Photo: Sealed, full and intact bottle of "Piesse and Lubin" perfume recovered from the shipwreck of the Civil War Blockade Runner "Mary Celestia". 1864

Earlier this summer, we reported on a long lost perfume from the British Perfumery Piesse Lubin which was found in a shipwreck of the Maria Celestia off the coast of Bermuda.    150 years later Master perfumer Jean-Claude Delville of drom was charged with important task of responsible restoration.

According to M Delville, “In perfumery, opportunities like this don’t come along too often. Opening the bottles was like going back in time 150 years. I was shocked at how fresh and floral it was and the amount of citrus in it. We analyzed and captured the unique spirit of the original fragrance and thus re-created a lost treasure.”

Isabelle Ramsay-Brackstone of The Bermuda Perfumery explains the Mary Celestia fragrance display to Bermuda Senator Jeff Baron, Bermuda Minister of Tourism Development & Transport Shawn Crockwell and Catherine Zeta-Jones during the Mary Celestria fragrance launch event in Tribeca Tuesday evening.  Zeta-Jones has spent years off and on living in Bermuda. 

A limited edition perfume based on the original debuted last night at an A list event in Tribeca, New York. The restored fragrance is named Mary Celestina is composed of sparkling grapefruit and zesty citrus, rosewood, warm amber and the soft notes of rose and orange flower which impart the sense of floral soliflores of that time. Mary Celestia is packaged in a genuine Bermuda Cedar box, with the bottle nested in a black velvet bag. The box is closed with a hand tied blue ribbon and a red wax seal. The fragrance bottle is dressed with a unique medal depicting the Mary Celestia before she sank. The artwork of the medal is used with the direct permission of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, which created the image to imprint on its rare three-dollar gold coin issued in 2006.

Photo Credit Chiwun Smith for The Bermuda Perfumery2014

"Every aspect of the limited edition fragrance is inspired by Bermuda – its scent, its packaging and, most of all, its story," said Mrs. Isabelle Ramsay Brackstone of The Bermuda Perfumery, “This perfume was embargoed during the Civil War but there was such passion to own it, there was an attempt to smuggle it past Lincoln’s Navy and into the American South. This story is about international intrigue and romance, timeless luxury and heritage.”

1,864 bottles will be offered to honor the shipwrecked Mary Celestia which was hiding this perfume when it sank off Bermuda in 1864. The limited edition goes on sale exclusively at The Bermuda Perfumery’s Lili Bermuda boutiques in Hamilton and St. George, Bermuda as of October 1, 2014. Purchasing will also be available online at LiliBermuda.com for mail order shipping around the world.

The retail price is $225 and part of the sale proceeds will go to a new foundation to preserve and promote Bermuda’s shipwreck heritage.

via press release

–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief