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Ernest Daltroff

Founder of Caron in 1904, Ernest Daltroff composed the house’s great perfumes, from Narcisse Noir (1911) to Pour Un Homme (1934), alongside Félicie Wanpouille, who handled its artistic direction. Tabac Blond, Nuit de Noël and Bellodgia are among his creations. He left for New York in 1939 and died there in 1941.

Caron

From a bourgeois family of Russian origin, Ernest Daltroff traveled and first worked in the garment trade before turning, self-taught, to perfume. He founded Parfums Caron in Paris in 1904. He composed the perfumes, while his partner Félicie Wanpouille, a milliner, designed the bottles and handled the house’s artistic direction. Their collaboration made Caron one of the great perfume houses of the interwar period.

The great perfumes

Narcisse Noir, in 1911, was his first great success. Then came Tabac Blond in 1919, Nuit de Noël in 1922, Bellodgia in 1927, En Avion in 1929 and Fleurs de Rocaille in the early 1930s, all perfumes that built the house’s reputation.

In 1934, Pour Un Homme came out at a time when men mostly wore eaux de Cologne: Daltroff was convinced that a man should wear perfume. Caron presents it as the first perfume for men, and still sells it.

Exile

In 1939, he left for the United States and handed the running of the house to Félicie Wanpouille. He died in New York in 1941. Michel Morsetti, whom he had trained, carried on the creative work, partly from formulas left in his notes, and Félicie Wanpouille launched Poivre in 1954.

Creations by Ernest Daltroff