Dubarry Perfumery Company

The Standard Tablet Company was founded in Hove, England by 1901, by Harry William Kilby Pears. The company made pharmacy goods. According to anecdotal evidence, Pears met a local Italian man, who had persuaded him to go into making perfumes, and gave him advice about the industry.

Pears must have taken the advice as in 1924, the Standard Tablet Company became The Dubarry Perfume Company – named after Madame du Barry (1741-1793) as a tribute to the French who were the United Kingdom’s allies during the First World War.This wasn’t the only nod to faux-French - the company would also later style their company name as Dubarry et Cie Parfumers, when they opened a store in London’s Brompton Street.

Perfumes made by the company at this time included The Heart of a Rose (“The wealth of odor of  the red rose”), Golden Morn (“the fragrance and freshness of dawn”), The Blue Lagoon (“A chef d’oeuvre of the perfumer’s art”,), A Bunch of Violets (“the combined leaf and flower perfumes”)

The company also made a range of products under the name Shalimar, which was why Guerlain had to orignally use code names such as 90 and 91 to export their now famous perfume outside of France.

As well as perfumes the company made various other toiletry and cosmetics products as well as continuing making pharmacy goods under its subsidiaries, Quality Chemists, The Standard Tablet Company and Laking Chemical Company.

This would become useful during the Second World War, when the company switched production to medicines. The company froze their stock of imported perfume materials which couldn’t be used during the war, which allowed them to have a stock ready to go once the war had ended.

In 1962, Dubarry was acquired by the UK-arm of US company The Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company for approximately $1m - the company had previously distributed the brand under license in Canada.

Warner Lambert also owned Richard Hudnut perfumery, which coincidentally also sold an un-related product under the name DuBarry in the US.

After the acquisition, production moved from Hove to moved to Eastleigh, Hampshire.

The buildings where the factory used to be in Hove, is now known as the Hove Business Center, though you can still see the decorative art-deco signage around the building advertising Dubarry’s products, these include:

• Flower scented bath crystals
• Dubarry's creme shalimar for dainty soft white hands
• Dubarry's silkashave soap for a luxurious shave
• Perfumes & toilet luxuries
• Shalimar manicure preparations
• Dubarry's shalimar complexion creams for loveliness that lasts

The Dubarry company name remained until it went into liquidation in 1982.

In 2009 a businessman, Michael Miller, from Hove attempted to revive the company “Like many people I noticed the factory and after a little bit of research I uncovered this fantastic history of a local company that made it big.” However, a US company, USITC holds the trademark for Dubarry All Clear, first registered in May 1963, putting an end to the plans.

Sources

 Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) 30 Nov 1928

Birmingham Post (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)14 Jun 1943, Mon

Brighton businessman's Dubarry dream in doubt” Brighton Argus (21st July 2009)

Brighton Argus, 22 July 2014

Brighton Argus, 20th August 2009

Brighton Standard, 29th August, 1951

The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) 10 Nov 1962

The Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey) 20 Dec 1962, Thu

Deeds of The Dubarry Perfumery Company Limited, Hove