Suddenly in 1850, in a country counting more craftsmen than workers, a profound change occurs, intimately related to progress and the evolution of scientific thought. The Industrial Revolution will transform the economic and daily life of the French people.

The most significant event of the 19th century, industrialization represents the foundation of contemporary perfumery :

> new extraction methods, especially those using volatile solvents, appear. The Grassois Leon Chiris purchases the patent and creates the first factory to use this technique. Grasse specializes in the production and preparation of raw materials. Perfumers move into the city's convents, abandoned since the French Revolution, and conquer world markets ;

> the triumph of industrialized organic synthesis makes synthetic substances reproducing natural substances already used in perfumery available to perfumers at very attractive prices. These substances include vanillin (vanilla note), coumarin (coumarin note) and ionone (violet note),...

> mass produced perfumes using synthetic products are thus les expensive and more widely distributed ;

> the major glassworks created, produce flasks in series and at low prices thus encouraging the creation or the expansion of famous perfume manufacturers such as Gelle Freres, Guerlain, Lubin, Millot, Rigaud, Roger & Gallet, Ed. Pinaud, L.T. Piver...

As the 19th century draws to a close, the imposing scents of patchouli, musk, or heliotrope are used to perfume furs and Indian shawls.

The simplified standardized forms of their flasks is counterbalanced by increasingly complex and rich labels. Initially utilitarian, the label becomes a pure illustration during the 19th century, stimulating the imagination of romantic illustrators : richly colored bouquets, faraway lands one can only dream of,...

The labeling also echoes current events, with the portrayal of rulers, or artistic ones, with the depiction of smiling actresses.

But the need is soon felt for a new art form, reflecting a resolvedly modernist society.

Thus appears Art Nouveau, which wishes to battle the sadness and banality of the mass production provoked by industrialization. This movement seeks to promote high quality creations, reviving the lost taste for beauty through the creation of original forms.
The Art Nouveau style draws its inspiration from the observation and sublimation of nature, a definite taste for the line, oriental and Japanese models, and the cult of woman, whose sensuality and smooth curves are in perfect harmony with the 1900 aesthetic.
Exuberance in its ornamentation, a love for asymmetry, a systematic quest for the flexibility inspired by floral forms characterizes Art Nouveau, which encounters tremendous success especially in the decorative arts.

It is thus that the architect Herve Guimard designs a glass flask for the perfumer Millot, on the occasion of the 1900 Paris World Fair. With its sinewy asymmetrical lines which give it a totally innovating aesthetic, this flask marks the first collaboration between a "designer" and a perfumer.
The most legendary remains the one from 1907 which crosses the destinies of Francois Coty and the glassmaker Rene Lalique. Together they produce Ambre Antique whose flask bears subtly modeled surfaces.

Francois Coty, trained by the Grassois Antoine Chiris, also upsets traditional perfumery by composing perfumes which marry natural essences with synthetic ones coming out of the Industrial Revolution. It is thus that archetypes of contemporary perfumery such as la Rose Jacqueminot, l'Origan, Ambre Antique, and the mythic Chypre are borne, and with them contemporary perfumery.

"Give a woman the best product you can prepare, present it in a perfect flask of a simple elegance but irreproachable taste , and sell it at a reasonable price, and you' will witness the birth of a big business like the world has never seen".

Francois Coty

From then on, perfume acquires a veritable status as a work of art whose name and flask evoke a fragrance. The illustrated label gives way to the strict elegance of the title or the brand.

A new revolution takes place when the major fashion designer Paul Poiret, responsible for freeing woman of her corset, presents perfume as an indispensable part of the feminine look. By creating the brand Les Parfums de Rosine, the name of his eldest daughter, he becomes the first French fashion designer/perfumer, uniting two fields which responsible for France's prestige : high fashion and perfume. He himself designs the flasks for his perfumes, composed by Henri Almeras, whose packaging is handled by another of his creations, les Ateliers de Martine, in honor of his second daughter.

Each flask becomes "a carefully considered art object so as to be in total affinity and complete harmony with the perfume it secretes".

Paul Poiret

The story of serially produced glass flasks develops essentially during the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution.

From the first third of the century, new procedures are perfected. Recent casting techniques allow for the imitation of carved flasks and the obtaining of arabesques and geometrical motifs ad infinitum.
The Cannes-la-Bocca glassworks, founded in 1857, produced flasks in black, blue, greenish , or white glass, blown then molded, some of which bear decorations in relief.
Its main clients were the region's perfumers : Grasse, Vallauris, le Cannet.
This glassworks shuts down in 1899, victim of competition from the large industrial glassworks.

As early as the 19th century, the label holds a significant place in the history of flask making. Evermore complex, evermore rich, it adorns the increasingly simplified forms of the standardized flask.

The manufacturer L.T. Piver has the privilege of being the oldest. Founded at the end of the 18th century, it is one of the first to understand, in the mid 19th century, the necessity of industrializing its production means.
Founded later on , the ED. Pinaud brand belongs to those perfume manufacturers who contributed to the prestige of perfumery from the beginning of the l9th century. It supplied many European courts.

"Artiste, businessman, technician, economist, financial backer, sociologist" as his calling card indicates, Francois Coty (1876-1934) is a man of genius. Of Corsican descent, he discovers perfumery in Paris and learns the trade in Grasse with Antoine Chiris.

Undoubtedly one of the most innovating perfumers of the 20th century, he is also a politician, elected mayor of Ajaccio in 1931; a press magnate, owner of Le Figaro and then Le Gaulois ; a friend of the arts and philanthropist. Not only does he finance countless exhibits, but also the crossing of the Atlantic Paris-New York by Costes and Bellonte.

Two hypothetical origins can be retained concerning the patronymic of "Chypre" perfumes :
> the Cyprus of Kypros, a tree on Cyprus whose leaves produce the perfume called Chypre when cooked in oil.
> the island of Cyprus had abundant quantities of odoriferous plants, like the ciste and the Cyprus.

The palette of raw materials used in the composition of "Chypre" had remained unchanged for hundreds of years, until the appearance of the first synthetic industrial scents and new types of natural extracts. These are used in a period spanning from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century , or 1917 to be exact; the year in which Francois Coty creates the renowned "Chypre" , symbolizing the high point of this family of compositions.
In fact, while perfumes remain elitist and limited in distribution right up to the First World War, Coty's "Chypre" breaks with tradition in 1917 by proposing the first perfume for the masses which will encounter an exceptional public reception.
Several dozen perfumes under the name "Chypre" follow up to 1950, which marks the birth of contemporary perfumery.
If the olfactory form of Chypre has evolved over time, like that of all perfumes, it remains typified by the presence of oak moss, iris, and musk and amber components.
Whether it be as a denomination or as a descriptive term, "Chypre" has been much used by contemporary perfumers.
Consulting a catalogue of perfumers from 1919 to 1949, that's to say the period after the introduction of Coty's Chypre, will suffice to conclude that each had a "Chypre" reference, often grouped with flower perfumes such as Carnation, Rose, Heliotrope, Jasmine, Geranium...
As for the disappearance of the term "Chypre" from the perfumes created in recent years, it is probably due to the perfumers' development of marketing and communication strategies. The need to dream demands always more imagination to come up with an always more original, more evocative and suggestive name for a perfumed creation.