Lightyears Collection
Roure Bertrand
The Early DaysRoure was launched in Grasse (France) in 1820 as a creator and wholesaler of perfumery raw materials. Founder Claude Roure had married Marie Honorade Bertrand, hence the "Roure Bertrand" name. Roure's trademark was a chemist's retort on a brick furnace. In the early years, Roure Bertrand specialized in supplying neroli oil to perfumers in Cologne — makers of "Eau de Cologne". Neroli oil is prepared by steam distillation of flowers of the bitter orange ("bigarade") tree. When Claude and Marie's son, Jean François entered the business in 1845, it was renamed "Roure Bertrand Fils" — the name seen non the bottle of sequoia oil shown at the right. When Jean François Roure died in 1866, the business was left in the capable hands of his sons, Claude-Zacharie Roure and Louis Maximin Roure. While Louis Maximin developed a number of technological innovations in the preparation of perfumery raw materials, Claude-Zacharie expanded the company's marketing scope opening up relationship with perfumers across Europe and into Russia. Thanks to his efforts, Roure Bertrand Fils became the near exclusive supplier to Moscow soap and perfume superpower, Brocard. (At the end of the 19th century, Brocard was the largest soapmaker in Europe.) When Claude Zacharie Roure died in 1880, Louis Maxim Roure became the company's sole owner. Upon his death in 1898, the business passed to his three children, Louis, Marie and Jean. International AcclaimLouis Maximin Roure's daughter, Marie, married Jean Amic, and bore three sons. Both Louis Maximin's son, Louis, and son-in-law Jean Amic, entered the business. Young Louis became active in publishing scientific papers for Roure Bertrand Fils. These were translated into English and German and helped establish Roure as a leader in the modern perfumery. In 1900 a Roure scientific bulletin described, for the first time, the extraction of perfumery materials by the use of volatile solvents. Also in 1900, Roure Bertrand Fils was presented with a grand prize for technical innovation at the Universal Exposition in Paris. In 1902, Louis Roure, in collaboration with Justin Dupont, established a factory at Argenteuil to develop synthetic perfumery materials. In 1904, the house of Justin Dupont had been awarded a gold medal for its technological breakthroughs at the Saint Louis Exposition in the United States. The companies continued to collaborate until, in 1926, they merged their interests under the name "Roure Bertrand Fils et Justin Dupont". Roure Perfumey SchoolIn 1946, Roure created the Roure Perfumery School. It's first director was Roure perfumer, Jean Carles. Carles created a teaching method based on fragrance memorization and classification of fragrances into 15 olfactory families. This method was never patented and, today, is available to all. Other directors of the school have included Marcel Carles, Jean Carles's son, François Marin, and Bernard Escano. Some time after Roure and Givaudan were merged, both the Roure perfumery school and Givaudan's own perfumery school were closed. Today the combined perfumery school has been reopened as the Givaudan Perfumery School to train new generations of perfumers. —— ## ——
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Philip Goutell
Lightyears, Inc.
