FOREVER TIMELESS, THE BEE BOTTLE
REPRESENTS FOR GUERLAIN A PRECIOUS SIGNATURE AS WELL AS AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF HERITAGE ANCHORED IN HISTORY AND CONTINUALLY REINTERPRETED TO COMBINE
TRADITION WITH MODERNITY
France’s Second Empire: Paris is a party abuzz with splendour and elegance. When Emperor Napoleon III marries Eugénie of Montijo in 1853, Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain celebrates the event by dedicating a citrusy Eau de Cologne to her.
Instinctively, he names it Eau de Cologne Impériale. Guerlain entrusts the making of the fragrance bottle to the Pochet & du Courval glassmakers who use a cylindrical, domed design embellished with a festoon pattern inspired by the Vendôme column (a homage to Napoleon 1st’s victories).
Bees, an imperial symbol in France, are embossed around the rim and, in what is a true technical feat for the time, the bottles are semi-manufactured.
Impressed by the creation, Empress Eugénie gives Pierre- François-Pascal Guerlain the title of “Supplier to the Empress” and the Guerlain House’s success and renown rapidly spreads throughout Europe’s royal courts.
From then on bottles ordered by Empress Eugénie are engraved with the imperial coat of arms with embossed, hand-painted fine gold designs.
