Vintage Grossmith's of London Phul-Nana face powder. Phul-Nana means lovely flower in Hindi.
The namesake perfume was created in 1891 and advertised as "A Bouquet of India's Choicest Flowers"described as "A fresh, sweet Floral composition with Aromatic Fougère overtones on a soft, warm, woody base."
I found this full unused box on eBay. A 1920's Grossmith's ad from Tatler, pictured below, gives the price as 9 1/2d. I noticed a WWII packaged version of this face powder on eBay - Click here to see it on eBay
1920's Phul-Nana face powder ad from Tatler
The perfume from this range is still available in its current form today see Grossmith's of London for stockists.
A Selection of Grossmith advertising images from 1897.
Supplement to "The Chemist and Druggist," January 30th, 1897Supplement to "The Chemist and Druggist," January 30th, 1897 NEW AND ARTISTIC PERFUMERY AND HIGH-CLASS TOILET SOAPS. Grossmith, Son & CoThe "Enterprise" Perfumes - Grossmith's LondonFacsimile of 1 1/2oz Bottle. The PHUL-NANA BOUQUETHasu-no-Hana bottle facsimile Grossmith LondonGrossmith London Betrothal Bouquet
These are rarely seen vintage images from a special promotioaal supplement published in "The Chemist and Druggist," on January 30th, 1897. The graphics are nicely rendered and the priducts and prices listed are of interest to collectors of vintage perfumes and scents and related items. Fortunately the Grossmith production as been revived in recent times with remakes of some of their vintage perfumes based on the the original recipe book.
Visit http://www.grossmithlondon.com/ for details about the present day store.
I was curious about a perfume bottle Dowager Lady Violet had on Downton Abbey and discovered it was a vintage perfume called Phul-Nana by Grossmith's, London. The Grossmith company is back in business today and has revived production of some of their classic vintage scents including this one with all new packaging. I liked the look of their original vintage products, so when I found an old empty bottle on http://www.ebay.com I decided to make a vintage inspired label just for display on my shelf. Having created my version of the label based on some pictures of vintage bottles with label intact I then attempted to make a vintage looking box to match.
Pieces to make the box for the vintage Phul-Nana bottle
I found that an empty toilet roll core ( a paper towel core is the same width) is about the right size at 4" tall to hold the bottle and used two of them to make two segments of 1" and 3 " allowing some extra for a seam allowance at either end to glue to the oval shapes for the ends. I cut a zig-zag pattern into the seam allowance which were folded over to glue to oval pieces of card for the ends, I pasted an extra oval on the insides to make the ends stronger. Next I created the vintage inspired pattern to print and pasted it to the assembled pieces . Finally I used an extra piece of roll cut and glued together to fit inside the lower section of the box.
My home made vintage inspired label and box for vintage Grossmith's perfume bottle
The completed project, not an exact replica and not perfect by any means but I'm pleased with the result!
