Sunday, August 31, 2025

Flacon Bouchon Quadrilobe (Quatrefoil Stopper) c1908-Present

The Flacon Bouchon Quadrilobe (Quatrefoil Stopper Bottle) is perhaps the most emblematic vessel in Guerlain’s history, earning its status as the house’s official “flacon maison.” First introduced in 1908 to hold the extrait of Rue de la Paix, it has since been used across the decades for nearly all of Guerlain’s great perfumes. Its enduring presence reflects both the timelessness of its design and the practicality it offered as a standardized bottle that could adapt to changing fashions and formulas while still retaining a sense of heritage.

The bottle takes its name from its distinctive stopper. The clear glass dome is molded with four rounded lobes, forming a stylized quatrefoil. Beyond its visual appeal, this design served a functional purpose: the grooves allowed the baudruchage cording—a silk-thread seal traditionally applied to Guerlain’s bottles—to be passed through and tied securely, ensuring the integrity of the fragrance inside. Originally produced with ground glass stoppers, the bottle later shifted to plastic closures in the 1960s and 1970s to accommodate modern manufacturing and broader distribution.

The production of the Flacon Bouchon Quadrilobe was entrusted to several of France’s most prestigious glassmakers, each contributing their expertise while preserving the bottle’s iconic form. Baccarat, with five known moulds, Pochet et du Courval with six, Saint-Gobain Desjonquères with two, BSN-Flaconnage with three, as well as the Romesnil and Brosse glassworks, and Cristalleries de Nancy, all took part in its manufacture. Though subtle differences in detail and finish can be detected between their versions, the overall design remained faithful to the original conception, ensuring the bottle’s continuity and recognizability over time.

Among these contributors, Baccarat held a particularly significant role, cataloguing the bottle as flacon no. 24, a designation that emphasized its prominence in their enduring collaboration with Guerlain. The Quadrilobe was made available in an extensive range of sizes, from delicate 7.5 ml miniatures, ideal as keepsakes or travel companions, to grand one-liter editions designed as showpieces, gracing elegant vanities and lending a sense of luxury to the dressing table.

While the bottle itself remained consistent, the labels varied. Most were decorated with Guerlain’s classic étiquette laurier, a motif bordered by laurel leaves symbolizing prestige and victory. However, for select perfumes such as Coque d’Or, Dawamesk, Liu, and Fleur de Feu, more modernist labels were chosen, reflecting shifts in design aesthetics of their respective eras.

Even as fragrance fashions evolved, the Flacon Bouchon Quadrilobe remained a unifying symbol of Guerlain’s identity. Its refined simplicity allowed the perfumes to speak for themselves, while the quatrefoil stopper added a note of quiet distinction. More than a century since its creation, it continues to be produced, bridging Guerlain’s Belle Époque origins with its contemporary presence, making it one of the most enduring icons in perfume bottle history.

In 1947, Baccarat reissued the classic bottle with its distinctive quadrilobe stopper, a design that was later also produced by Cristal Nancy. By 1997, this elegant flacon was being offered in larger presentation sizes of 250 ml, 500 ml, and even 1 liter. Originally, the quadrilobe stoppered bottle was created for the perfume Rue de la Paix, but it quickly became a standard Guerlain presentation. Between 1908 and 1912, it was used for several important launches: Une Rose (1908), Quand Vient l’Été (1910), Kadine, Pour Troubler (1911), and Vague Souvenir (1912). Up until August 1914, these perfumes were housed in the Baccarat version of the bottle, each bearing the distinctive “laurel” label printed with Guerlain’s address at 15 rue de la Paix.

The enduring use of the quadrilobe stoppered bottle required glassmakers to repeatedly adapt their original moulds, both for the bottles themselves and for their stoppers. Over time, the transition from traditional ground glass fittings to those with plastic seals (known as plastemeri) inevitably altered the bottles’ capacities and dimensions. With so many adjustments made, it becomes impractical to document every variation, as a single mould could be modified as many as five times for the same nominal capacity, resulting only in subtle differences in size. This pattern of continual revision also applied to other iconic Guerlain presentations, such as the heart-shaped stoppered bottle (Bouchon Cœur) and the fan-shaped, or “bat-wing,” bottle used for Shalimar. The five largest formats of the quadrilobe stoppered bottle remained identical to those produced by Baccarat. However, by 1997, Guerlain’s price list reflected a streamlined offering, listing only the smaller 7.5 ml, 15 ml, 30 ml, and 60 ml sizes.

The original Étiquette “Laurier”, or “laurel” label, used on the quadrilobe bottles, was a distinctive square-shaped paper label that featured the name “Guerlain,” the title of the perfume, and the address of the boutique, all framed within a decorative border of laurel leaves. This label was produced in three different sizes to suit the varying bottle formats: the large size measured 3.8 cm by 3.8 cm, the medium size 2.3 cm by 2.3 cm, and the small size 2 cm by 2 cm.

Sizes:

Baccarat:

Mould #24 = 80ml/2.7 oz - 9,5cm/3.74"
Mould #24 = 125ml/4.2 oz - 11,5cm/4.53"
Mould #24 = 250ml/8.4 oz - 13,8cm/5.43"
Mould #24 = 500ml/16.9 oz - 17cm/6.69"
Mould #24 = 1 liter/1000ml - 22,5cm/8.86"

Pochet et du Courval:

There are modifications to the 30ml, 60ml and 125ml bottles in the 1980s.

Mould #13613 = 10cc/10ml/0.338 oz - 5,6cm/2.2" (1924) : ground glass stopper, changed to plastemeri in 1962 (mould #19104).
Mould #17077 = 10cc/10ml/0.338 oz - 5,6cm/2.2" (1954) : ground glass stopper
Mould #17575 = 20cc/20ml/0.676 oz - 7cm/2.76" (1951) : ground glass stopper
Mould #17275 = 40cc/40ml/1.35 oz - 8,5cm/3.35" (1949) : ground glass stopper
Mould #19106 = 60cc/60ml/2 oz - 9,5cm/3.74" (1962) : ground glass stopper, changed to plastic stopper
Mould #22120= 125ml/4.2 oz - 11,5cm/4.53" (1978) : crystal plastic stopper

Saint-Gobain Desjonqueres:

Engraved on the base "Guerlain, Bottle, Made in FRance, SGD."

Mould #5140 (plain 70634) = 7,5ml/1.25 oz - 5cm/1.97" (1980-1987) : plastic stopper
Mould #4952 (plain 24582) = 15ml/0.5 oz - 6,3cm/2.48" (1979-1986) : plastic stopper