Cleopatra's Boudoir: Herman Tappan Perfume Company

Herman Tappan Perfume Company of New York. The Tappan Company was one of the major American perfume companies during the Victorian era.

Herman Tappan of 112 Duane Street, New York. Established 1873 by Herman Tappan, who was the successor to Corning and Tappan.

Most of Tappan's perfumes & colognes were aimed at the middle class and their prices were affordable. Tappan was very fond of figural perfume bottles and many of the colognes of the era were packaged and sold in these little glass novelties. Some of the more notable figural bottles from Tappan are baseball bats, ladies boots, legs, hands, slippers, and street lamps. In the 1890s Tappan held two patents on figural perfume bottles.

Tappan perfumes are increasingly hard to find nowadays as original labels are sometimes lost and all we are left with are empty bottles. The early non-figural bottles are cylindrical in shape and sometimes have the Tappan name embossed along the sides, usually the molded glass stoppers are in the shape of a large letter T. The bottles are generally light aqua color, clear or have turned a sun purple color. A special souvenir bottle was issued for the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. This limited edition bottle was called the American Discoverer Perfume.

I have looked everywhere for perfumes and colognes by Tappan, I was only able to find a few, if you know of more, please let me know and I will update the guide. I have placed estimated guesses on some of the circa dates for some of the perfumes and colognes, the others I was able to pinpoint from references.

Many of the Tappan fragrances were issued under individual lines such as : Blue Ribbon, Preciosa Extract, Golden Drops, Bijou Extract, Idolora, Favorita Extracts, XXX Handkerchief Extracts, Fineto Extracts, Grandiosa Extract, Tappan's Beacon Perfumes, Faultless Perfumes,The Little Hollanders, Fire Fly Perfume.

The perfumes of Tappan: