History

This site is an extension of an original post that I wrote up on Prince Matchabelli perfumes on my main site, Cleopatra's Boudoir. I created this extraneous site for the purpose of chronicling the history of Prince Matchabelli perfumes. Here you will find tips on dating your bottle as well as plenty of information on the perfumes notes and individual histories.

Please understand that this website is not affiliated with the Prince Matchabelli Company any way, it is only a reference page for collectors and those who have enjoyed the classic fragrances of days gone by.

The main objective of this website is to chronicle the history of the Prince Matchabelli fragrances and showcase the bottles and advertising used throughout the years.

However, one of the other goals of this website is to show the present owners of the Prince Matchabelli perfume company how much we miss the discontinued classics and hopefully, if they see that there is enough interest and demand, they will bring back these fragrances!

Please leave a comment below (for example: of why you liked the fragrance, describe the scent, time period or age you wore it, who gave it to you or what occasion, any specific memories, what it reminded you of, maybe a relative wore it, or you remembered seeing the bottle on their vanity table), who knows, perhaps someone from the current Prince Matchabelli brand might see it.

Also, this website is a labor of love, it is a work in progress and is always being updated with new information as I can find it, so check back often!

The Beginning:

The company was created by Prince Georges Vasili Matchabelli in 1926 at 160 East 56th Street New York.

George was a Russian exile, actually a previous Georgian prince, who fled the Soviet Union and immigrated to the USA after the Russian Revolution.

Prince Matchabelli was born in Tiflis, Georgia, the eldest son of Prince Vasily and Princess Nina, and a descendant of a family which had borne the proud title since the 9th century. He was a member of the noble family of Machabeli and a nephew of the writer Ivane Machabeli.

He was educated in the College of Nobles, in Tiflis, the seat of government in Georgia. He later completed his formal education at the Royal Academy at Berlin, Germany, where he was interested in mining engineering and studied chemistry, graduating in the early 1900s. He was one of the founding members of the Committee of Independent Georgia organized in Berlin in 1914. The Committee intended to garner the German support for Georgia's struggle for independence from the Russian Empire.

Prince Matchabelli never returned to his native country. Two of his brother, at home, died at the time of the conquest. In 1935, he told a newspaper reporter that "One was killed. The other, rather than surrender, shot himself." He also explained that he was on the "black-list of the Soviet. Some years ago Italy and Russia were negotiating, and there was talk of Italy being allowed oil concessions in South Russia, and of Italian farmers going into the country for colonization. I wrote articles about that. I told the Italians that there wasn't any oil, and that, if prosperous Italian farmers went into the country, they wouldn't keep their holdings long. Russia did not like it...If I were ever allowed to go back to Georgia, I would sell everything , give up everything, and go. I would like to die there, in that little mountainous country of mine," he said wistfully.

Besides the two brothers who died, he had another brother, Ilo Vasilievich Matchabelli., and a sister, Nina Djingaradze and a niece, Thamar Matchabelli.

It was on a trip to Sweden when Prince Georges Matchabelli met Eleanora (Norina) Erna Cecilia Gilli, the dramatic actress whose stage name was Maria Carmi, through the Crown Princess of Germany. After seeing Norina portraying the Madonna in the religious play The Miracle, he was smitten and the two married in 1917  in Florence, Italy. "In 1915, our great love began," gushed Princess Norina in 1928.

Georges was the Georgian ambassador to Austria and Italy until the 1921 Bolshevik takeover of Georgia, and lived in Rome.

When the cast of The Miracle was brought to America for a tour, the prince accompanied his wife. His fame as a creator of perfumes traveled with him.

With the establishment of Soviet rule in Georgia in 1921, his estates of over 200,000 acres and mining interests were confiscated, with dwindling finances, the couple decided to remain in the United States and had their first apartment at 471 Park Avenue in New York City. Later he moved to an apartment at 320 East 57th Street, NYC.

The Matchabellis opened a small exclusive tea room cum antique shop called "Le Rouge et le Noir" at 545 Madison Avenue in New York City in 1924 where he leased space from Douglas L. Elliman & Co. The name derived from Stendhal's novel, red for aristocracy (Matchabelli's origins) and black for clergy (The Miracle, a religious play).

Here the husband and wife team exhibited and sold rare imported antiques of all sorts: Persian rugs, furniture, Italian and Spanish brocade textiles, antique jewels, etc.  In addition to the antiques in the shop there were exhibited pieces of art, cigarettes, luxury items, and later, perfumes. Giorgi contacted other stores for the wholesale trade, as well as one of the Paris fashion houses, which opened credit for supplying him with linen.

In letters sent by him to Giorgi Kereselidze in July 1924, he described his shop, and asked his friend,
to send from Berlin samples of fashionable and high demand subjects:

"I am opening a dukhan (or a shop), where I will have everything for sale (here such type shops are still very common). I will have everything for home (pictures, furniture, carpets), just beautiful different small items (cigarette and other boxes and cases, pendants with stones, different decorative items: -silver, gold, or anything else. Women dressing equipages, perfumes and other. In addition, I will have models from Paris (one of the Paris Houses opened my credit) and linen. I offer you to become my Berlin correspondent. Besides in my shop, I will have the overall wholesale division, and I have made contacts with other different stores. The following things are required:

1. all kinds of new fashion women portmanteaus (hand held); leather or silk.
2. chains for neck pendants from different stones; original. Now very popular here
3. Different enamel boxes; Cigarette-cases, matches, Bonn-Bonnet and more.
4. Different table deco items.
5. Christmas gifts: small, original, fancy articles“.

In his letter dated to September Giorgi informed his friend: 

"I describe the Dukhan (shop) to you. I took a small room in a very good street (Madison Ave, 545) the best ever place, around which there are wonderful shops. I put the name of the shop Rouge et Noir (red and black) in large letters and a small inscription below it: Antiquities, objects d’art, cigarettes, perfumes, therefore old and new items (artistic works), cigarettes and perfumes. The primary focus will be on, of course, the first two objects. Cigarettes make an attractive material. The whole room will be held as a nice little salon, with elegant tables and “comfortable” chairs and seats, where all the guests will be welcome with a cigarette (free of charge). All my acquaintances and non-acquaintances will be sent inviting cards, that while shopping (i.e., when they go to buy) they can take a rest at my Dukhan and smoke a cigarette. They like this terribly, i.e. smoking, and there is no place like this in whole New York.  

Also the place I found is in the heart of the shops, where rich Americans, especially women go from one store to another. So if God helps me, the business would go not too badly. I need gifts: cigarette-cases, boxes (for cigarette, or any other things, powder, sweets and more). Original tobacco boxes, various entertainment items, as well as small pouches for beautiful women to carry, both of leather and silk. Also leather accessories, but all of these of a new shape and type”.

While they shopped, the customers drank the prince's tea, smoked free cigarettes and socialized but he didn't make much money from the venture. Consequently, Norina felt bad for the prince and had asked some of her friends in the upper social register and fellow celebrities to "accidentally" stop by the shop, browse and make a small purchase in hopes it would cheer up the prince. Some famous people who made a trip to visit were actress Greta Garbo, Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta. The prince charmed them all, and soon people were visiting just to spend time with him and his charming demeanor, rather than make a purchase. Deep friendships were formed over these bonding moments.

The couple rented a tiny room and with borrowed capital ($4,000), and the prince bought ingredients and compounded his first American perfume blend in the kitchen of the antique shop. He named this new floral oriental perfume Ave Maria, after his wife Norina who played the Madonna in the Miracle.  

Customers to the antique shop often complimented Norina's perfume to which she explained how her husband had custom blended it for her. In a 1938 newspaper article, it was revealed that this was the beginning of a "little red and black book" of names of customers who besieged the prince with requests for individualized perfumes. “Spraying of a perfume, leaving their own footprints - that’s what these women lack and want.” They saw that each antique customer was a potential perfume customer. "Long after the prince's death, these customers still have their perfumes made from the formulas he left," said Norina in the 1938 article.

On his arrival to New York, he had only the money realized from the sale of a villa in Italy. He was about to organize another Russian restaurant as he realized his future depend on his own efforts. 

Matchabelli explained to a reporter in 1935, "I came to America with some money I was probably unique in that way. At the time the Soviet took over Georgia, I was head of my country's legation in Rome. We had a villa there, and from the sale of that I was able to scrape together enough to get to the States and live there. But I did the reverse of what you would expect. I lost all my money in America. I opened an antique shop and that went broke and so did I. So there I was, and what to do?"

Instead, he began to concentrate on his study of chemistry, which he had previously studied in Berlin. He often boasted that he could reproduce a certain perfume while he was a student, and hoped he could do the same here by putting his own twist on fragrance creation. He attended Professor Wimmer's night courses on perfumery at the New York College of Pharmacy, Columbia University. Two years later, he completed training at a laboratory at a special perfumery shop in Paris. It turned out that the lab was none other than that of the famous Francois Coty. His boasting was highly successful as it caught the attention of a chemist in the laboratory where he trained. He never imagined that while he was fooling around with scents at the University during his student days, that he would be making them professionally someday. 

After working for a year as a chief consultant at the perfume counter for a Manhattan specialty shop, Matchabelli formed his own company.

He still blended perfumes and there arose an insatiable demand for the made to order specialties, and soon the shop came to hold more perfume bottles than pieces of furniture. Soon the perfumes outsold the antiques and Matchabelli's wealth grew. Realizing he needed more time to devote to his fragrance making, he gave up the antique business venture. Cecil Beaton helped him renovate the antique shop into a perfumery salon. He divided the shop into a reception area to greet clients for consultation and another room for the storage of raw materials, bottling and compounding of the perfumes themselves.

With his new interest in perfumes, Georges began to concentrate on making even more perfumes for his clients and he and Norina later established the Les Parfums du Prince Matchabelli in 1926 (the Prince Matchabelli Perfumery, Inc) in New York. Matchabelli was the sole manufacturer, bottle designer, merchandiser and publicity agent and he was proficient in all.

"I turned my boyhood hobby into account in New York, and from it, it has grown my perfume factory. There is no greater romance than that of a business career in America," he said in a 1930 article.

Norina explained in a 1932 article, "We rolled up our sleeves and started from the bottom up in what you call shirt-sleeve fashion, at first we did all the work of bottling our French extracts and blends with our own hands, pasting the labels on the bottles sometimes far into the night."

Prince Matchabelli was also an early radio advertiser, broadcasting in person in 1928. He opened a perfume counter at Bergdorf Goodman, the prestigious Fifth Avenue department store, to hawk his wares. Here he concentrated on window displays to draw attention of the public to his distinctive packages and thus to the use of his perfumes. The lighting effects and artistic arrangement quickly brought the appreciation he sought.  First at Bergdorf Goodman's and subsequently at other stores so that within 5 years, Matchabelli achieved direct distribution through retailers from coast to coast. By 1930 his income was reported to be quarter of a million net.

Theatre Magazine, 1930:

"For perfumes specially created for the individual, Elsie Ferguson is one of those lucky souls, Prince Matchabelli is showing his incomparable crown bottles in a variety of glorious colors to blend with the decorative scheme of the boudoir. By the way, Gunthers, 666 Fifth Avenue, have exclusive rights to two Matchabelli perfumes, which have been specially concocted for use on furs."

These two special fur perfumes were: Hermine Royale and Cibeline Imperiale. I believe these were direct competition to Weil's fur perfumes: Zibeline and Hermine, which both were introduced in 1927 and very popular.

Soon after, a new lab was established at East 60th Street, and then two more perfume salons were opened at the addresses 686, Lexington Avenue and 56, East 60th.

In 1928, Prince Matchabelli met Benjamin Sonnenberg. Taken by the prestige and potential cachet offered by the prince, Sonnenberg brought the illustrious prince's name and charming personality to the notice of editors, reporters and columnists. Many feature articles on Matchabelli were syndicated across the country. This resulted in much success and Matchabelli hired Sonnenberg, whom he met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, to be his press agent.

Since Bergdorf Goodman served as an outlet for the Matchabelli fragrances, Sonnenberg made sure that any of his releases on the prince, mentioned his name. These releases that mentioned Bergdorf Goodman, Sonnenberg had forwarded them to the head of the department store, Edwin Goodman, whom he met through the prince, in an effort to cultivate them as a client. In the biography Always Live Better Than Your Clients, Goodman's son, Andrew had recollected that in 1927, his father "decided to take a gamble on Ben, who wanted desperately to go to Europe and broaden himself. He gave Ben $2000, a lot of money in those days, and Ben left. He was gone the entire summer. But when he came back, he had two prizes - Prince Matchabelli and Grand Duchess Marie Romanov. He told father he had hired them for us to help us gain some new glamour with the public. They would be sort of in-house celebrities."


Prince Matchabelli's perfumes were awarded Grand Prix with gold medal at exhibitions in Paris & Liege in 1928 for their quality and originality. "I manufacture perfumes in New York and I captured for America, Parisian prizes for perfumery never before won in this country," exclaimed the Prince.

"I have done well with a luxury product in a time of depression. I can't complain." He was not interested in making face creams or beauty treatments, because as Matchabelli stated, "They are the prose - I make the poetry."

Speaking again in 1930, a newspaper article recorded him saying: "My wife and I will go to France to open a branch of the company and I shall go as an American business man and I shall be highly proud of my claim. There are no more interesting people in the world than the men and women of America."

In rapid succession, branch salons and showrooms were opened in European capitals and cities: Cannes, Nice, Basel, Lucerne and others. His French shop, opened in 1929 was originally located at the Hotel George V, Paris, and was later moved to its own location at 26, rue Cambon, Paris.

The tiny Paris salon was opposite Chanel's luxurious perfumery salon on the rue Cambon and was decorated with sparkling mirrors which reflected gold crown vials on display. People thought it was unwise of him to try to compete with Chanel, but he said that it was precisely the reason why people would come into his shop. "People will think that exactly my products are the competitors of this company and at least out of mere interest people will open the doors of my small, but glittering store.” Perhaps they could not afford a bottle of Chanel, but could afford a Matchabelli perfume. His psychological trick proved to be right and he competed very well next to Chanel in the perfumery business.

A factory was established and located in the village of Clamart near Paris. He appointed a recognized political and public figure, one of the founders of the National Democratic Party, Spiridon Kedia as its head, and started to release products in Paris and London (London Agency was led by a Georgian Emigrant, Prince Sumbatashvili).

By 1930, an agency for Prince Matchabelli was opened in London. In 1937, Robert Baxter, who worked at Matchabelli as a sales manager in 1933, was promoted to purchasing agent and oversaw the general management of the products that were being distributed in Canada.

Since coming to America, he had, in his own words, "turned American businessman....I manufacture perfumes in New York, and I captured for America Parisian prizes for perfumery never before won in this country. But all my life I dabbled in chemistry. I made perfumes for my own amusement and they were much in demand among the ladies in court. So I just started making perfumes for sale", said Prince Matchabelli in 1928.

With the theory that perfume should suit a woman's mood as well as her costume, he added new items to his line: bath oil, toilet water, cologne, lipsticks, and compacts.

 "The whole trend in perfumes today is toward the light but lasting fragrance," Prince Matchabelli said as we talked to him in his laboratory on his return from Paris. "It must be subtle, complex, unforgettable. Since modern senses are so keen, .they tire all the more easily, so each season we must find something different that works out the same skin still further. But the problem doesn't end there, we are not content with general effects today, we take into account not only the chemistry we deal with here, but the physical chemistry of the women who are going to use the odors we make....Jasmine oil is like the butter to the cook, you can cook with it, what do you call it? margarine, But it is not the same. If you use synthetic jasmine, you pay forty to fifty dollars a pound, but your perfume is hard, metallic. If you use real jasmine, you pay four or five hundred dollars for the same amount - but what a sweetness, what a gracefulness and aroma!," he told Colliers in 1929. Colliers also reported that "At present, Prince Matchabelli is working on a perfume for furs, in which the physical chemistry taken into account will be that of the skin," and that Prince Matchabelli "worked til one or two o'clock in the morning, trying the effect of one drop of this and one drop of the other on a perfume, almost perfect, but not quite."

The New Yorker, 1930:

“Prince Matchabelli, the perfumer, started his business four years ago in a cellar in Madison Avenue. As a hobby, he had learned to make perfumes while studying chemistry in the University of Berlin. All the aristocratic families who, nominally Russian, preserved the language and traditions of the old Georgian race, used a perfume made especially for them - the odors of a caste now hopelessly scattered. As a student, he experimented in manufacturing the perfume that his family had used. He failed in this, but he proved his abilities in other ways.  

Once at a ball in Berlin embassy a girl asked him if he could make a perfume to duplicate the one she had used that night. He took her lace handkerchief home and reproduced the scent perfectly. After the war and the revolution he found himself in this country. He was not satisfied to make his living in the way other Russian exiles were doing it and, remembering his experiments in Berlin, he started a perfume company, borrowing for the purpose four thousand dollars from an old friend.  

Before long the Prince and his wife moved out of the cellar in Madison Ave to a bigger one in Lexington and had a girl to help them. Friends who called found the three working at a long table, filling the little bottles and tying gold string around them. Matchabelli had thought up a special bottle made in the shape of the striped, gold crusted, cross topped crown that is his family crest, and this attracted attention to his product.  

As his success grew he began to prescribe special perfumes for individuals - Gloria Swanson, Dolores Costello, Mrs. WR Hearst, Mrs RT Wilson, and Mrs. Gene Tunney. He originated a special perfume for furs - Hermine.  

Prince Matchabelli affects to be very particular where his perfume is marketed and has refused to let several places handle it because he felt their social tone was just not right.
Meeting a woman for the first time, he often politely informs her that her perfume is unbecoming and sends her one of his own. If she is still using the old kind the next time he sees her, he says, “You have not been faithful to me.”  

His business nets a quarter of a million a year, they say, and has grown out of its cellar to a laboratory in Fifty-sixth Street, where sachets, powders, lipsticks, eyeshadows, and soap are also made. He employs no salesmen. Every spring and fall he goes on the road himself. With his gardenia, his bows and courtly airs, and his visiting card with its embossed seal, he created an extraordinary impression on buyers  who have never before trafficked with a genuine, hundred percent prince.”

Matchabelli himself was a perfect spokesman for his product. He had a reputation for exquisite manners and refined appearance, ideal for selling perfume to the women of America. Matchabelli became wealthy and in turn, his employees also benefited. The Prince used nothing but the very best ingredients in the creation of his perfumes: Tibetan musk, Abyssinian ambergris and civet, Grasse jasmine oil, Indonesian patchouli, Tyrolean oakmoss, Calabrian bergamot oil, resins, East Indian vetiver and dozens of other essences. The pay off was excellent as in in 1928, Matchabelli's perfumes were awarded the Grand Prix with a gold medal at the expositions in Paris and Liege for their quality and originality.

Russian Employees of Nobility and Aristocracy:

Matchabelli’s first employees were all fellow exiled aristocrats—one Georgian writer of the time remembered them as the most courteous staff in the United States. It was reported that Matchabelli gave a certain percentage of his income to the Russian refugees.

They took it upon themselves to decorate, pack and deliver the product. Some had the task of supervising large bottles of alcohol which went through a softening phase before being added to the perfume oils. Blessed with a compassionate heart, Matchabelli was always trying to help his own people. Of those in Matchabelli's employ were Prince Artchil Andronikoff, Nicholas Holmsen, Count Waldemar Armfelt, Prince Nicholas Lapouchin-Demidoff, Cyril Gurge, Prince Alexander Tarsaidze, Paul Petrovitch Wrangell (Baron von Ludenhoff), Baron Charles Wrangell (cousin of the late Commander Peter Wrangell of the White Army of Russia in 1921), Prince and Princess Vasili, Prince Irbian-Khan Kaplanoff, and George Coby (Koby).

Prince Nicholas Alexandrovich Lapouchin Demidoff, was born in the Koroun castle in Kiev, Ukraine in 1904. His father, Prince Alexander Nicholas Lapouchin-Demidoff (Alexander Nikolaevich 2-nd Prince Lopukhin-Demidov) took his wife, and family of five boys on a special train, escaping Russia when the red dawn rose. With the four younger boys, Alexander, Serge, George and Peter, the prince and princess went to Finland where they had lived ever since.  The heir to the title, Nikolai Aleksandrovich, from 16 years old, he himself earned his living. At first he was a customs officer, then went to relatives in France, and from there to the USA. Prince Nicholas came to America in 1926 and was one of the earliest of émigrées who worked with Matchabelli. He joined the company when it occupied just one small room in New York, and the personnel consisted solely of Matchabelli, a secretary and a stenographer. After Matchabelli's death it was Demidoff who worked as composer of the blends. Almost half a century before retirement, he was engaged in selling perfumes there. Nikolai Alexandrovich was married twice: the first time at the beautiful Paola Borschevskaya, the second, to Lorna Taylor, nee Barnes. He died September 28, 1995 in the United States. Children from neither the first nor the second marriage is left.

Armfelt, a Finnish nobleman and son of Count Alexander Vladimirovich Armfelt, was a member of the Corps des Pages that served the Czar in the Russian Imperial Court. He fled Russia during the white revolution and came to the USA in 1920 where he assisted in the organization of the Sikorsky Co, which manufactured airplane bombers. Later he was in the foreign credits department of the Chase National Bank.  In 1934, he was working with Prince Matchabelli and was the western representative of the company, and was on a countrywide tour promoting the perfumery company. After Matchabelli's death he was appointed an executive positon with Imperial Salons. Ltd of New York in 1936. Imperial Salons, manufactured high priced cosmetics "compounded according to the original prescriptions of the court dermatologist to the late Czarina of Russia.". In 1937 he was appointed by Elsa Schiaparelli to represent her perfume line in the far west and named director of the Schiaparelli interests both in the United States and Canada. He made his headquarters in Los Angeles. In 1938, he was appointed vice-president of Parfums Schiaparelli.

By 1928, Matchabelli opened another shop at 3259 Wilshire Boulevard and during it's grand opening tea, Prince Artchil Andronikoff, a well known picture star represented Matchabelli. Unfortunately the former Georgian noble passed away from the flu on November 27, 1928 in Los Angeles where he has recently been working in pictures where his knowledge of Russian military customs and horsemanship had aided him. The 40 year old prince was wounded six times in the first World War when he was an officer in the Russian army. It was reported the his wife, the Princess Andronikoff was in Italy at the time of his death.

Nicholas "Nicky" Holmsen, whose father was a general in the Russian Imperial Guard, and whose mother was the lady-in-waiting to Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. Holmsen was born in Athens, Greece to Norwegian born General Ivan Holmsen of the Russian Imperial Guard and Mrs. Bobrikoff Holmsen, lady-in-waiting to Alexandra, Czarina of Russia and daughter of the Governor General of Finland. His family, including sister Olga, fled Russia in 1919 and lived in Paris for 10 years. He served as a military attache in Athens and Constantinople before moving to the USA in 1929. In 1931, Holmsen was living with Prince Vasili Romanoff at his apartment. He was onetime associated with Igor Sikorsky, the airplane designer and manufacturer. But as of 1931, he was not engaged in any active work. Holmsen was a sales executive for Prince Matchabelli Perfumes in the 1930s before forming his own travel agency. During World War II he served in the American Red Cross as an assistant field director at the Port of New York. He married Mildred Ellen Tilton in Paris in 1927. They had three children (one who died in infancy) and divorced in 1934 under her claims of extreme cruelty and incompatibility. His second marriage was to Barbara Baker Loew Post (former wife of Edwin Post, Jr. and daughter-in-law of Emily Post). Apparently, his constant traveling for the perfume company strained his marriage to Post and it was said to be the main reason for the divorce. Holmsen sied in 1962 at the age of 60.

One of Matchabelli's lifelong friends, Prince Cyril Gurgenidze (Cyril Gurge), became chief perfume chemist for the company after Matchabelli's death.

David Roy, a former general in the Czar's army drove the Matchabelli truck, though it was said he was too proud to wear a chauffeur's uniform.

 Paul Petrovitch Wrangell, Baron von Ludenhoff (1905-1977), was a representative of the company. Paul Wrangell was the nephew of General Wrangell, a brilliant leader of the Russian White Guards. Baron Wrangell was formerly connected with the Russian embassy in Rome.


Princess Tamara Anatolivna Kropotkin sewed the sachets by hand. Kropotkin was married to
Prince Nicolia Kropotkin, who was killed during the revolution in 1918 and had lived in the city of Harbin, known as the "Oriental Moscow" in China before coming to America in 1927. Kropotkin came to the United States with her 8 year old son Prince Igor, to wed Nicola Rybakoff, who was employed as an auto mechanic at the Highland Park Ford plant in Detroit. Rybakoff, also a Russian emigre, previously served as a colonel in the general headquarter's staff in Prince Kropotkin's Pereiaslavsky regiment in the Russian army. The princess and Rybakoff waited 3 and a half years to reunite due to the vagaries of fate and immigration laws.

 "I met the princess during the Great War, when I was wounded, in a Galatian hospital. She, like so many women of the nobility, was a nurse," Rybakoff explained. "After Prince Kropotkin was killed by the Bolsheviki, we were forced into exile, and met in Harbin. Later we became engaged, and we deiced that I could come to America, become established, and then bring her here. Well, I have been established long enough, but I did not reckon with quotas and passports and all that they mean. But now our dream is coming true and so I am very happy. I was wounded four times in the wars. I have seen a hundred battles. The princess knows what it is to be hunted and harassed and exiled. So I think we will arrange all right. Life can't do much more to us than it has done." In 1932, the princess took her oath of allegiance to the United States.

Prince Vasili Alexandrovitch Romanoff, was the son of Grand Duke Alexander Michailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia and nephew of the late Czar Nicholas II. Prince Romanoff's mother was a sister to the ill-fated Czar of Russa and his father was a cousin of the monarch who was executed by the Bolshevists in Ekateringrad. The youngest of three sons, he was born in what was then St. Petersburg. The older brothers were living in America one in Chicago, and the other on Long Island. Grand Duke Alexander, who lectured extensively since his arrival to the USA a few years before 1931, left for a trip to Europe where he was expected to preach against the Communist government in Russia. In 1930, Matchabelli met the fellow chemist while on business in New York and took him into his perfume concern.

It was by luck that Prince Vasili met his future wife, by way of Matchabelli, who invited his old friends Dr. Alexander and Madame Galitzine and their daughter, the Natalia for a visit to his penthouse along with Vasili. Princess Galatzine, was a member of one of the oldest families of Russian nobles, thought not related to the Imperial house, had been living in New York for several years. She had written scenarios for motion pictures. Her parents came to America as refugess from Moscow and were living in California. It turned out that Vasili and Natalia had met in Russia 14 years prior as children but had lost touch but the flame had never gone out. In 1931, Vasili and Natalia were wed. By 1932, both Prince and Princess Vasili were employed to work the Matchabelli counter at Bergdorf Goodman.

Prince Irbian-Khan Kaplanoff, (b. Russia,1887-d. USA, 1947), who's ruling ancestors can be traced back to 734 AD. Prince Kaplanoff was graduated from the Nicholasvskoye Cavalry School in St. Petersburg in 1910 with the rank of Lieutenant, and later served in the Nijegorodsky Dragoons, one of the oldest cavalry regiments of Russia, of which the Emperor Nicholas II was honorary Colonel. During the First World War, he served for four years with his regiment on the German, Austrian and Turkish fronts. He was twice wounded and decorated several times for bravery. He commanded a cavalry regiment against the Communists during the civil war in Russia. 

He came to America in 1923 quite impoverished, and took a job as commissionnaire (doorman) in front of a department store, attired in a gorgeous uniform. In 1933, Prince Kaplanoff married Mrs. Vernon Magoffin Siems. By 1933, he was a member of the Matchabelli perfume company and in that same year, Matchabelli was a guest at his small private wedding to the wealthy Mrs. Vernon Magoffin Seims, who met Kaplanoff when she was shopping at the store.

Prince Alexander (Alexandre) "Sasha" Georgievich Tarsaidze, became acting head and treasurer of the Matchabelli company in 1935. Sacha came to America shortly after the Russian revolution, was an officer the Czar's Imperial Navy and an authority on Russian history. In 1934, he worked for Prince Matchabelli Perfumes as a sales promotion and advertising manager. Matchabelli died the following year while Tarsaidze was organizing a London office for Serge Obolensky.  In 1937, he severed his connections with Prince Matchabelli Products Corporation, New York, as treasurer, a director of the American and French companies, director of sales, advertising, promotion and publicity. After his involvement in the Matchabelli concern, together with a fellow friend, Prince Serge Obolensky, he started Parfums Chevalier Garde. Tarsaidze later acted as public relations director at the Ambassador Hotel.

Matchabelli also employed a fellow emigree, Grigol Kobakhidze, also known as George Koby (aka George Kobi or Coby), to design his perfume bottle. This turned out to be the infamous trademark crown flacon, known as the coronette. Koby supplied many of the early bottles for the Matchabelli company.

Born in 1883 in a small village of Tkhmori, Georgia, Kobakhidze went to work in the Borjomi glass factory when he was 10 years old. He was very talented and developed ingenious ways to significantly increase production at the factory. Schumann, a German owner of the factory had been impressed by his talents and introduced him to Mikheil Mukhran-Batoni, the owner of Borjomi. It was after which he was soon sent to the Krasnodar province in Russia to work at the Konstantinovka glass factory.

Kobakhidze later moved to Munich, Germany and London to work at various glass factories at the beginning of the 20th century, and by 1909 he settled in America. after 12 years. Here, he worked for General Electric for nine years and accumulated capital. Along with the work for General Electric, he received several patents on automatic pens, stationery items and had accumulated money in Boston, Massachusetts. He became the first Georgian millionaire in the states. A large glass factory was opened in Attleboro, Mass. In 1922 he founded The Coby Glass Product Company. In addition to glass, the company produced chemical, medical, construction and 45 other types of raw materials and goods. His company went bankrupt during the 1930s and after WWII, he asked the government for financial help to rebuild a business.

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Notable Patrons & Inspirations:

Prince Matchabelli was an amateur chemist who often took special delight in blending perfumes to fit the personalities of his family and friends as a hobby. He became a favorite in European society by the turn of the century. The prince further endeared himself to the ladies by blending for them individual, personal perfumes to match their personalities. The Prince begins to blend individual perfumes for a few favored friends, among them: Lucrezia Bori, Angelica Archipenko, Elsie Ferguson, interior decorator Lady Mendl, Alfred Lunt, Ilka Chase, Marie Doro, Mrs. S. Stanwood Menken.

After experimenting with various scents and aromas he blended a perfume which enjoyed a great success with the Russian aristocracy around 1905. This was the first of the famous perfumes that later became internationally known as "The Royal Family of Fragrances."

Perfumes were also created for royalty. Some of these perfumes were Princess Norina, Princess Marie, Princess Nina (in honour of his mother), Queen of Georgia, Prince Georges and Princess of Wales. Other clients included the Duchess of York (for whom he created a special perfume in her honor), Queen Marie of Romania, Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, and Matchabelli even created a personal bespoke perfume for Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt called "Inauguration". King Edward VIII was an avid user of Matchabelli's men's fragrances.

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The "Queen of Georgia" perfume was created in memory of Queen Tamara from the eleventh century. Her beauty wisdom and character were so remarkable that she has become a legendary figure in Russian folklore. The perfume was first introduced in 1928 in America, but had lain dormant for years. The smart Parisian women were clamoring for the scent and based up the European success of the scent, Matchabelli re-released it to America in 1936.

Georges created "Ave Maria" as a tribute to his wife for her inspiring performance of the role of Madonna in Max Reinhardt's production of "The Miracle".



In 1934, the Prince created a perfume in honor of stage star Grace Moore, who was known for her wonderful talent as much as her wildcat temper.

The perfume was described as "feminine with a touch of a vixen" in a newspaper article.

In another article from that same year he explains why he did it and why his rumored lover Katharine Hepburn was so jealous.

"My newest perfume was created for Grace Moore, always before I created perfumes only for those of royal birth. But Miss Moore - ah- she is the queen of the stage., so I make a perfume to suit her, a perfume, gay, vivid, like she is. Then one day I am driving in the motor of the greatest star of all. She asked me if, I myself had created Miss Moore's perfume. I had to admit I did it. Suddenly she stopped the car. "Get out!" she ordered me. Jealous you see?" 

He then went on to say that he didn't obey her, but made a promise after to sufficiently analyze her personality, that he would create a perfume for her, but added that it was going "to be difficult, very difficult.". From this promise, sprang the 1935 perfume Katherine the Great, both named for the famous ladies of history. This perfume also went by the name Princesse du Nord.

The Princess continued her successful career as a dramatic actress and introduced some of her perfumes to the other actresses. In 1935, after her performance in Victoria Regina, Helen Hayes was told that Princess Matchabelli and Princess Matchabelli were going to attend. Princess Matchabelli instantly joined the game and, assuming the role of courtier, presented Hayes, as Queen Victoria (Empress of India, among other things) with a bottle of Matchabelli's "Empress of India" perfume.

In another account, it is said that Princess Matchabelli, with a grand gesture, presented to Helen Hayes, a bottle of "Katherine the Great" scent. However, it seems that, like the English, she prefers the one called "Duchess of York." Hayes' Victoria Regina, but with that inimitable touch of youth which characterizes the early scenes of her portrayal of England's much-loved queen.

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Other Perfumes:

While many of the perfumes were inspired and named after people, other perfumes were named for single-flower scents, like Gardenia, Honeysuckle, Lilac, May Flower, Muguet. Some perfumes were inspired by the holidays: Easter Lily, Christmas Rose, and Holly Berry, or evoke times of the year with Summer Shower, Summer Frost, Spring Fancy, and Golden Autumn.

Then there are those perfumes that were directly inspired by romantic images, such as the perfume Gypsy Patteran, also known as the gypsy trail, which is the handful of grass which the gypsies strew in the roads as they travel. These were a sort of code, because the gypsies of old were in the habit of making the marks with the leaves and branches of trees, placed in a certain manner. This was done to give information to any of their companions who may be behind, as to the route they have taken.

As told in the 1960 publication "Marketing in Latin America",

"The Prince Matchabelli line of perfumes and toiletries purchased from Vick Chemical Company in 1958 glorifies Chesebrough-Ponds products with the "Continental air" which appealed to upper income Latin Americans. 

One blend, Simonetta Incanto, was created for Prince Matchabelli by Simonetta of Rome, an Italian duchess who has become famous as a couturiere. This, added to the crown symbol of the Matchabelli coat or arms, gives the line the snob appeal which is so influential in marketing."

The Fate of the Perfume Company:

In 1931, Princess Matchabelli became a dedicated follower of Meher Baba, which caused strife between the prince and the princess, and as a result, the Matchabellis divorced in 1933.

Prince Matchabelli wanted American citizenship, but wasn't willing to relinquish the glamour of his title. So he petitioned for the right to use the title as his first name. So from 1934 onward, he's Mr. Prince Matchabelli. From 1932 until his death, Matchabelli also served as President of the Georgian Association in the United States.

Prince Georges Matchabelli, president of the New York cosmetic and perfume company bearing his name, whose family once owned vast estates in Russian Georgia, died of pneumonia after a week following a visit to Shanghai in order to open an office there, on March 31,1935, at his home in New York and was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Queens, New York. His ex-wife Norina flew in from California when she learned he was sick. Also present at his bedside was Grand Duchess Marie (Maria Pavlovna Romanova), first cousin to the last Czar of Russia, and an old friend of the Prince were at his bedside while he was ill.

It has been rumored that he was engaged to the dark- haired exotic Princess Ketevan "Ketto" Mikeladze at the time of his death. Ketto was born in Tbilisi, Georgia into a Georgian noble family of Mikeladze, known from at least the 14th century, then part of Imperial Russia. Her family belonged to the aristocratic and sophisticated circles in Russia before the Russian Revolution in 1917. Ketto Mikeladze married a Russian officer of Danish origin, Captain Lassen, who had happened to be in Iran during the war. He had miraculously escaped being massacred by his soldiers in Rezaieh at the time of the revolution. After her husband's death in 1930, she found her way to New York, via Paris, accompanied by her daughter Sigrid Lassen. Ketto also became a socially prominent New Yorker. 

In 1931, Ketto became a model working in the Bergdorf Goodman fine fashion department. For a while, she dazzled the stage as a Ziegfeld girl, and by 1936, she was a dressmaker who designed gowns for her own salon, Ketto, located at 121 East 57th Street in New York City.

before being a negligee buyer for Elizabeth Arden in 1937. After a few years, Ketto Mikeladze became the special designer for Elizabeth Arden’s lingerie department. Elizabeth Arden had a great fondness for White Russian noble families and was enchanted by Princess Keto Mikeladze. The special pieces Mikeladze designed sold at premium prices. The princess also became a close friend of Helena Rubenstein, who left her $1,200 in her will. She started her own business opening a gown and lingerie shop in New York named Ketto Inc.

Despite the Ketto rumors, Princess Matchabelli insisted "we were never separated. We were great friends. I was divorced from him, if you must use the modern, technical nomenclature. But where there has been no real separation, there was no need of a reconciliation."

When Prince Matchabelli died, Princess Margarita Matchabelli, his sister in law, continued as head of the Paris branch. Norina was elected president of the Prince Matchabelli Perfumery, Inc., New York in 1935 and headed the company for only one year before it was sold off. Norina was aided by Prince Demidoff and Prince Alexander "Sacha" Tarsaidze, became acting head and treasurer of the around 1935.

Daily News, 1935:

"Manhattan's compact little White Russian colony does its best to carry on the traditions. This afternoon a few of the late Prince George Matchabelli's close friends and employees will gather in the Matchabelli salon, 711 Fifth Ave, while [Rev.] Father [Vasily] Kurdumoff [pastor] of the Russian Cathedral blesses the four walls of the new place of business. In old Russia the walls of a new dwelling or a new business office were always solemnly blessed by a priest of the church before home of business office was ready for occupancy. Prince Matchabelli was a devout member of the Russian church and for some time virtually supported the cathedral singlehanded. He had arranged for this ceremony before his untimely death last Spring. So his widow, and a few best friends, Prince Serge Obolensky, Count Vladimir Adlerberg and Prince Iralki Orbeliani will attend the ceremonial today."

In 1935 it was reported and rumored in the Wilkes-Barre Times that "unless legal complications are unraveled, the 51% of the perfume firm owned by the late Prince Matchabelli will go to his enemies, the Soviet, via confiscation!"

Subsequently, the Prince Matchabelli perfume business was sold to Saul Ganz in 1936 for $250,000. Ganz appointed his son, Paul H. Ganz, to be president and Victor W. Ganz, vice-president, secretary and treasurer of the company. In 1941, Prince Matchabelli was sold to Vicks Chemical Company. Paul Ganz designed the crown shaped bottle for the Simonetta perfume. Paul H. Ganz was director of the Golden Arrow Toiletries and cosmetics department of John-Frederics, New York. He owned the Matchabelli Co. for five years. Paul Ganz died in 1986 from an intentional overdose of medication as part of a failed suicide pact with his wife Eula. He was 76.

In 1937, Helen Golby, who previously worked for Harriet Hubbard Ayer, was hired on as director of publicity for Matchabelli's company. She toured the United States promoting the fragrances.

Norina died in 1957 at the age of 77 following a long illness, in Myrtle Beach, SC, where she made her home in 1949.

WWII halted production and importation of the perfumes. Since the Stradivari perfume was launched in 1946, when communications between the USA and France were cut off, Princess Matchabelli didn't know that such a perfume existed...until GI’s came crowding into the Paris store on the rue Cambon to look for the Stradivari perfume.

In 1946, if you stood on the northwest corner of 5th Avenue and 55th Street, New York, and looked toward the building opposite, on the second floor, you would have seen large, story-high leaded windows emblazoned with the royal crown of Prince Matchabelli in stained glass. This was the $100,000 Crown Room that the prince's perfumes, a veritable showroom and headquarters for sales and office personnel, was located at 711 5th Avenue and originally established in 1935 on the 11th floor. The room, designed by William Pahlmann, featured three balconies that presented displays of the Matchabelli perfumes.the room had a twenty two foot ceiling and was thirty by sixty. It used to be the main banking room of the Manufacturer's Trust.

In the fall of 1946, Prince Matchabelli introduced both the Crown Room and the newest perfume, Crown Jewel at a champagne supper. More than 300 guests attended the formal reception.

The Crown Room features grisaille murals, crowns were incorporated into the chandeliers, and the balconies were reminiscent of Paris Opera boxes, the reception hall was like a Versailles garden featuring topiary murals and a marble like desk, banquettes and a Victorian conversation seat in sea-blue satin. Two large cabinets were filled with rare old perfume bottles and flasks lent by the Newark Museum, and the star of the evening was a diamond studded Russian nuptial crown, on loan from cartier. This crown was worn by three czarinas on their several wedding days. the whole exhibit of precious treasures was under the protection of a guard from the Holmes Patrol, who mentioned that he would be on the job until cartier sent for the crown in the morning.


All manufacturing and research for the Matchabelli and Seaforth products was relocated to a large factory in Bloomfield, NJ. In 1946, the Sofskin Company' s products was added to the roster owned by Vicks.

I believe that Cyril Gurge (aka Cyril Gurji), who was still working as the chief perfumer for Matchabelli, must have either died or retired from his position. I do know in 1934 he had his own business, Cyril Gurge Laboratories located at 319 E. 14th Street in New York.

In his place, in 1950, Stephen G. Capkovitz was appointed the chief chemist and perfumer for Prince Matchabelli. Stephen G. Capkovitz (Feb 12, 1917 - Dec 23, 1988), also worked for Seaforth Inc (who was owned by Vicks) and the Sofskin Company in the 1950s. Formerly, he was chief chemist for Yardley, and was associated in similar capacity with Albert Verley and Co, head of the perfumery division of Colgate-Palmolive-Peet and their subdivision Jeurelle-Seventeen, and was assistant perfumer for Norda Essential Oil & Chemical Co. He was then appointed manager of the perfume, flavor and aromatic chemicals division of S. B. Penick & Co in 1957.

In 1958, Vicks sold Prince Matchabelli to Cheesebrough-Ponds. I imagine Stephen G. Capkovitz either quit the position or lost it at Matchabelli just before the company sell off, and then got the job at Penick. Cheesebrough-Ponds was acquired by Unilever in 1987.

Amazingly, I acquired from the Capkovitz estate, through a buyer, many of the bottles, perfume oils and chemicals that Capkovitz personally used. What I have are mostly from NORDA, but also from Chuit Naef. These date to the 1930s-1950s and most likely were used while he was blending perfumes for Yardley, Colgate and Prince Matchabelli.

Some time during the 1950s-1970s period, a perfumer from Firmenich Incorporated named Leon Hardy had worked for the Prince Matchabelli company. He was born in Grasse, France in 1905 to Leopold and Marie Hardy. He came to the USA shortly after WWII, and was employed for many years as a perfumer for Firmenich. His career as a creative perfumer had spanned almost half a century. In 1972, Leon J. Hardy announced his decision to retire from full time responsibilities as chief perfumer at Firmenich, Inc, of New York. He passed away in 1975 at the age of 70.

Hardy's contributions were the perfumes Wind Song, whom he collaborated with Ernest Shiftan in 1952 and Cachet in 1970. For a long time he collaborated with the other brands such as Révillon and Perfumer`s Workshop. For the latter, he created their most recognizable fragrance "Tea Rose" Perfumer`s Workshop in 1973 in collaboration with Annie Buzantyan. For Révillon he created an equally famous masterpiece, Detchema in 1953.

In 1993, the Cheesebrough-Ponds division of Unilever sold the Prince Matchabelli brands to Parfums de Coeur, Ltd. Parfums de Coeur Ltd. agreed to purchase the Prince Matchabelli trade name and five brands of women's perfumes.  The sale, terms of which were not disclosed, includes only the United States rights to Chesebrough's Wind Song, Cachet, Aviance Night Musk, Verve and Babe brand names.

The company is now owned by Parfums DeCœur Fragrances, associated with Parfums International. In 2012, Parfums de Coeur was bought by Yellow Wood Partners, who in 2015, renamed Parfums deCoeur as PDC Brands.

Info from various sources: wikipedia, The Messenger Online, vintage newspapers and advertisements.