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HombreOils · rare vintage perfumery for creators, fragrance houses and collectors

HombreOils

Historic houses and makers

The houses, chemists and ateliers behind the collection.

Read the HombreOils palette through the people and companies that changed perfumery: Grasse extractors, scientific laboratories, couture houses and specialist suppliers. Material counts and links follow the recorded makers in the current catalogue.

Grasse foundations

Where the modern language of natural extraction took shape

Three lineages lead into the workshops, fields and factories that made Grasse a world centre for perfumery materials.

Antoine Chiris

Grasse, France

1 material

A foundational Grasse house whose history joins flowers, industrial invention and the first great age of solvent extraction.

Milestones

  1. The Chiris perfume house is founded in Grasse.

  2. La Mosquée opens as the first purpose-built Grasse workshop for solvent extraction.

  3. The house receives a Grand Prix at the Paris Exposition Universelle.

  4. Antoine Chiris passes to UOP; its perfumery activity continues under new ownership.

  5. Chiris remains a brand within Sanofi’s regrouped Grasse businesses.

Recorded alongside these materials

HO-257Vetyver Acetate Antoine Chiris
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SourcesInventaire général du patrimoine culturelMinistère de la Culture, POPMinistère de la Culture, Ethnologie, pp. 23–24

Cavallier Frères

Grasse, France

2 materials

An old Grasse lineage spanning artisanal beginnings and the industrial expansion of natural extraction, before becoming part of Robertet.

Milestones

  1. The Cavallier family’s perfumery activity takes form in Grasse.

  2. A dedicated solvent-extraction plant marks the house’s industrial chapter.

  3. Cavallier Frères is acquired by Robertet.

  4. A contemporary report describes Cavallier Frères continuing in import and export under its retained name. The 1966 acquisition is not a final date for Cavallier-labelled bottles.

Recorded alongside these materials

HO-135MiraldeneHO-136Miraldene
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SourcesInventaire général du patrimoine culturelMinistère de la Culture, Ethnologie

Calchauvet

Grasse industrial lineage

189 materials

Calchauvet brings together the natural-material traditions of CAL (Camilli, Albert & Laloue) in Grasse and Pierre Chauvet in Seillans. The two houses united in January 1999, joining generations of botanical processing with a culture of extraction research. Materials bearing the CAL house mark retain that identity, separately from Pierre Chauvet. Their recorded preparation dates belong to the materials themselves; the earlier founding years describe the companies’ heritage. Roots, flowers and aromatic plants were the daily language of these workshops, a rich industrial tradition preserved in the collection’s historical palette.

Milestones

  1. The Grasse predecessor line develops; the Camilli, Albert & Laloue name is documented from 1920.

  2. Pierre Chauvet’s Seillans plant distils dried orris, patchouli and spices. In Grasse, CAL operates conventional processing equipment alongside pilot and production CO₂ extraction plants.

  3. The two natural-material businesses unite as Calchauvet, bringing their Grasse and Seillans traditions into one house.

Recorded alongside these materials

HO-006Amyl ValerateHO-007Apple Shavings AbsoluteHO-008Bay Laurel Essence
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Related recorded makers

Pierre Chauvet22 materials CAL2 materials Pierre Chauvet / Calchauvet1 material
SourcesSEC corporate filingMinistère de la Culture, étude de la parfumerie grassoiseInventaire historique des sites industriels françaisBritish Society of Perfumers, Grasse visit recordRégion Sud & Musée International de la Parfumerie, CAL industrial sites

International laboratories

Science enters the perfumer’s organ

Across Geneva, Zurich, New York and Tokyo, research transformed aroma chemistry while keeping creation at the centre.

Firmenich

Geneva, Switzerland

4 materials

A Geneva house where perfumery, molecular research and creative transmission grew side by side.

Milestones

  1. The company is founded in Geneva.

  2. Firmenich scientist Leopold Ruzicka shares the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes.

Recorded alongside these materials

HO-036Chamomile Wild Absolute FirmenichHO-142Moss Bottom Fraction MDHO-171Oakmoss Absolute, Adriatic Brown Grade
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Sourcesdsm-firmenich official historyThe Nobel Prize

Givaudan

Zurich origins, global perfumery

2 materials

A scientific and creative house whose history includes one of perfumery’s most influential schools.

Milestones

  1. Léon and Xavier Givaudan establish the company in Zurich.

  2. Jean Carles founds the Givaudan Perfumery School, formalising a method of learning materials by contrast and construction.

Recorded alongside these materials

HO-066Fenugreek AbsoluteHO-077Geranyl Phenylacetate
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SourcesGivaudan official timelineGivaudan Perfumery School

IFF

From the Netherlands to New York

2 materials

A global perfumery lineage born from nineteenth-century ingredient expertise and later joined under the IFF name.

Milestones

  1. Polak & Schwarz begins the lineage that would become part of IFF.

  2. Polak & Schwarz and van Ameringen-Haebler merge as International Flavors & Fragrances.

  3. A rose travels aboard NASA mission STS-95 for an IFF scent experiment, linking perfumery to space research.

Recorded alongside these materials

HO-001AcaciolHO-139Moss Absolute DEC
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SourcesIFF official historyIFF anniversary archive

Takasago

Tokyo, Japan

A Japanese aroma house whose first century connects national industry, fine fragrance and asymmetric synthesis.

Milestones

  1. Takasago Perfumery is founded in Japan.

  2. Founder Tadaka Kainosho receives a national honour for advancing Japan’s flavour and fragrance industry.

  3. Takasago industrialises Ryoji Noyori’s asymmetric route to l-menthol.

SourcesTakasago official historyTakasago founder archive

Couture and perfume

Materials carried into the theatre of style

Bourjois and Patou show how perfumery moved between theatre, fashion and the intimate ritual of scent.

Bourjois

Paris, France

Born in the Paris theatre, Bourjois brought colour, powder and perfume into a modern world of accessible elegance.

Milestones

  1. The house begins in the world of Parisian stage makeup.

  2. Ernest Beaux creates Soir de Paris, known in English as Evening in Paris.

SourcesBourjois official historySmithsonian, Evening in Paris

Jean Patou

Paris, France

A couture house that made perfume an enduring expression of luxury, even in a moment of profound economic change.

Milestones

  1. Jean Patou establishes his couture house.

  2. After the 1929 crash, Joy appears as an audaciously lavish floral created by Henri Alméras.

SourcesPatou official historyMusée International de la Parfumerie

The working landscape

Specialist names from the later Grasse industry

These later houses and industrial names place the collection within the living professional landscape from which it emerged.

Danisco

European ingredient lineage

1 material

The Danisco name records a later European ingredient lineage connected to the corporate history that followed Calchauvet.

Milestones

  1. The name enters the collection through the later corporate lineage around Calchauvet and flavour-and-fragrance ingredients.

Recorded alongside these materials

HO-118Lime Oil 5 Fold CP
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Sourcesdsm-firmenich company history

Recorded manufacturers

Manufacturers in the catalogue

Materials linked to their recorded manufacturers.

Original names and marks

Names carried forward exactly as found

These quieter names remain part of the collection’s texture. Each opens directly onto the material recorded alongside it.