- This article is about the perfume line. For the person who founded it, see Prince Georges V. Matchabelli.
Prince Matchabelli is a perfume line. It was first designed by Prince Georges V. Matchabelli who was an amateur chemist. Georges Matchabelli was a Georgian prince and Georgian ambassador to Italy, but fled the Soviet Union and immigrated 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 came from Stendhal's novel, red for aristocracy (Matchabelli's origins) and black for clergy (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.[1]
In 1936 Princess Matchabellie sold the company to perfume manufacturer Saul Ganz for $250,000. Ganz then named his son Paul H. Ganz president of the company. (The couple divorced in 1933 and Georges died in 1935.) Ganz remained as president until the company was sold in the late 1940s to the Vicks Chemical Company. In 1958, Prince Matchabelli became a division of Chesebrough–Pond's, a consumer products conglomerate. In 1987, Chesebrough–Ponds was acquired by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. As of 1986 the division had annual domestic sales of about $140 million, according to company officials.[2]
References
- ^ Cleopatra's Boudoir Luxury Boutique
- ^ New York Times, June 2, 1986 [1]
External links
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