Membership Renewals

One of the benefits of membership in the Carder Steuben Club is an annual membership in the Corning Museum of Glass. For those of you who have renewed your membership, you should know that CMoG membership cards were mailed to you yesterday. Obviously, if you haven’t renewed yet, nothing was mailed to you. There is still time to renew or join the club and receive a 2014 membership to CMoG. Just follow the link in the pink section at the bottom of the Gazette and follow the instructions there. Thank you.

Scott Hansen,
President

______________________________

How It Started

Just as a point of clarification concerning the authenticity of the label on the bottom of my decanter / bottle. I never doubted that it was not an old authentic label….my question was whether any one had ever seen this particular label. I was aware of the Woolworth labels from Bobby’s and my cataloging of the Rockwell collection back in 1975/76. For further clarification, the inside of the neck def. has been ground for a small Chinese hat style stopper as shown in the line drawings.

I am avidly seeking a stopper for this piece to complete it. If anyone has such a stopper available, please contact me “off site” at : dpd645@aol.com.
Thanks very kindly,
David P. Donaldson, MFA

_______________________________

Woodward Answer

Bonnie Salzman of Richmond, VA started the search through the IPBA.

I shared Thursday’s Gazette with the IPBA’s premier researcher in all things perfume related, Helen Farnsworth. She did an article about Woodworth many years ago for the PBQ (Perfume Bottle Quarterly) which is the magazine the IPBA produces. Copy is below.
Note her comments about Mr. Woodworth below as well.

Helen Farnsworth Research

I will add a copy of my article below from the PBQ. Woodworth on a label dates to before 1930, since after that date it is labelled Bourjouis. Woodworth is heavily collected by Bourjois folks. I do know that Woodworth used Viard glass for several very high end perfume bottles-one is particular is a close for an Isabey bottle. I do have quite a few bits of paper ephemera for Woodworth and that graphics on the label are spot on. Woodworth used very high quality artists for any paper items as well, but mostly French graphic artists,
Currently I don’t know of any Steuben connection, but it is not unlikely due to the interest that Woodworth had in fine glass and the fact that they are quite near geographically.
Woodworth was a very elegant gentleman who loved fine quality items and I think that a closer look at this will perhaps give a clue.

Helen

C. B. WOODWORTH AND SONS by Helen Farnsworth

The first time I heard the name Woodworth referring to a perfume company, my mind connected that name to Woolworths’-the ubiquitous five and dime store which stood on the corner of Main St. in Everywhere Downtown, U.S.A.. I wondered if perhaps Woodworth was a down market retail perfumery. As I have discovered, nothing could be further from the truth.
C.B. Woodworth began his perfume company in Rochester, New York in the year 1855. The company was incorporated in the year 1894 and listed its office as West Main Street in Rochester; however, Woodworth did not register his company name under trademark until 1909. Later the company moved to 287 State Street, Rochester.Perfume was manufactured at a plant on Capron Street again in Rochester.
Woodworth’s portrait, taken from one of the Tax Proprietary stamps from the year 1870, is shown with this article. The first of his 77 perfumes was most likely the perfume called “Blue Lilies” which is shown in the advertisement for the year 1891.
By the year 1906 Woodworth had listed 42 scent names with 6 shown as being registered under trademark. Commercial perfumers in this era registered only those names which were conceived as proprietary to their individual companies. Hence Woodworth would not go to the expense of registering a name like “Royal Fern” , but would register their flagship perfume name of “Blue Lilies”. To further demonstrate business customs of this era, “Violets of Sicily” was officially registered in the year 1908, but claimed use of the name since 1890. The “Violets of Sicily” bottle pictured here is a quintessential 19th century American perfume bottle design. It is made of heavy crystal glass with triangular panels which are repeated in the massive decanter style glass stopper. The bottle stands just 4 inches high, but imagine the bottle without the labels or the information on height and the illusion of a wine decanter is quite valid. The picture of quality crystal is completed with a ground and polished bottom. The paper neck band and label are also in the style of the Victorian era with rich embossed gold motif and demure lettering. At first the location and name of the company are lost in the discrete design. The era’s love of labeling is continued on the back of the bottle with a gold paper seal comprised of interlocking letters of CBW .
Over the next few years Woodworth added 35 perfume names and became C.B. Woodworth & Sons, Inc. An office was established at 392 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York. Also records show that in the year 1919, Woodworth began using Stanley metal embossed labels. Woodworth became a choice property available for purchase. Although the date of sale is not known, the International Perfume Company bought the perfume house and added Woodworth to its numerous other subsidiary perfume companies. The date of purchase was most likely early in the 1920’s. Following the purchase, inspiration for perfume names and bottle designs beca§me more international.

In 1923 Woodworth bought from the French perfumer Henrietta Gabilla a perfume name and formula to produce “Tous Les Bouquets”. Following this acquisition, the 1923 ad in the”New York Times”, complete with the pictured bottle, stated “Tous Les Bouquets” French Perfume in choice Baccarat bottle packed in neat Parisian box…$5.00″,(italics by author). The bottle is by Viard and is identical to the bottle pictured on page #127 of THE ART OF PERFUME as “Route d’Emeraude” for Isabey in 1924. The only difference between the bottles is the type of stain and the labeling. The Woodworth bottle has an opaque orange/brown stain(see THE BEAUTY OF PERFUME, page 52, #310) while the Isabey bottle has a translucent gray/black stain. (To see another notable Viard designed bottle, “Serenade”, for Woodworth in the year 1925 consult PERFUME PRESENTATION, photo #337.)
To further commÃent on the New York Times attribution of Baccarat to this fabulous bottle is to acknowledge that certain names become familiar attributes of quality and prestige. To demonstrate this type of thinking in contemporary circumstances, the next bottle shown by Woodworth is “Viegay, a 5” tall frosted glass shell motif bottle with clear red glass stopper, which was purchased a few years ago with the description of “Lalique” on the tag. It is actually American glass designed by Edwin Ross of New York with design patent issued on April 11, 1925. But for a certain unfortunate time in perfume bottle collecting any frosted deco looking glass was called Lalique. Finally a presentation of “Karess”(2 1/2”) with blue glass stopper and clear glass bottle is shown, acid stamped on the bottom, “France”. This bottle is very interesting, because its style was a bottle used often by Gabilla. I wonder if perhaps Woodworth did more than purchase a perfume formula and nadme from Gabilla. A casual inquiry about the source of Gabilla’s bottles and suddenly “Karess” is using Gabilla’s “Mae West” bottle.

The three best selling perfume lines, for Woodworth, were”Karess”(1922), “Viegay”(1925) and “Fiancee”(1912). “Fiancee” line is represented here by the orange flowered silk powder box with a foil label.
Throughout the 1920’s, Woodworth was allowed to continue producing perfume at its Capron St. plant in Rochester. Here also was produced another line for International Perfume company–Bourjois. In the year 1930, International Perfume Company incorporated its differently named branches throughout the world into one company– Bourjois. Bourjois then took the two best selling Woodworth perfumes of “Karess”,and “Fiancee” and according to an article in the 1931″ American Perfumer..” redesigned the logos and labels to issue these names henceforth under Bourjois. “Karess” kept the blue toneÔs for its perfume colors, but became very deco style with a checkerboard blue foil label(see photo for new style) and striped box. The Fiancee box was designed by Paul Helleu and was printed in red and gold. Although it is known that “Viegay” was kept by Bourjois as a scent line and was issued under that name, the design has not been seen by the author.
Presentations of these three perfume names, “Viegay”, “Karess”, and “Fiancee” as both Bourjois and Woodworth has lead to some confusion among collectors. However the year 1930 was the last appearance of perfumes under the designation of C.B. Woodworth & Sons, inc.

Sources:,

THE ART OF PERFUME, C. Lefkowith, 1994, page127

“American Perfumer & Essential Oil Review”, Feb. 1931

THE BEAUTY OF PERFUME, 1996, page 52

THE LEGACIES OF PERFUME, 1997, G. Stam, page 94

New York Times ad of 1923
PERFUME PRESENTATION, K. Leach, 1997, page 169

Rochester New York Newspaper, November 25, 1995-research by Carol Wagner