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 The
20th century dawned on a confident, optimistic America. The
previous generation migrated west to the Pacific Ocean; it
wrought a technological revolution that transformed American
society; and it had just finished what Secretary of State
John Hay called a "splendid little war" with Spain, leaving
the United States a world power. The business community commanded
the heights of the new industrial system, and its power did
not seem seriously threatened by internal protests.
America was by most standards the world's success
story of the 19th century. Yet not even the gloomiest prophet
could foresee that in the first half of the century the world
would witness two world wars and the Great Depression. The
start of the century saw a sequence of important discoveries
for the perfume industry. In 1903, Moureu and Delange found
methyl heptine carbonate and methyl octine carbonates, which
possessed intense odors reminiscent of violet leaves.
Darzens, in 1904, discovered the "glycidic
method" of synthesizing aldehydes and used it to prepare methylnonyl
acetaldehyde from methylnonyl ketone, which had been extracted
from rue oil. The success of this product was immediate. Another
discovery of this period, still rather obscure, was hydroxycitronellal,
which was prepared from citronella isolated from citronella
oil. When one considers the fine "lily of the valley" odor
of this substance, it is easy to imagine the success it must
have had then, particularly as its popularity has not diminished
since. As one can imagine, this discovery stimulated intense
developments in the synthesis of hydroxyaldehydes. Since this
era, the number of synthetic fragrance materials has increased
to the extent that today's perfumer has several thousand synthetic
products on his palette. .
In Europe, the emergence of department stores
such as Au Bon Marche, Les Galleries Lafayette, as well as
such perfumery stores as Les Etablissements Lubin were the
perfect merchandising climate for perfumers/businessmen like
François Coty. He was the first person to produce a harmonious
combination of the synthetic and natural, and to recognize
the paramount commercial and artistic importance of bottles
and marketing. In 1905, he created a perfume based on ionone
with a warm fragrance of iris and violet. The name of the
fragrance was L'Origan. By 1930, he had over 4,000 employees;
his factories performed every operation involving producing
and presenting perfume. Other great perfume houses at the
time such as Rigaud, Guerlain, Houbigant, D'Orsay, Lubin,
Roger & Gallet, with the help of glassmakers like Lalique
and Baccarat created the "Golden Age of Perfumery." In the
United States, perfume companies had no reason to envy their
European sisters. The size of their market was growing constantly
due to the rapid development of department stores. Perfume
companies like Solon Palmer in New York, created in 1885,
totaled more than 100 launches in 1920. A company called "The
California Perfume Company" (the actual Avon Co.), created
in 1886 grew from an office of only 20 by 25 feet to a facility
of more than 60,000 sq. feet in 1908.
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