Excalibur
Avon (1969)

Both Arthur and Excalibur (the sword) were noted in myth as profoundly singular entities. Avon Excalibur (the fragrance), not so much. But that’s the worst I can say about it. Otherwise, it’s a perfectly fine green, woody, mossy fougère, and while not best-in-category, the 6 oz. bottle I got for $8—without even bothering to shop around—represents as much bang for the buck as one is likely to find.

Back into the Saddle, a slather of the Excalibur and a walk out to kitchen ( In my shorts) to be greeted most enthusiastically by my two hounds, insisting upon licking my face full length. The Sun is gleaming through the Windows landing upon my Queen who draws me to her bosom and whispers in my ear "Hmm, you smell good"!
Excalibur starts with a light, well balanced Herbal Lavender Fougere-like character. Instead of the Tobaccoed hay of Coumarin this moves closer to a Woody Mossy Chypre in Drydown. Not a Oakmoss bomb, however I am left with a discreet Masculine Woodiness lightly sweetened 4 hour later.
Conservative, discreet and in the vein of "Men shall not draw attention to themselves, Loudly, with their scent, as that is the reserve of the Feminine."

Stardate 20181010:

It has moss,lavender and something sweet/floral up top. A fougere structure but non-traditional. There is some leather too - Avon's leather.
I find it very similar in style to Oland but better than Oland. Someone compared it to English Leather and I can see the resemblance.
For the price - recommended

Yes, it's the cologne of King Arthur. No, it's not particularly amazing, nor is it bad.
"He whoever so pulleth the swordeth from the stonethethetheth -fart- something something something King" is basically emblazoned on the box of this one, and I feel that maybe Avon were trying to take a stab at the herbal/woodsy fougere trope that had been emerging ever since British Sterling came to prominence in 1965. Avon already had a big hit with Wild Country, which captured the spirit of the American West in a bottle, so why not go for something that evoked legend of English heroes? I bought this on a lark because I had such wonderful experience with collecting old 60's and 70's Avon that I was sure this would be a hit too. Well, it's not. It is however, one of the more interesting stock bottles I've seen out of them during their first 20 years or so making men's fragrance (they didn't start catering to men in earnest until the end of the 50's and beginning of the 60's). Like most first-run male scents, this came in an intriguing themed stock bottle, then would shift over to any number of goofy decanters until it would eventually be repacked in more modest presentations until retirement. The original stock bottle is my favorite, because the bottom of the glass is shaped like a stone, and the sword is emblazoned on the back. It's quite a showpiece, and worth having for that reason even if you rarely wear the stuff.

The smell of Excalibur is very much green, herbal, woodsy, and very dry. It's almost as if they just threw a bunch of kitchen spices and some tree bark in a bottle and said "this is what men of the old kingdom would smell like". I admit it's quite appropriate for a fragrance named after a medieval legend: there is not one thing sweet or refined about it. This is raw backwoods green and brown right in your face, but toned way down so it isn't scaring everyone around you. This second part is actually what makes me give it a neutral rating: I wouldn't have minded something raw and unfettered I was able to control the projection of myself, but since this is so very thin and transparent, I can barely smell it myself despite lots of over-applying to make it detectable. It's literally inoffensive to the point of being nearly invisible. This is a problem with some of the stuff from the 60's: it's either a projection beast or a dainty waif of a scent that lets the guy wearing it pretend he's styling. When you have to smell yourself to make sure it's there, it's too weak. I think both the after shave and the cologne could just be swapped behind the back as they literally have the same 30 minute lifespan on skin, which is on par with 18th century eau de colognes for sure.

I guess it can't be blamed on Avon too much: they were just following convention on a budget as always, but I would like to have enjoyed this more. Even EDC-strength products will typically radiate with more application, but this one is almost just herbs and alcohol, which while pleasant and certainly wearable, is definitely aimed at the "at work cologne" class of scents that regardless of how much is dumped on, will never make anyone at the office twitch a nose hair. It just needs more tonka, more amber, more -something- to push it off the skin, which is just simply doesn't have. It's not Hollywood King Arthur for sure, and not even BBC Channel 1 at this rate. It's fine, just not my vibe. At least mostly-herbal stuff like British Sterling still has some kind of body to make it hang around longer than can of Axe spray. I applied this to my shirt to avoid absorption and it still just barely squeaks up off of me. Maybe that's the point: this is the ultimate cologne for a guy who doesn't want to smell like he's a "cologne guy". I don't know what else to say. I still love the bottle.

Circa 1969 sample dark storage container with no apparent evaporation:

Crisp green and woody up front. If you continue smelling it close to the skin at this point you can detect cinnamon.

It progresses to a mostly woodsy drydown, a dab of musk, a touch of spice and something akin to lime peel (but it does not strike me as bergamot if that was the source of the citrus) There is not much of a transition from the time the crispness wears off to this point.

It doesn't project much after the opening, drydown is quite pleasant actually. A touch heavy on wood perhaps. Nothing to write home about.

I wouldn't give a thumbs up. It is not exciting it will not offend after its brief opening. The crisp opening reminds me vaguely if a citrusy Polo or something along those lines. That might sound appealing but it is not as appealing as you would think

Woody is what I get out of it. Strongly woody.

On second thought, years later, it's a altered version of English Leather.