Vintage Counterfeit Perfumes and Fantasy Fakes

During the 20th century, the perfume industry was rife with counterfeiting at every turn. There was some trickery going on in the 1930s-1950s regarding designer named perfumes. I can find famous names on bogus labels for perfumes in bottles that you would never see used by that brand. Various con men had boxes and labels printed up, then decanted or adulterated, refilling cheaper bottles with even cheaper perfume, then slapping the newly printed labels on them, and passing them off as genuine.

I have created a comprehensive guide for fake vintage perfumes going back to the 1920s and into the 1970s. Much of the crucial information I have gathered has been revealed nowhere else and it can answer a lot of questions regarding so called "rare" editions or bottles of designer perfumes. 

Discussed in this guide are rebottlers, fake pricing schemes, and outright counterfeits. A significant portion of the guide is devoted to what I call "fantasy fakes." Fantasy fakes are, in my own parlance and definition, is the usage of bottles and labels that a genuine perfumery brand would have never used. This also includes names of perfumes that were never part of their catalog such as "Ce Soir Ou Jamais" by Christian Dior. I have done extensive research on these in order to determine whether they are genuine or fake. You might be surprised, delighted or even disappointed at the information I uncovered.

Before you shell out hundreds for a rare "Poiret" perfume bottle, please see my guide first!

You can read more about the timeline of fake perfumes at my blogsite I Hate Fake Perfume!

Rebottlers and Outright Counterfeits:

 1922 article stating that two men were arrested for selling fake perfume, the article goes on to say that:

 "Synthetic perfume carrying the labels and temporarily the odors of the best known brands but actually only colored water has proved a lucrative proposition."

It was in Chicago in 1925 when Edward Lee and Arthur Kaplan, 'perfume bootleggers' were arrested for selling colored water to beauty parlors on the representation that it was imported French perfume. It was revealed in municipal court that the men were wanted in nearly every city in the country. Attorney Harry C. Adams, representing the Perfumery Importers association, told the court that housewives and beauty parlor proprietors should be warned that hundreds of 'fake' perfume salesmen are canvassing the country offering to sell imported perfume at cut rate prices. "The perfume bottles used by these salesmen have the glass stoppers cemented in so tightly that it is necessary to break the bottle in order to open it," Adams said. "By that time, the bootleggers are gone."

N.A.R.D. Journal - Volume 41, 1925:

"Fake Coty Perfumes: "WR Steinberg, Chicago representative f Coty, Inc., 714 Fifth Ave, New York, states there are a number of persons calling on Chicago druggists representing themselves as Coty salesmen and selling eight bottles of fake Coty perfume in various odors. They are swindlers in no way connected with Coty. Two of these were in jail in Milwaukee for two weeks and when their trial came up jumped their bond and transferred their operations to Chicago. The article they are selling in worthless. It is alleged these fakers go around to drug stores, purchase empty 8 ounce Coty bottles, refill them with wood alcohol, seal and sell them as genuine Coty merchandise. In some instances they have been paid as high as fifty cents a piece for empty eight ounce bottles. Druggists are warned to be on the lookout for these schemers and in purchasing Coty or other merchandise be certain it is from authorized salesmen."

In 1927, Richard Ives of Manhattan was sentenced to three months in the workhouse when he plead guilty to violating the trademark law in attempting to sell perfume on the representation that it was the product of a well-known French perfume manufacturer, Coty. William Roche, told the court that Ives tried to sell him the bogus perfume at the Belvedere Hotel n Manhattan. Counterfeit labels and circulars which Ives had pretended had been issued by Coty also were found in the room.

1927 article reads

" ACCUSED OF SELLING IMITATION PERFUME; Man Caught After Long Hunt Is Said to Have Victimized Ten Shops Here. FACES COUNTERFEIT CHARGE Police Say They Found Many Fake Labels in His Home -- To Get Hearing Tomorrow. Richard E. Ives, 33 years old, a salesman, who has been traveling so rapidly that the police have spent five months in catching up with him, was held in $2,500 bail for hearing tomorrow When arraigned in West Side Court yesterday before Magistrate Edward Weil, charged with counterfeiting the labels, caps and bottles of a perfume."

We do have instances of rebottling companies getting called out on this practice such as Magnum and Prestonettes in the 1920s.

1933 saw the Better Business Bureau warning Los Angeles citizens that fake perfume peddlers were going door to door, calling on housewives, business men and office employees in the hopes of selling bottles of perfume bearing well known trademarked names, but the bottles have been refilled with an inferior product. In one instance, a woman paid $25.00 to one of these peddlers and on investigation, found that while the bottle bore the name of a well known brand of perfume, it contained an inferior grade of toilet water valued at about 25 cents. 

Sales Manager, 1933:

"Coty Pushes Perfume Racket War; Claim Dealers Aid Fraud...Limited largely to sales "by the dram," or bulk sales where the small bottles are filled from one large bottle bearing the manufacturer's label, counterfeiting of perfumes is still a serious problem for large advertisers in the perfume field. Coty....deceiving customers is the use of a cork which has been soaked in the genuine perfume, in the bottle from which the customer buys...

Another manufacturer, David Kohler, 350 Fifth Ave, was found selling counterfeits of Guerlain, Caron, Houbigant, Bourjois, Coty and others, on the office to office plan. His salespeople even carried a current perfume advertisement of Gimbel Brothers which had appeared in.."

 1934,

"Fight Perfume Counterfeits. Perfumery Importers Association has embarked upon a campaign to eliminate counterfeiting which, the association feels, has increased since the depression inaugurated the practice of bulk sales. As part of this program, the association has broadcast a booklet describing forms of this counterfeiting."

1935 an article cautions its readers to

"Never let a servant buy goods from doubtful canvassers. Tooth paste is often soft soap; shaving soap, sticky and unhygienic, refusing to lather; "perfume" colored water in fancy bottles. These worthless goods are manufactured wholesale during the holiday season. Fake labels bearing the good names of genuine firms are attached."

In 1946, newspaper readers were advised not to buy a perfume with a name they never heard before from someone who "know the chemist" or who knows some one who knows someone who brought it back from Europe, and who will sell it cheap to the friends of friends. They said "Buying the unfamiliar perfume that some one says is 'just as good' or the very same thing as a fragrance that is famous throughout the world for its quality and beauty is an old dodge that a great many people fall for. You're not getting a bargain if you pay so much as one copper penny for a bottle of scented water, which is what most of these phony perfume, with names and bottles suggestively similar to those of quality fragrances, really are. It's a clip."

1946, The Chicago Tribune ran a story on counterfeit perfumes,

"Because we think the consumer should be warned, too, we'd like to pass on to you purchasers of perfume information about the enormous amount of perfume counterfeiting that has been going on for some time and has risen sharply in the last two years."

Workers in factory areas in 1952 were being victimized by "suitcase" peddlers, who sold worthless substitutes as brand name perfumes for high prices. A perfume industry spokesman said the peddlers offer sweet smelling liquids at prices usually higher than well known perfumes. The phony perfumes, he said, were concocted by "bathtub methods."

In 1964, Brazilian police confiscated nearly $2 million in phony French perfume manufactured in Brazil. The investigation began on a tip from French authorities who said the perfume was being sold by French sailors in Marseille at prices considerably below the cost of real French perfume.

In 1965, consumers were warned about bogus perfumes being sold particularly around the holiday season. Edouard Cournand, chairman of the board of Lanvin-Charles of the Ritz, estimated that his company had spent more than $1 million chasing counterfeiters over the years. He said the biggest offenders were: counterfeiters, re-bottlers and fictitious pre-ticketing with phony price tags. In 1952, Cournand said that approximately 70,000,000 bottles of phony perfume were smuggled into the US each year, twice as much as is legally sold. The industry had set up a Bureau of Ethical Security.

The counterfeiter was the worst offender according to the Better business Bureau: "bottles and labels of well known brands are copied boldly and used to palm off imitations at supposedly bargain prices. Many of the bogus perfumes are sold through irregular channels by sidewalk hawkers, bell boys, or others who are out for a quick buck. The most prevalent scheme is the rebottling of cologne and toilet water in small purse size containers. These, costing the gyp less than 1 cents an ounce, cost the victim $4 or $5.  Many shoppers are fooled on the value of perfumes by the fictitious prices. Cheap perfumes and toilet waters ordinarily selling from $1 to $3 have been pre-ticketed with prices ranging up to $20. The con men display reproductions of the planted advertising to convince the gullible that what they offer for $2 to $2 actually has the price of $20 or so."

Two ways to determine a counterfeit perfume is that the forgery usually is darker than the genuine product and that frequently printing on the genuine bottle is larger than its phony counterpart. 

In 1957, a newspaper once again warned shoppers about phony perfume deals around the holidays. John Power Daley, a former FBI agent, who is director of the Bureau of Ethical Security, said that complaints of fake perfume operations have come into his office from all across the country. The Bureau, financed by Lanvin and Evyan Perfume Companies, was set up in the early 1950s to combat smuggling and counterfeiting of genuine French perfumes. It also works on any case where perfume is used in gyp sales." Daley added that, although Lanvin and Evyan are their main sponsors, the Bureau of Ethical Security also does business for other perfume companies and generally keeps an eye on any fake operations in the French perfume industry.

Daley operated the bureau with another ex-FBI agent, A. Robert Swanson, counsel for the organization warned," We have reports of a load of fake perfume operations this Christmas season. All are trying to capitalize on well-known trademarks. Despite the fact that we're constantly after these swindlers and have succeeded in knocking many of them out of business, they keep coming back." 

This time of year, the people who get suckered into buying counterfeit perfumes are those who are trying to give an impressive present at a cheap price. For instance, the swindlers often visit office managers and offer a $10 an ounce perfume for $2 or $3. However, it isn't real perfume, just some cheap toilet water normally selling for just 50 cents at a variety store. But the boss may buy up a lot of bottles, leave the $10 price tags on it and then gives it to all the girls in his office for Christmas.

The Federal Trade Commission is constantly obtaining injunctions against fake perfume promotions. However, the same schemes are repeated year after year, because the gyp operators hope to capitalize on their fraud before an injunction can be gotten out against them. Mr. Daley said that the perfume racket usually starts in Chicago or New York and then spreads across the country. "These swindlers are ruthless. They bootleg their cheap, vile-smelling stuff and put it into flacons that look identical to those used by legitimate French perfume companies. Then they put a fictitious price, such as $18.95, on the outside of the bottle. The containers often have French symbols such as the Eiffel Tower or the French flag. They type their perfume with a Gallic sounding name. They all use French wording on the bottle, when in reality, the fake promoters have no connections with France and the ingredients have never seen Paris." 

Daley said that the perfume grifters usually make their stuff in some out-of-the-way still and get the bulk of their supplies ready in time for the Christmas rush. Federal agents raided one perfume still illegally owned by Robert Goldman in Middletown, Rhode Island, and reported that the international ring had bilked store owners and customers in many cities. One Boston store was flooded with complaints, the store owner called Daley and wanted the name of every phony perfume so that he could advertise it to his customers in order that they could be on their guard. The complaints has been coming in from Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Miami. You will read more on Robert Goldman's nefarious activities....keep scrolling.

Swanson explained that "we cover the country in our operation here at the bureau, we work with former associates of ours in the FBI. If we have trouble in Chicago or Los Angeles, we can call on a half-dozen former FBI agents who can give us a complete lowdown on the operation in a matter of hours."

According to Daley, the gyp operators buy up a quantity of the real stuff in various stores and then rebottle it. "We bought some of it and have been testing it," said Daley. "We find that plain water has been added to it. Fragrance have been mixed. Some bottles contain sediment. The price of the rebottled stuff is far in excess of the real cologne in the original bottles manufactured by the trademark company."

In 1959, four men were arrested in Brooklyn, NY for peddling fake perfumes. Carle Bassone, John Andres and Robert Pirrepont and his brother Charles were selling a watered down scent represented as expensive perfume from Paris, but was actually made in Brooklyn. The so-called "perfumers" were selling perfume that cost them just 60 cents a bottle but netted them $2 to $2.50 a bottle in sales to shady dealers who in turn, upped the price to $8 to $10 a bottle, a truly bargain price for "French" perfume. The "retail" transactions took place mainly in back streets and office building lobbies. Three agents were sent to a clandestine rendezvous with the dealers on the pretext of buying $1,500 worth of the bogus scent.

Also in 1959, southern California was warned that the counterfeit perfumes were raring their ugly heads once again just in time for Christmas. Edouard L. Cournand, president of Lanvin Perfumes said that buyers should be wary of the so-called bargain. "The counterfeit perfume business is mushrooming now. If you are offered a bargain on top name perfumes by a taxi-driver, elevator operator, bellhop, door to door salesmen or cut-rate store - don't buy. You'll be buying counterfeit or watered perfume at best." He also said to be on your guard if you see expensive perfume peddled at gas stations or sidewalk stands.  He said that "Counterfeiting is diverting  millions and millions of perfume dollars from reputable retailers every year. Anyone who buys perfume from anyone but a dependable retailer is taking a very big chance. He urged citizens who are offered "bargain priced" perfume to check with the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles. 

The spurious perfume, Cournand pointed out, bear labels of well-known brands but in small print at the bottom is written: "This company wholly independent of the original producer." he explained that "the counterfeiters probably make the perfume in a bathtub and it is about as good as the bathtub gin sold during the prohibition." Scents reportedly being sold door-to-door and office-to-office are counterfeits of Arpege, My Sin, White Shoulders, Chanel No. and Tabu. The bogus perfume is being marketed in regulation bottles, spray containers and tiny, purse-sized bottles. In some cases, he said, the phony perfume, which is practically worthless, is sold in a tiny bottle at a ridiculous price sometimes even higher than the genuine product it is masquerading as. Other schemes are the rebottling of the genuine toilet waters or colognes into smaller sized parfum extract bottles, and then represented as the high priced product. However, these are sold at many times their actual worth.  

In 1962, Cournand said that most counterfeit perfume is made in Mexico and the Caribbean Islands, rather than in the United States where it is difficult for shady operators to obtain alcohol permits. Cournand believed Cuba was one of the major sources. I concur with him on this.

A 1974 newspaper article explained that much of the phony perfume was created by members of the mob and filtered throughout mob owned bars, clubs and other establishments, or sold to street vendors. It then goes on to say that the other faked perfumes are Arpege by Lanvin, Tabu by Dana, Joy by Jean Patou, Shalimar by Guerlain, Nuit de Noel by Caron, Youth Dew by Estee Lauder, Evening in Paris by Bourjois and much more like the men's cologne Aramis.

The Spurious Sales of Goldman & Marks:

A 1946 newspaper article reported that "the aroma of perfume police said two men were selling to hapless victims for as much as $250 for a 13 ounce bottle left a trail behind them that led to their arrest." Charged with grand larceny were Robert Bennett Goldman of Massachusetts and Theodore Marks of Brooklyn who were displaying their bottles, apparently fancy in label only, in the Savoy Plaza Hotel on fashionable Fifth Avenue.  Police said that the men "fleeced diplomats, stage and radio stars and socially prominent persons of several million dollars. in the past 20 years and had been sought in cities from New York to Miami on many occasions." 

Police said that the pair sold "concoctions of rubbing alcohol, scented lubricating oils and coloring matter - which cost them about 50 cents for concoction and bottle - for about $20 a bottle." They rented a shop at 28 Columbia Street in Manhattan for $17 a month where they concocted and bottled their fake perfumes. They packaged the perfume, police said, in bottles bearing Paris labels for Chanel No. 5, Dana's Tabu, Schiaparelli's Shocking and Jean Patou's Moment Supreme. The police found 350 fancy bottles with famous labels, perfume in four one-gallon jugs, more rubbing alcohol, oils and 10,000 cancelled foreign postage and tobacco stamps used to dress up the packages look like genuine imported goods. This is how the bottles featuring Cuban tax stamps were produced!!

Police said that the pair operated in Washington, in three spots in Florida: Jacksonville, Palm Beach and Miami, as well as New York. Both the NY police and the Toilet Goods Association of America charged that Goldman and Marks were the source of nationwide sales of fake perfume. Marks boasted that "I've been in this racket about five years. We sold plenty of this stuff. We sold this stuff to everybody but Adam. It was a pushover. I have a good sized bank account. And captain, you should see our little factory over in Brooklyn." 

Goldman was "doing it for six years" and quoted as saying he had "made a bundle of money" in the illegal business and "had a good time spending it." He also admitted arrests in 1923 in Atlanta and in 1944 in Miami where he had a similar set up in a Miami Beach garage. Goldman, 27, and his brother Reuben, 19, were arrested in 1929 in Boston while on their way to making "millions" from the sale of  phony "imported" perfume bearing foreign labels of a world known perfumery house that actually was mixed in a washtub in Revere.  According to the police, the two young men sold small bottles of perfume to young women in the business district for $4 a bottle. The perfume was of no material value said police.

Charles Mariani of the Chilean Consulate in New York told police he paid $250 for thirteen fancy bottles of perfume, which cost the sellers, according to police, 12 cents for the bottle and 38 cents for the contents.

In 1933, the Hartford Courant detailed something that makes me think of Goldman's rotten tricks. "Alice Brady, Dorothy Burgess and Director Alexander Hall are the latest victims of a fake perfume merchant who sold them very cheap what was supposed to be costly perfume smuggled into the country. When they opened the stuff, they discovered it was scented water. The 'smuggling' racket is one of the most widely used in Hollywood and covers everything from necklaces to fur coats. The situation has been reported to the local authorities and the 'smugglers' are starting to lay low."

A 1953 newspaper article was run describing in detail that "A still for making fake perfume for use in bottles with the counterfeit labels of several of the leading perfumeries of the world was uncovered yesterday. The raid was carried out by Joseph E. Lannon, special investigator of the alcohol and tobacco tax unit of the internal revenue bureau, and John J. Hanagan, inspector of the Food & Drug Control administration. Lannon said that in addition to a 15-gallon still they also seized a large quantity of perfume bottles, in the basement, some filled and some empty but all carrying the counterfeit labels of expensive perfumes. 

Lannon said also the counterfeit perfumes had been sold in New York, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale and Havana, Cuba, 'for as much as $110 an ounce...Lannon said the still was used to extract alcohol from cheap toilet water and explaining that the alcohol was used to make a 90 % base for the perfume, then mixed with colorings and aromatic extracts and oils and run through the still to be rectified and produce the fake essences.'" The officers discovered it was toilet water doctored up with appropriate colors and scents. Labels and bottles were exact duplicates of expensive perfumes. Some of the bottles were labeled "Channel No. 5 [sic]," Schiaparelli's "Foolish Virgin" [sic] (which wasn't even a real perfume), Jean Patou's "Moment Supreme," Christian Dior's "Tonight or Never" [sic]  (another which was never a real perfume).

Guess who the culprit was? None other than Robert B. "Stinky" Goldman. Goldman was selling his junk perfumes for $75 to $110 per bottle. "Same man, same operation, same price," said chief federal probation officer, Frank A. Edwards. Edwards said he was "particularly interested to note" that the customers in 1953 were paying the same price that they did back in 1945.  

Fake Price Schemes:

Fake pricing can also fool the unwary shopper too, sellers will often affix a fake price tag to the perfumes and then try to sell them for $5, trying to show you how much money you would be saving. Also, instead of perfume, its likely you are getting badly scented alcohol.

1950's newspapers reported that the most popular fake perfume gimmick was to usually show "dignified" advertisements from prominent fashion magazines in which the perfumes are advertised at higher prices "at better stores." The price varies with the name of the product, but most are $15 to $18.75. They give these tear sheets to a fast-talking salesman who will show the customer that the fake stuff they are peddling is the "real thing" which results in customers letting their guard down.

Sometimes the fake perfume peddlers with a confusingly similar brand will buy an ad in a national magazine during the summer months, advertising the perfume at a price of $10. Actually they don't sell any. But they do it so they can say "Advertised in Such and Such when they want to sell the perfume at $3 later at Christmastime. "The trouble is the ads are from magazines years old and stores no longer carry these perfumes. The ones to watch for are Faun, Pagan, Pagoda and Muriel Hasbrouck, all distributed by Ravel."

A 1955 news article advised that some of the fake perfume peddlers "carry ads from national magazines showing the perfume to be of a nationally advertised $25 value. The catch is, that the ads are about 35 years old, and that the original company has gone out of business."

The first tactic in the con game is to get two or three stores in the area to accept a few bottles on consignment. This is an arrangement whereby no money is required until the product sold. Then the perfume racketeers send salespeople to bars, factories, business offices and on sidewalks, while others go door to door in neighborhoods. If the advertisement isn't enough to convince the customer then the salesperson glibly suggests they call one of the stores where the product has been planted. This starts the ball rolling. The unsurprising merchant is surprised at the number of calls but few sales he has. Actually the perfume has little or any established retail distribution nationally at the advertised price or any other price.

College students are targeted and pressed into peddling the bogus perfume with fantastic reasons as to why an imported French $18.50 perfume can be sold for just $1.50. They will say "the perfume was recovered from a shipwreck off France, or that it was smuggled into the country, company went bankrupt, etc. "

The word "Christmas" is used in the names of some of the products in an effort to give them a sentimental holiday value such as "White Christmas by Saravel". Other names are similar to those of established brands. In Detroit, fake perfume was being advertised with a national trademark. It had a price of $17.95 and was marked down to just $1. Another brand was $6.50 and was selling for only 50 cents. It was doing a thriving business until investigators stepped in and stopped it. 

In 1953, it was reported that Lewis Bruno, North Miami Beach city councilman, was named by a city official as a seller of fake perfume in the Miami area.  An assistant tax assessor, Mary Purdy, said Bruno sold her for $6 a bottle of White Christmas perfume bearing an $18.50 price tag. The perfume, about which retailers have been warned in a bulletin issued by the National Business Bureau, was one of several brands which door to door salesmen and some shops had been selling there. In an affidavit she turned over to the US Customs Service office in Miami, she said Bruno told her "a friend brought the White Christmas perfume in from Cuba." She wasn't the only one to be swindled by Bruno, other city employees were talking with investigators. Bruno operated a bonding business and a tourist court The Miami Daily News published Miss Purdy's story and a flood of angry phone calls came pouring into the newsroom from complainants who also bought Bruno's perfume. 

One hapless buyer said a door to door salesman persuaded him to take 12 bottles at $2 a piece after showing him an advertisement for the product from Vogue magazine. "You certainly feel safe with anything advertised in Vogue. I bought it for Christmas presents, and now I'm ashamed to give the stuff away," he said bitterly. Another buyer was a businessman who bought 36 bottles, under the guise that it was a "factory close-out."

A representative from Vogue in New York said the advertisement was run by the magazine in good faith in its September issue. He said the magazine investigated later and was unable to find anyone who would admit being connected with the manufacturer.

Printers' Ink - Volume 245, 1953:

"Exposes ad hoax: National magazine ads are being used to set the stage for a nationwide hoax which involves consumer sales of perfumes according to the National Better Business Bureau…the NBBB reports, “an army of fast-talking salesmen who have purchased the perfume for approximately $1 per bottle, descends upon the community hawking the "nationally advertised $20 perfume" at from $2 to $5 or what the traffic will bear, after displaying the magazine ad. The NBBB points out that the magazine accepted the ads in good faith and have informed the bureau that in the future they will accept no perfume advertising unless the advertiser's standing is well and favorably known to the trade and the Toilet Goods Assn. Cited by the NBBB are White Christmas perfume (Saravel, Inc., New York); Ecstacy perfume (Ecstacy Perfumes, New York); and Faun perfume and toilet water by Ravel (Swanmore, Sales Distributors, New York.)"

The service bulletin issued by the better Business Bureau said Vogue carried a quarter-page ad for "White Christmas by Saravel," selling at $18.50 the ounce at better shops." The bulletin continued, "Subsequently, the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau reported that White Christmas perfume was being offered to individuals in that city at anywhere from $ to $5. From Chicago, it was reported that this perfume was being offered in bars and other establishments from $1.50 up, while an advertisement in a Chicago newspaper sought salesmen to "make big money" selling the "perfume advertised in Vogue at $18.50," which would cost the salesmen $1.25 tax paid."

The bulletin said the perfume had been offered to salesmen in other cities as little as $12 bottles $10. The BBB said it has similar information about Ecstacy Perfume, which was advertised in the December issue of Harper's Bazaar at $18.50 an ounce. the advertisement described it as "fine perfume made from imported essences." "Even before the December 1953 issue of Harper's Bazaar was released," the bulletin said, proofs of the Ecstacy advertisement were sent to a wholesaler by JJ Edelson, 645 Broadway, New York, 12, NY. In an accompanying circular, which referred to the magazine advertised price of $18.75, Edelson offered one-ounce bottles at 75 cents each in minimum lots of 500 bottles. He described the offers as "the greatest Christmas sale of all times."

The bulletin said Edelson told  BBB investigator that he bought the perfume "from sources which he did not care to disclose." Harper's Bazaar, in the same issue, carried an advertisement for "Faun Perfume and Toilet Water by Ravel" at $15 an ounce. "The Boston BBB reports that a buyer for a local department store was shown this advertisement and was invited to purchase a quantity of Faun perfume for $1 per half-ounce," the bulletin said. It added that salesmen in New York were asking $2.50 a bottle for Faun.

Misleading Labels:

Among the many questionable values peddled during the season, phony perfumes bearing misleading labels ("Chanel-type" or "Channel" with two N's, or "Our Version of..") should be avoided. Other promoters bottle phony fragrances in bottles marked with various initials:

•  "A" for Arpege by Lanvin
• "C5" or "C" for Chanel No 5 
• "E" for Estee Lauder (usually Youth Dew)
• "I" for Indiscret by Lucien Lelong, Intoxication by D'Orsay, Intimate by Revlon
• "J" for Joy by Jean Patou
• "MS" or "M" for My Sin by Lanvin
• "N" for Norell by Norell
• "S" for Shalimar by Guerlain
• "ST" for Sortilege by Le Galion
• "T" for Tabu by Dana
• "WS" or "W" for White Shoulders by Evyan
• "X" for  Nuit de Noel (Xmas Night) by Caron

These are the most popular examples, though there may be others, sometimes the sellers are falsely claiming these are special identification codes used by the high end perfume companies to identify their product, however, no such number existed for Chanel perfume.

1964, the Chicago Tribune reported:

"In Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian police confiscated nearly 2 million dollars worth of fake French perfumes." The Pittsburgh Press warned the public in 1966 that "One of the most popular items with the Christmas racketeers this year - as it has been for many years in the past - is perfume. “Beware of the salesman who offers perfume with $16 or $18 labels for two or three dollars.” warned Charles R. Burke, president of the Pittsburgh Better Business Bureau. 

“Even at the reduced price, this so-called perfume is no bargain.” Some of it smells so bad that instead of attracting the opposite sex, it is more likely to cause him to reach for a deodorizing spray. Many times, the perfume faker tries to capitalize on famous brand names such as Chanel No. 5 offering it at incredibly low prices. The bottle or package may carry a C-5 sticker or label which the salesman says is a code marking for Chanel. But be warned, Chanel does not implement any sort of code markings for their fragrances. “Giving this to your wife or girlfriend is more likely to bring you the cold shoulder than a warm embrace.” Mr. Burke added.

Consumer Bulletin, 1968:

"PERFUME IS A FAVORITE CHRISTMAS GIFT, particularly likely to be purchased by the unwary male shopper. For the peddler of phony perfumes, it is harvest time. Anything that has the color of perfume is bottled attractively, and has a name that sounds like a famous scent can be and is sold to many at a high price. Counterfeit labels of popular brands are used on cheap imitations. Sometimes only initials are shown, to fool the purchaser into thinking that C stands for Chanel, A for Arpege, or MS for My Sin."

VISUAL GUIDE TO FANTASY FAKE BOTTLES:

Chanel:

Chanel No. 5 has been faked since it's introduction in 1921 by people who have been trying to capitalize on the brand's success, status and popularity. Please see my blog site on these so that you can determine whether your vintage Chanel perfume is genuine or not.

1953, the Toledo Blade reported that

"The salesman with fake perfume bargains is out to take Santa Claus, warned The Perfume Importers Group of the Toilet Goods Association this week. Purchases, mostly by men, for Christmas gifts, account for 40% of all legitimate perfume sales in this country, and more than half of falsified scent swindles, said a representative of the importers here. Such swindles involve thousand of dollars each year which, although a mere drop in the 120 million dollar perfume industry bucket, are no jokes to the folks who find they have been taken. 

While watchdog activities by this group and the police keep its volume down, illicit perfume traffic can never be done away with so long as there are people who think they can get the real thing in a fine, expensive product, “dirt cheap”, the spokesman pointed out. 

Often working in a husband and wife teams, perfume crooks have imitations labels printed for Chanel No. 5 and the like, buy bottles resembling the originals from outlet dealers, and mix scents with alcohol in a bathtub or some suitable basin. Sometimes the results are indistinguishable to the ordinary nostril, from the perfume they merely imitate, but it was said that the connection was only as superficial as that between a cotton and wool suit and an all wool one. Men, who buy 65-70% of the perfume worn by women, are most easily taken in by the supposedly $15 perfumes at half the price. 

But a favorite target of the crooked salesman is the business concern interested in buying a large supply of scents for Christmas gifts to customers and employees. It looks good when a deal can be swung whereby only $10,000 out of $20,000 budget item for such gifts need to be used, but it can turn out to be very costly in customer and employee good will, the importers representative declared.  Under the circumstances, it was said the customer had better beware of (1) the  “salesman” peddling perfume for whose alleged perfume business no telephone listing can be found, and (2) the offer of a band name perfume at a great bargain - for there is no such thing."

1974, The Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reported that a

"Fake Perfume Racket Flourishes in District. Something smells  in the perfume business these days. Which is to say, beware of the person who comes bearing Chanel, because it might be plain old sugar water. And, despite the price of sugar nowadays, sugar water just isn’t in the same league with Chanel. What is happening is that hustlers and con men are filling bottles  resembling Chanel bottles with liquids other than perfume and attempting to exchange them for a refund a busy department stores.  This bit of chicanery and skullduggery as been going on for about ten years along the East Coast and for about three years in Pittsburgh.  

Chanel is not the only brand name used, either. But it is the most popular. A couple of years ago it was well nigh impossible for the average perfumes to tell the difference between the real Chanel packaging and the hoax, so good were the forgeries.  No so anymore. At least according to Charlene Shupbach, assistant cosmetic buyer at Kaufmann’s. “A little old lady came in the other day to get an exchange or a refund on one of the forgeries. She said it was a gift, but one look and almost anyone who knows anything about perfume knew it was a forgery. Stamped all over the box was “Imported from France” The real Chanel bottle doesn’t have anything but the size on the bottom of the box. Another way to tell the bad stuff is that the seal on the bottle is usually badly forged.  

“What’s in the phony bottles? Sugar water, usually.” Down at the Joseph Horne Co., Herb Mannion shrugs his shoulders, “Yes,” he says, “I know all about that game. We got burned a couple of times in the past couple of years, but we’re on the watch for it now. I think one of our suburban stores hot hit with a refund the other day. Chanel.” Mannion, who is he cosmetic buyer for Horne’s tells about the two youngsters who came in with three boxes with the Chanel label. They wanted refunds. “But our salespeople - and most of them have been around perfume for about 20 years, thought something was fishy. They started to call the store security. The kids bolted. We didn’t catch the kids but we found out that a lady had lost her shopping bag with the Chanel boxes in it. Funny, it was the real thing, too.”  

Mannion says a waiter in one of Pittsburgh’s better restaurants was caught trying to push phony Chanel perfume. And he says there is a brisk market in the ersatz Chanel at skating rinks. ‘Don’t ask me why skating rinks. I don’t know.”, he said." In an article in the Dispatch from 1974 "Consumers alerted to bogus Chanel No. 5.  Bogus Chanel No. 5 perfume has filtered into North Carolina from a suspected northern manufacture and distribution point, according to the Consumer Protection News, from the office of NC Attorney General Robert Morgan.    

Jim Blackburn, CPD chief said, “We don’t want any North Carolinians to lose money and we feel we are aborting sales efforts with early detection and investigation.” Between Nov 1973 and Feb 1974, New York City police seized more than 80,000 bottles of the fake “Chanel” perfume. The estimate street value was set at $1 million., Blackburn said. Reports of sale of the counterfeit perfume have been  registered in eastern, central and western North Carolina. Some of the phonies were bought at legitimate retail stores; others were bought at a flea market near Asheville.   

Attorney General Morgan said that to underworld figures, the fake perfume is called a “gaff”. In metropolitan areas, he said, the illicit manufacturers sell to shops believed to be controlled by organized crime, and to street hustlers for about $2 a bottle. Chanel No. 5 usually retails for $35 an ounce.  

Blackburn noted several irregularities in the bogus bottles of perfume:

Authentic Chanel bottles are from a single mold; the phony is molded in two parts with the adhesive joint clearly visible.

Authentic bottles have an inscription on the back denoting the amount of perfume in ounces; the fake has no inscription.

Labels on bogus bottles have a fuzzy, faded appearance.

Tops or stoppers on authentic bottles are glass; the phony products tops are plastic.

True bottles necks are smooth, the bogus bottle neck has a rough edge.

Real Chanel No. 5 has a distinctively darker color than the fake perfume.

Counterfeit bottles have ripples and impurities in the glass.

Authentic bottles are perfectly flat from each top corner to the bottle neck; the phony bottle has an upward, slanted effect from each corner to the neck.

Although the counterfeit may look almost identical in packaging, Blackburn said, the scent tends to disappear quickly - much like the seller. Anyone who has seen or bought one of the bogus bottles is requested to contact the Division.” The Milwaukee Sentinel ran this article in 1976: " The sweet smell of fraud has been wafting through department stores here. Clerks have had their noses full sniffing perfume bottles for women who fear their Chanel No. 5 is nothing more than scented water peddled as the real thing in the city for the past 15 months.

The district attorney’s office last week seized 3,228 bottles of phony perfume labeled Chanel No. 5and Arpege. The fake Chanel sold for $15 per ounces, about $25 less than the regular retail prices. “We’ve got bottles all over the place”, said Deputy Ds. Atty. Richard Spriggs. “I don’t have a nose for perfume, but the difference is clear, even to a person with a burned out nose like mine.” The bogus perfume was seized at a warehouse after the executives of four defunct distributing firms left the state.”

A 1974 newspaper article stated that sales of counterfeit perfumes have become an increasingly large problem. Expensive perfume is diluted and sold as the real thing. Sold at a fraction of the real item's cost, a bogus scent will soon fade after it is used. "There is just no way of accurately estimating the losses in sales from the peddling of fakes. People are always looking for a bargain. It's been a problem and its growing," said a Chanel spokesman. So perfume fakery thrives, particularly around Mother's Day and Christmas, the two big holidays for the industry. He said that large scale counterfeit sales apparently center in New York, but also reported in Chicago, St Louis, Boston, the west coast and southern states as well as upstate New York. Police in New York turned up 100,000 bottles of fake Chanel No. 5 between December and March. The article also stated that a Chanel representative inspected 30,000 one ounce bottles of fake perfume in which the police seized in Manhattan. "The problem is biggest around the holidays, particularly Christmas, Mother's Day, Easter and Valentine's Day. The stuff turns up all over the place".

Sweet Street, 1975:

"There's a guy in town that he's got counterfeit Chanel Number 5 and Coty's all put up in special boxes, we pick 'em up at six bits a bottle and sell 'em for five dollars. He makes the stuff with two or three drops of the of the original plus a lot of junk and water. The perfume don't last, but it lasts long enough to sell.

 US News & World Report, 1978:

"Bargain perfumes: often a fragrant ripoff. Among the most prevalent schemes now coming to light — Counterfeit perfume. One is likely to be a small vial referred to as "Essence of Chanel No. 5," a perfume roll on oil for just $5 or $10. The customer of course winds up with either a bottle of toilet water or colored water. and not the real deal."

Piracy and the Public, 1983:

"Having identified this major source of phoney French perfume, he next established that a big consignment of counterfeit Chanel had been flown out of Taiwan to Los Angeles in the mid-summer of 1982."

New Society, 1984:

"For some reason, Britons are big in fake perfumes. Last September, for example, an illicit factory was uncovered in London which had been mass-producing phoney fragrances under the Chanel and Aramis labels."

Marked to Die, 1984:

"Together they hired a chemist to concoct a bogus perfume, "Chanel Number Five," which was packaged in counterfeit boxes and sold (for five dollars a bottle, where normally it cost about thirty-five) under the pretense that they had stolen it."

 

New York Raids:

-----In 1953, a newspaper article mentions that two men were arrested for selling counterfeit Chanel perfume. Attorney Aaron I. Schwartz of Chanel Inc. in New York and New Haven complained that the perfumes sold by the two men were not his company's product. Samples of the phony product were sent to the New Haven Agricultural Station and the State Food & Drug Commission for analysis. Both agencies reported that it was a cheap grade cologne.

----The Hammond Vindicator, 1958 reported that : "Last week in New York, a billiard parlor habitue was found guilty of mislabeling bottles of bathtub perfume as Chanel Number Five...A pool shark whose Christmas business was said to be the manufacture of bathtub perfume was arraigned yesterday in Upper Manhattan Court. Real Chanel Number Five sells for $22 an ounce, the prosecutor said. The defendant, Carl Zingale, known as "Cue Ball Kelly," of Brooklyn, was selling his mixture for $2 an ounce." He was caught in the act of peddling 36 bottles of his junk perfume to a cab driver. Another 100 one-ounce bottles of his perfume were found in McGirr's Billiard Academy. 

"In the defendant's home, a mixture was found in the bathtub and a number of bottles of the fluid were discovered "settling or cooling" on the fire escape." Zingale admitted selling a number of the phony bottles the previous Christmas. This year, he began manufacturing  a few weeks prior to December, he sold fifteen gross of one-ounce bottles in the previous two weeks and "had hoped to sell another thirty gross before the holiday season ended." Zingale's formula was "one part Chanel scent, purchased from a chemist, six parts alcohol and one part water. The bottles were sold in authentic-looking Chanel Number Five boxes. The manufacturer of those boxes and the printer who printed Chanel on them" were being investigated also. He was charged with the crime of mislabeling or counterfeiting a trademark.

Ripoffs, 1976:

"police in Ozone Park, New York, recently broke up a phony-perfume scheme in which homemade perfume was packaged in 54,000 counterfeit Chanel No. 5 bottles"

Chicago Raids:

----In 1947, it was reported that Frederick G. Brissa of Chicago admitted to police that he poured inexpensive perfume into fancy bottles and sold it for more than $20 an ounce to unsuspecting buyers. He was arrested as he was delivering perfume to a department store and was charged with obtaining money under false pretenses. Police said he peddled the cheap perfume as Chanel No. 5 and had netted about $10,000 in two months of operation. They said he reputedly was the head of a ring which worked the racket here and elsewhere. Authorities said the department store was used as an innocent fence by the perfume racketeers. 

Barissa admitted he made a "mistake" trying to sell the perfume through legitimate channels. Attorney Aaron I. Schwartz, who represented Chanel Inc of New York Coty, said samples of the perfume were sent to his office and when tested, the perfume proved to be spurious. Brissa admitted to buying large lots of cheap perfume, bottling it in containers simulating Chanel, and then selling it to persons anxious for a bargain in perfumes. In a bad turn of events, Fred Brissa was murdered in an ambush by shotgun killers in 1951.

----In 1952, authorities probed the murder of Anthony Baldino, 47, an official of an independent teamsters' union. A possible motive was that he had been dealing in faked or adulterated perfumes and clashed with other operators of the racket. Detective said Baldino was pushing the sale of perfume bearing the name of a well known manufacturer. Baldino sold four bottles of the perfume for $5 each in the Copy Lounge, in which Baldino formerly was a partner. Baldino told a young female customer, who was with several other persons, that he admired her perfume and asked its brand name. She told him and Baldino left the group for a few minutes. He returned with four one-ounce bottles bearing the same brand name mentioned by the woman and sold them quickly for $5 each. 

It was reported that Baldino attempted to sell some of the perfume to Edward Fenner, executive director of the Chicago Trick Drivers Union, of which Baldino was an official, and other executives of the union. Investigators were seeking to learn whether part of the $15,000 bank loan Baldino tried to negotiate recently might have been intended to purchase supplies of the fake perfumes to sell during the Christmas season.

New Jersey Raids:

---In 1952, the Miami News reported that police in Hoboken, NJ hoped that "they have put an end to the operations of a fake perfume ring which may well have been on the way to flooding the country with $1,000,000 worth of bootleg perfume. It was being sold as Chanel No. 5. While the outside container is similar to the one used for the genuine Chanel, the bottle for the phoney perfume is obviously machine-made as compared to the hand-blown container and cut glass stopper offered with the real stiff, according to the manufacturers." Those arrested were Patrick M. King, Thomas Monto and Armand De Cicco. The trio planned to unload 1,000 bottles of the fake scent for $3,500. A similar shipment of legitimate Chanel No. 5 which usually sold for $25 an ounce, would cost $12,500. 

"The ring was discovered when waterfront police noticed sales of perfume around the docks. It was at first thought that perfume bottles were being smuggled off ships. An undercover man stationed in the area was approached by a 'pusher' and sold a bottle. This was taken to the Chanel Company for examination and analysis of its contents. Once it was established as fake, a trap was set." According to police, the 1,000 half-ounce bottle lot was found in Monto's car and the equipment capable of producing the link amount under a sofa in the living room of King's apartment. Authorities said that the ring specialized in selling to bartenders who peddled the bogus perfume on the sly to unwitting patrons. "definitely a big time operation," said Assistant Hudson County Prosecutor Isidore Dworkin after the trio was picked up. He said additional arrests were expected to be made.

----In 1954, "Police of Hackensack, N.J., have exposed a smelly ring of racketeers who during the past two years have flooded the New York area with an estimated 30,000 bottles of fake Chanel No. 5. " The trio, Thomas Bocchino, Vincent J. Della Torre and George R. Hills, was nabbed for selling the fake perfume which they sold for $17.50 an ounce, while the real trademarked perfume sold for $25. They sold it to a local drug store as Chanel No. 5. Chanel Inc. Attorney Aaron Schwartz said that more than 51,000 counterfeit bottles of the fake perfume had been traced in 1953 in all parts of the country, mainly New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Miami, plus Canada. He said it cost the operators only 4 cents an ounce to produce the fake perfume and that it was sold for as much as $10 an ounce.

Bocchino manufactured the stuff at his barbershop in Cliffside Park, NJ. Della Torre, manager of Doc Beansey's Auto Sales sold much of his fake product to George R. Hills, at his used car lot in South Hackensack, NJ. The assistant prosecutor said that Della Torre had sold three one-ounce bottles of the counterfeit fragrance to George Hills.  Hills then sold the perfume to various local jewelry stores. An investigation by New York police and New Jersey authorities followed an announcement in a Ridgefield weekly newspaper by a druggist that gave police the tip off the racket. The advertisement stated that the expensive perfume would be available at ridiculously low prices. The raid was set up when customers who answered the ad said that the stuff they bought didn't smell like the real thing. Police seized more than 30 bottles of fake perfume at Della Torre's car lot.  Police found equipment for bottling, labeling and sealing of the counterfeit Chanel perfume at Bocchino's apartment.

Miami Raids:

---Also in 1954, constables raided two box making companies in Miami, Florida, confiscating 1,584 small cartons labeled "Chanel" at one place, and printing plates and small bottles of the so-called "perfume" at the other. The search warrant was obtained by Aaron I. Schwartz, who we know as Chanel Inc's investigating attorney in New York. Schwartz was in Tampa investigating leads gained during a similar crackdown in New York City. He said that some of the phonies had been marketed in Miami after shipment from Cuba. Anywhere from six to a dozen local concerns or individuals were expected to be connected, according to officials. Believed involved in the operation here are the box makers, the label printers, the contractor, the concern providing tissue padding for the boxes, and perhaps someone making some of the perfume. 

The swindlers netted $25 per bottle which only cost the, $1.19. The scheme may have involved millions of dollars annually. In the operation of a nation-wide scale, the boxes were made in Miami, and shipped to New York where they were filled with the bogus perfume bottles. Shipped to Cuba and Mexico, tourists bought them up as the real thing at prices approximating those of the genuine article. The lead investigator said the Miami operation was on the largest scale he had seen since starting his probe. The investigator said one box maker shipped some 15,000 bogus boxes the prior year. The other shipped some 11,000 recently and was preparing another shipment when it was confiscated. The 15,000 cartons cost just about $17,850 to market at close to $300,000. 

Arrested and charged with counterfeiting and issuing false trade marks were: Hyman Lessin, owner of Florida Paper Box Corp, was charged with forging inner boxes for the perfume. Alvin Ross, owner of Ross Offset Printing Co., was charged with printing the inside wrappers. A.N. Composto, owner of Miami Art Printing Co., was charged with printing Chanel No. 5 labels.  

Aaron Schwartz, investigator for Chanel pointed out the following:

• #1. The authentic Chanel No. 5 bottle is hand-blown and has the word "Chanel" blown into the bottom of it. The phony stock bottle has the words "Made in France" blown into the bottom.
• #2. The authentic bottle has beveled edges: the counterfeit bottle straight edges.
• #3. The Genuine Chanel bottle stopper is beveled at 45 degrees, while the phony stopper is square. 
• #4. The top lid of the authentic box has raised (engraved) lettering "Chanel" inscribed on it. The word "Chanel" on the phony doesn't have any engraved lettering, it is simply printed and feels smooth.

----In 1964, Miami Beach police arrested two men and confiscated nearly 2,000 half-ounce bottles of counterfeit perfume. State's attorney's investigators said the bottles, capped with shiny metal instead of the tradition Chanel No. 5 cut glass stoppers, were being wrapped for shipment to New York. Arrested on charges of counterfeiting a trademark were Herbert Kennard and William White, both of Miami Beach. Investigators said they were tipped off by the district attorney's office in Brooklyn.

Other States Raided:

 

In 1956:

"Quantities of perfume, in imitation of Chanel No. 5, with counterfeit labels and containers, appeared on the North Carolina market, mainly in the Raleigh and Charlotte areas ; and, according to reports, were distributed by drivers of Cadillac cars."

---In 1959, Police in St Louis arrested Harry A. Goot and Elmer J. Reihemann for selling bogus perfume under a Chanel No. 5 label. Reihemann, a salesman for the Goot Distributing Co. explained he had sold several bottles of the perfume but denied he knew it was counterfeit. Police were notified of the illegal operation by the Better Business Bureau which purchased a bottle a few months prior. tests proved the perfume to be of inferior quality. A bureau spokesman said that a warning had been issued to fraternities and sororities at the University of Missouri after one sorority reported buying about $300 worth at $5 a bottle. The counterfeit perfume sold at about $3.50 an ounce, while genuine Chanel No. 5 retailed at $22.50 an ounce.

Schiaparelli:

All of the bottles below were never used by Schiaparelli. As you can see two of the bottles are identical, down to the frosted stopper and silvery paper labels used, the address on them is 19 rue Duphot, Paris, incidentally the address for the Irfe couture and parfum house. Irfe wholesaled perfumes as well as offering their own. These would most likely date to the 1920s-1940s era.

The other bottle, an octagonal shape features a Casa Madrid label from Havana, Cuba. It seems that Casa Madrid had a habit of offering fake perfumes, I believe it got them from Goldman & Marks to sell to tourists to Havana. This bottle looks like it was originally from the 1930s, but this was being passed off as real in the 1940s-1950s.

A bottle for Shocking has a porcelain plaque on the front, and a Cuban tax stamp on the back. It looks much older, probably from the teens or 20s period, old stock of course, purchased and reused by Goldman & Marks, again, passed off as genuine during the 1940s-1950s.

Another bottle for Shocking is more of an Art Nouveau period piece and has a frosted, molded glass stopper. These bottles, again, are from the teens-twenties period and were never used by Schiaparelli. As is the case with the others, they too, were faked some time in the 1940s-1950s.

Caron:

Here is a bottle I found that was purporting itself to be Fleurs de Rocaille by Caron. Caron never used this bottle, but Parfums de Raymond did for their perfume Mimzy in the 1920s and 1930s. Notice the two "Caron" labels, one in silver foil and the other a shield shape, plus the Casa Madrid label on the base. There is a small metal rose affixed to the cords on the neck. This was sold to tourists in Havana.

I believe this is an old stock bottle purchased and filled by Goldman & Marks in the 1940s-1950s.

Ciro:

I did find a single fake bottle for Ciro's Surrender perfume. This bottle was never used by Ciro. It was however, used to fake a Lanvin perfume. This is also a Goldman & Marks example, using an older bottle from the teens-twenties period and faked in the 1940s-1950s. Notice the cancelled Cuban stamp on the base.

 

F. Millot:

All the fake bottles I have found for F. Millot's Crepe de Chine are of clear crystal and the labels are silvery paper labels. The shapes are of those that were produced in the 1920s and into the 1930s. One of the bottles, on the right, was genuinely used by Gabilla. Therefore, I believe all of these bottles are old stock that were purchased by the counterfeiters Goldman & Marks. Some of the bottles had Cuban tax stamps, which was a unique hallmark of theirs.

Jean Patou:

I have seen numerous different fake bottles for Jean Patou. One that I find more consistent is the clear glass bottle with the frosted glass stopper that the counterfeiter used for the classic perfume, Joy. Other perfumes faked were his Cocktail Bittersweet, Cocktail Dry and Moment Supreme. Again, these bottles were made in the 1920s and 1930s and were purchased as old stock by the counterfeiters, Goldman & Marks. The fakes were produced sometime in the 1940s-1950s. Jean Patou never used any of these bottles. You will notice that the same bottles were used to fake other perfume brands such as Lanvin and Paul Poiret.

Paul Poiret:

There is no shortage of fake Paul Poiret perfumes to be found. Many of the bottles you will see have been used to fake other perfumes. Paul Poiret's perfume company was called Rosine, it was not named after himself, but after his daughter. I have seen plenty of "Poiret" perfumes in bottles never used by Rosine, therefore, every single one labeled "Poiret Paris" is a counterfeit Poiret. I believe that nearly all of them were concocted by Goldman & Marks, especially if the bottle has a Cuban stamp on it.

A 1952 newspaper article said that "a French chemist, who for years brewed imitations of world-famous perfumes in a kitchen laboratory and sold them abroad, yesterday was charged with fraud. Maurice Shaller (misspelled Schalerr in the article) admitted sending thousands of bottles of the fake perfume to South America, where they were sold as genuine. Perfumes he faked were "Carnet de Bal," "Arpege," and "Ma Griffe," copyrighted by the Revillon, Lanvin and Carven fashion houses respectively. I found this very interesting because, Maurice Shaller was the actual perfumer for some famous brands such as Paul Poiret such as the 1913 fragrance, Nuit de Chine for the designer's perfume line Rosine. He also composed Carnet de Bal for Revillon in 1937, it would stand to reason he had the original formula. Was he passing off the dupes of the formulas?

Some of the fake Poiret bottles have labels for "Parfum de Royaute Poiret," a company which never actually existed. Here is a list of the fake Poiret perfumes:

• Nuit D'Egypte de Poiret
• Nuit de Chine de Poiret
• Cloches de Noël de Poiret
• Enchantment de Poiret
• Jicky de Poiret
• No. 5 de Poiret
• Black Tulip de Poiret
• La Vierge Folle de Poiret
• Lady of Paris de Poiret
• Le Moment Supreme
• Les Pois de Senteur de Poiret
• Moelleux de Poiret
• Mon Péché de Poiret
• Noir de Poiret
• Nuit de Noël de Poiret
• Parfum pour Brunes de Poiret
• Parfum pour Blondes de Poiret
• Sweet Pea de Poiret
• Vamp's Desire de Poiret
• Mon Choix de Poiret
• Glamour de Poiret
• Mysteries of The Night de Poiret
• Ce Soir ou Jamais de Poiret

The perfumes listed below were probably released between the 1920s and 1940s and used for the fake Poiret bottles, some of the names are also used by other well-known perfumers. You might recognize perfume names, and their original launch dates, such as:

• Nuit de Noel (Caron, 1922)
• Cloches de Noel (Molinard, 1926)
• No. 5 (Chanel, 1921)
• Glamour (Chanel, 1933)
• Ghedma (Renaud, 1925)
• Jicky (Guerlain, 1889)
• Mon Péché (Lanvin, 1924)
• Moment Supreme (Jean Patou, 1929)
• Les Pois de Senteur (Caron, 1929)
• La Vierge Folle (Gabilla, 1929)
• Nuit D'Egypte (Lionceau, 1925)
• Parfum Pour Blondes (Lionceau, 1925)
• Parfum Pour Brunes (Lionceau, 1925)
• Ce Soir Ou Jamais (Offenthal, 1925)
• Noir (Weil, 1937)
• Femme de Paris "Lady of Paris" (Ybry, 1925)  
• Black Tulip, which was a name used by Henry Tetlow, Atkinson's (1929), Solon Palmer, Lazell & Co, McLean, Edward T Beiser and others.

This is an exquisite Czech glass perfume bottle from the 1930s, a fake label on the bottom reads "Poiret Extrait Fabrication Française Paris France". Sticker on top reads "Pour Blonde". It measures 3 3/4" to the top of the bottle and just shy of 5 1/2" to the top of the stopper. No, this was not actually used by Poiret.

The Glamour de Poiret is of opaque black glass with a matching black glass stopper. However, this was never actually used by Paul Poiret and is a fake. The bottle itself is old, but was most likely used by genuine perfume companies in the 1920s-1930s.

Vamp's Desire and Mysteries of the Night by "Poiret". This is a large rectangular clear glass bottle with a frosted floral glass stopper. This bottle was used to fake other scents by different makers including Lanvin and Jean Patou. It was never actually used by any of those companies.

Dana:

There is a single bottle I found for Dana's famous Tabu perfume. Dana never used this bottle, it is cobalt blue and has a clear molded glass stopper. Notice it has a Cuban tax stamp affixed to the back. Clearly, this was a fake produced by Goldman & Marks in the 1940s-1950s.

Lanvin:

There are two definite faked Lanvin perfumes that I have encountered. One was for Scandal and the other for My Sin. The bottles used in the fakes were never used by Lanvin. They are clear glass and at least one of them was regularly used for housing different fake perfumes. The bottle used for My Sin has a "Fabrication Francaise" label attached to the cording on the neck, I have seen this on other faked bottles. The Scandal bottle has a Cuban tax stamp on the back side.

I found a third fake Lanvin bottle. This is the same bottle used to fake Chanel No.5. This style of bottle was never used by Lanvin. A 1974 newspaper article stated that hustlers were filling Chanel styled bottles with liquids other than perfume and attempting either to sell them or return or exchange them to busy stores trying to get a refund. They also mention that sugar water is usually inside the counterfeit bottles instead of perfume.

Christian Dior:

• Fleur Defendue
• Ce Soir Ou Jamais

Same exact bottle, clear glass, square shape, disk shaped glass stopped molded with flowers. Both have paper labels in both English and French and both have Cuban tax stamps, one dated 1943. Christian Dior never released perfumes called Fruit Defendue (Forbidden Fruit) or Ce Soir Ou Jamais (Tonight or Never). Please do not buy these thinking they are rare "limited edition" perfumes, because they are not, no matter what seller tells you otherwise.