Guerlain is honouring the double 110th anniversary – the opening of its Avenue des Champs-Élysées boutique and the birth of its le Flacon Tortue emblem – with a limited and numbered Métier d’Art edition. Cloaked in incandescent red, this crystal is handcrafted at the House of Baccarat and contains a rare version of Guerlain’s Champs-Élysées scent.
Heirs of time-honoured savoir-faire, Guerlain and Baccarat have a shared legacy that dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. While Guerlain had been releasing a string of fragrant melodies from Shalimar to Mitsouko since 1828, Baccarat – founded in Lorraine in 1764 – had established itself at the panicle of sculpting crystals.
In 1914, when Paris was the epicentre of the vibrant Art Nouveau movement, Jacques Guerlain approached the House of Baccarat to create an exceptional piece for a unique event – to celebrate the opening of Guerlain’s boutique on Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
The House of Baccarat was entrusted to design a bottle that took its inspiration from the perfumer’s emblem – the tortoise. The result was a finely shaped hand-crafted bottle reminiscent of the animal. It had a translucent shell decorated with motifs in relief, evoking scales, and meticulous details on its legs, head and tail, blending realism and aesthetics.
The 2024 interpretation of the Flacon Tortue, like all Baccarat creations, is a true objet d’art, featuring a treasure trove of meticulous detailing. In a ballet of fire, the molten material is fashioned by hand by master glassmakers, whose unique know-how and techniques have been passed down from generation to generation for 260 years.
They sculpt the base of the bottle, the 88 stylised facets, the legs and the head. The latter serves as the stopper for this charming flacon. The essential step of polishing completes the choreography of steps with a matchless rigour to reveal the crystal’s radiance.
Last, but certainly not least, the house’s signature barbichage, baudruchage and wax seal are added. Performed by the Dames de Table of Guerlain, barbichage is the art of draping silk threads, in this case, luminous fuchsia pink ones, around the flacon’s neck. This technique consists of combing the silk threads one by one to give them a vaporous fan shape. The luminous pink of the threads accentuates the tortoise’s red hue.
Inside the Flacon Tortue is the Champs-Élysées perfume extract, a rare version of the legendary Champs-Élysées scent. This perfume extract, inviting us to take a stroll along the renowned Parisian avenue, opens with fruity, colourful notes of blackcurrant berries. It then blends with the essence of rose softened by the mimosa blossom at its heart. The base notes combine the carnal accents of hibiscus seed with the enveloping tenderness of an almond wood accord.
Guerlain & Baccarat Flacon Tortue Red Edition is an exceptional objet d’art that contains an exceptional fragrance. Beyond that, it is heavy with the legacy it carries forward, and is representative of the two exceptional houses that produced it.
