La Flambée (d'Orsay) 1913

World was different before WWI and perfumery lived one of its most exciting decade. Almost every year saw the birth of a new creation and it was nothing but pure creation. New materials every year and perfumers were inventing new structures that were the base of the next decade. Aldehydes were around since the early 1900's and No5 came later as a coronation of their use. Their power was like a firework into a formula and each boosted a particular note. From citrus to rose, orris, tuberose, amber, incense, there was nothing aldehydes were not able to support. They were "la flambée", the storm, the light, the fire like the color in the fauve paintings. We still do not know exactly the ground on which No5 was born because few of the perfumes from that time have survived and because the war made a great gap. Perfumers started to use aldehydes single, than single and in overdose, than by 2 (C9 and C11, C11 and C12, C10 and C12MNA). By 1913, after Quelques Fleurs (Houbigant), the aldehydes were in a tango. Right after the war there was the ménage à 3 and ménage à 4. Like the flower bouquet, there was the aldehydic bouquet. Special blendings of aldehydes to be used in specific perfumes.
La Flambée was a perfume of d'Orsay in a beautiful Lalique bottle. Now, the history of the house is not fully understood, nor their very old fragrances. La Flambée is an obscure perfume from this house, produced right before the war by a major house in the south of France. It was rose+jasmine with several very new and fashionable notes on a woody base.
Aldehydes were also able to generate new accords with salycilates and musks. C11, C12, salycilates and musk ketone is already the heart of a famous perfume (not No5 :)

Last month I remade a formula from 1911-1913, rather conventional. But it is curious to see that it had already the structure of an entire family of perfumes. It smelled like the abstract of 3 decades of perfumery. It can be resumed as an rose-jasmine sweet accord:
Bergamot dtp. ess
Rose de mai absolute (+++)
Rose oil
Geranium B. ess
Jasmine absolute (+++)
Orris concrete
Heliotropine (+++)
Coumarine
Isoeugenol
Patchouli dtp. Ess
Oak moss
Musk ketone

With several twists you can obtain several major perfumes.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art