On turning back the clock to the days of Queen Victoria it may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that one of the ways the Queen would cast her romantic spell on Prince Albert, was through using perfumes that were created for these special intimate occasions.

In 1872, Queen Victoria gave her crown to the first perfume house in Britain. Crown Perfumery was founded by William Sparks Thompson who actually created high busted corsets to "assist the lady whom nature had not endowed with ample fullness". Queen Victoria was indeed one of his clients. On many occasions the corsets where pulled so tightly and actually caused the women to faint. Mr Thompson's son, a chemist, came up with the idea of producing a smelling salt to help revive the ladies. He would use a blend of lavender and soon after, the initiative led to the production of fine perfumes. In total, Crown Perfumery produced 49 perfumes which were sold worldwide and extremely successful with the grand ladies of the time.

Sadly after Mr Thompson died and with the affairs of the world including war, we saw the decline of the perfumery house. The 40's brought a revival of the business and following a series of changes and ownership, the perfume house reigns once again through Clive Christian who used the strong reputation of Queen Victoria's day and the original bottle design to once again make this regal perfume a jewel in everybody's crown.

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