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Muelhens
Muelhens
Muelhens: The house that spread the famous Eau de Cologne across the world
Between the Muelhens family and the Farina family, the Italian creators of the first Eau de Cologne, a long history of various legal proceedings unfolded over decades. Ultimately denied its acquisition, the Muelhens family created its own Eau de Cologne, which over the centuries became far more famous than the original: “4711 Original Eau de Cologne.”
Muelhens perfumes
CitrusSubsequently, the house of Muelhens created around its phenomenal bestseller a range of beautiful and surprising flankers of the famous 4711.
Of Eau de Cologne, Farina and Muelhens…
The creator of the very first Eau de Cologne was Giovanni Maria Farina, an Italian perfumer. This scented water, created in Cologne in 1708, met with immediate success from its first bottle distributions, which of course attracted covetousness and manipulation.
The Muelhens family, particularly Wilhelm Mülhens, attempted in 1803 to buy the rights to the so marvelous Eau de Cologne of kings from a certain Carlo Francesco Farina, believing him to be part of the perfumer's family. He was not. This case of mistaken identity was only the beginning of a very long affair of fraud of every kind, which did not end definitively until 1881, with Wilhelm Mülhens's grandson, Ferdinand Mühlens. The courts ruled that the Muelhens family had no rights to the Farina family's Eau de Cologne, which nonetheless did not stop them from making and selling the so cherished scented bottle.
In 1881, Ferdinand Muelhens founded his own perfume house, where he would market his own Eau de Cologne, created in 1792, under the name of the street number where he set up shop: “4711.”
“4711,” or the miraculous water of Cologne
A bottle recognizable among a thousand, an olfactory formula kept secret for more than two centuries, and an international aura. The Original Eau de Cologne “4711” remains one of the greatest successes in perfumery, and was created in… 1792!
Behind this entirely distinctive and thoroughly historic bottle was one man: Peter Heinrich Molanus. The original bottle of the “4711 Original Eau de Cologne” could not be stored upright and was difficult to transport, so in 1820 Molanus proposed to the house of Muelhens a hexagonal, engraved bottle that would allow for large-format labels, both to protect the fragrance from light and to give the brand more visibility. The famous green label is, in fact, as well known today as the bottle of the “4711 Original Eau de Cologne” itself.
As for the unique fragrance of 4711 Eau de Cologne, it remains secret, but its vitality and brightness may be attributed to citrus and aromatic accords, while its floral accents are thought to come from orange blossom and lavender.
The grand dame of perfumery would not be the house of Muelhens's only success, as the house drew on this famous formula to create scented flankers of its bestseller. In fact, in 2012, the house of Muelhens, by then owned by Mäurer & Wirtz after being sold by the giant Procter & Gamble, created a modernized version of the famous Eau de Cologne under the name “4711 Nouveau Cologne.” Might the house of Muelhens still have many more centuries of dominance over Eau de Cologne ahead of it?