Lightyears Collection
Les Fleurs Favorite
Colgate
(c.1922)

Click on image to enlarge Les Fleurs Favorite Perfume By Colgate & Co., Perfumers

If one was to cover up the company name, even a knowledgable collector of perfume bottles might identify this bottle ias being French ... and coming from, perhaps, Coty or Caron. He or she would, of course, be wrong. The bottle does come from a major perfumer but that perfumer is Colgate & Co. of New York (actually Jersey City).

We don't know the date for this bottle but the style suggests the 1920's, when Colgate & Co. was still quite active in promoting its perfumes. It is clear from this presentation that Colgate was taking a shot at the upscale market, with the exception of the 93% Ethyl Alcohol text on the label, which suggests a fragrance that is more an American toilet water than a fine perfume (which might use only 75% to 80% ethyl alcohol.)

Whatever the fragrance may have been, the bottle is exceptionally beautiful. (Colgate did, at times, work with European bottle makers for special projects.)

Notice how the Les Fleurs Favorite label looks very French, very similar to labels you would find on certain bottles from Coty's L'Or or Caron's Narcisse Noir. Then, too, the fragrance is given a French name. The label reads:

Les Fleurs Favorite
93% Ethyl Alcohol
Colgate & Co.
Perfumers
New York
U.S.A.

Note that the "U.S.A." was probably important as, no doubt, Colgate wished to sell this product internationally and, probably, in Europe in particular.

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