Fragrance house

Blocki

Founded in Chicago in 1865 by John Blocki, Blocki began with essential oils, perfumes and pomades before developing its own perfume and cosmetics lines. In 1903, it opened a Chicago perfume boutique described in its history as the city’s first, and in 1907 John Blocki patented packaging that placed a preserved natural flower inside the perfume bottle. After his death in 1934, his daughter Jeannette Blocki Petersen ran the company; a reference account records its sale to the Winter Group in the 1940s, after which the group operated it for about a decade before operations ceased. The original perfumery closed in 1950. In 2000, John Blocki’s great-great-grandson Tyler Kraemer and his wife began importing and blending floral waters and essential oils, and in 2015 Tyler and Tammy Kraemer revived Blocki Perfume on the 150th anniversary of its founding, launching three perfumes. Perfumer Kevin Verspoor formulated those fragrances by adapting major ideas from original Blocki perfumes with modern elements. The revived house draws on historical Blocki stories and family memoirs without directly copying the past, while its Flower-in-the-Bottle line is especially associated with the brand’s preserved-flower presentation.