Created in 1928
In 1925, James Oviatt, co-founder with Alexander Frank of the Alexander and Oviatt department store in Los Angeles fourteen years earlier, visited the Exhibition of modern decorative and industrial arts in Paris. Inspired by the new style that was emerging, he had a new 12-storey building erected in the city of angels – ten floors for the store and two for his private residence. He called on René Lalique to create decorative panels and lighting elements.
Le parfum des Anges was launched for the inauguration in 1928, with a bottle in the shape of a bell designed by René Lalique. It featured two angels praying face to face, with wings spread and touching each other, forming a majestic protective aura. The angel motif appears on the five faces of the presentation box; it bears a resemblance to the windows René Lalique created for the church of Saint-Nicaise in Reims and, to a certain extent, to the doors of the Teien Palace in Tokyo.
