Saturday, April 30, 2022

Le Fruit Defendu by Rosine c1913

Le Fruit Defendu by Rosine: created by Henri Alméras and launched in 1913, probably in USA by 1916. The name means "The Forbidden Fruit" in French and referred to the "forbidden fruit" of Adam and Eve's demise. The perfume was a favorite of American actress Gloria Swanson.




Le Fruit Defendu was available in parfum and toilet water.


Fragrance Composition:


So what does it smell like? It is classified as a sweet fruity floral woody fragrance for women with a spicy, amber and woodsy base. Made use of the chemical Persicol by Firmenich which gave it a distinctive peach scent. The fragrance is a forerunner of modern gourmand fragrances. It was also said to be the first to incorporate an aldehyde, a 0.3% dosage of C-12 Lauric. This gave the perfume a soapy, waxy, aldehydic floral nuance combined with the pungent citrus note of a fresh orange rind.
  • Top notes: orange rind, aldehydes, apple, peach, banana, plum, coconut
  • Middle notes: heliotrope, cinnamon, ylang ylang, tuberose, honey, gardenia
  • Base notes: spices, almond, patchouli, vanilla, sandalwood, ambergris


Bottles:

The deluxe glass bottle for the parfum was shaped like an apple with an interesting metal overcap with some abstract motifs and a small piece of twisted metal to look like an apple stem. Under the metal overcap was a small flat disk crystal stopper molded with notches in the side to make it easier to twist off. The mold blown glass bottle was intentionally filled with tiny trapped air bubbles which gave it an unusual appearance.

I have found two sizes for this flacon:
  • 2.5" tall.
  • 2.75" tall.

It lay in a silk- upholstered silver paper covered box embossed with jungle foliage meant to represent the artist's version of what may have been inside the Garden of Eden, complete with a snake winding around the sides of the box and various eyes around the snake watching your every move (beware! if you take that forbidden fruit, someone is always watching you). The interior of the box was a jungle green shade.


 





Other, less expensive flacons were of clear glass bottles fitted with green glass button stoppers, shown below, made by Verreries Tissier . Each bottle holds 20 grams. The bottle design is shown in an original antique 1920s Verreries Tissier perfume bottle catalog that I have, this is model number 14250.






Fate of the Fragrance:


Discontinued, date unknown.

It was still being sold in 1929 as seen in a volume of the Official Journal: Body of the Provisional Government of Mexico along with other Rosine perfumes:

Ambre de Venise, Aladin, Arlequinade, Avenue du Bois, Borgia, Chez Poiret, Chypre des Isles, Coeur en Folie, Connais Tu le Pays?, Hahna, Jasmin de la Riviera, Le Balcon, Le Bosquet d'Apollon, Le Coup d'Or, Le Fruit Defendu, La Rose de Rosine, Maharadjah, 1935, Nuit de Chine, Pierrot, Qui Es-Tu?, Sa Chambre, Sakya Mouni, Toute la Foret.."


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