau de Cologne du Coq and his greatest creation, Jicky.

Vol de Nuit or ‘night-flying’ was created in 1933. It was named after Antoine Saint Exupery's second novel 'Night Flight', a fragrant story of love and romance of the first years of aviation. In the dawn of the aero-spatial era, a plane takes off from Paris for Buenos Aires. Suddenly, the radio loses contact. A tornado rushes through. Every second takes the recently married pilot a little farther from his loved one. The dark amber colored bottle has a relief of a moving aircraft propeller. The composition is based on balance between the woodsy and cold notes, as nothing else could more staunchly impress the depth of the dark skies and feeling of ascending. Vol de Nuit is a perfume of mystery. Brimming with audacity, it is one of the most sophisticated faceted creations. With its assertive personality, its floral and woody facets blossom in a bold oriental trail. Vol de Nuit was created by Jacques Guerlain.

"Jacques Guerlain managed to get all of the aforementioned atmospheric touches into Vol de Nuit, one of his woodiest and least floral perfumes, reflecting beautifully both the serious 1930s and, in a more lyrical sense, the dark theme of loss and separation of Saint-Exupéry's novel. Vol de Nuit is the only survivor of Jacques Guerlain's post-Shalimar perfumes. We're happy it survived, as it represents what happened in perfumery, and in fashion in general, after the Wall Street crash put a definitive end to the Roaring Twenties. Women's style in the 1930s was more conservative than that of the optimistic 1920s. The decade saw a return to a less flamboyant look, with tight silhouettes, firmly fitted bras and longer skirts. While Paris was still the capital of fashion, Hollywood film stars had a major influence on women’s tastes. The severe, introverted aura of Greta Garbo magnetized everyone: the trousers, turtleneck sweater and broad-shouldered trench coat, the false eyelashes, and the assertive facial expression."

Vol de Nuit is renowned as the first perfume to incorporate the fiercely green, woody-resinous odour of galbanum. By using daffodil absolute, at once floral, earthy and licorice-like, and an abundance of galbanum plant resin, together with sandalwood, oakmoss, ambergris, leathery castoreum, and a little aldehyde, Jacques Guerlain got an unusual and virile briskness similar to pungent sea air, driftwood, and herbal medicine. However, Vol de Nuit was also one of Jacques Guerlain’s skillful balancing acts, retaining a warm balsamic-powdery backbone of orris, benzoin, vanilla, and cinnamon, with a touch of the cocoa effect that he also produced in Parfum des Champs-Elysées.

Vol de Nuit belongs to the Oriental Chypre family of perfumes, and conjures up forests and furs, the flight years, travel and exploration.

Top notes are Bergamot, Galbanum, Petitgrain, Jasmine, and Daffodil
Heart notes are Spices, Orris, Oak Moss, and soft Woods
Base notes are Sandalwood, Cedar, Vanilla, Amber, Benzoin, Ambergris, and Castoreum

Offered here is an opportunity to buy a small decant of this mysterious fragrance for those who wish to try it out. The batch codes indicate that this particular bottle was produced in 1965. The propellor bottles were produced until 1984. Katherine Hepburn was known to use this beautiful fragrance ..