Prince Matchabelli is an American perfume house that was founded in 1926 by Georges i Norina MATCHABELLI. The owner of the brand since 1987 is Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. Prince MATCHABELLI is a Georgian prince, and before the Russian Revolution he had been an ambassador to Italy. In 1916, he married Norina GILLI, an Italian actress (her stage name was Maria Carmi) who became famous after her work in 1911, in a pantomime spectacle play called "The Miracle." They emigrated to the US after the Russian revolution and opened a small antiques shop, "Le Rouge et le Noir", at 545 Madison Avenue. The name came from Stendhal's novel, which they interpreted as the red for the aristocracy and black for the religious (Stendhal's interpretation of the colors was somewhat different: the only two choices open to his hero, Julien Sorel, were red for military and black for clergy). They later established the Prince Matchabelli Perfume Company in 1926. Perfumes were personally blended for clients by Prince Matchabelli. The first three perfumes were Princess Norina, Queen of Georgia and Ave Maria. The company became known for the many color-coded, crown-shaped bottles designed by Norina after the Matchabelli crown and introduced in 1928 with labels on the underside, which were made by another Georgian George Coby. Georges Matchabelli died in 1935, and in 1936, the house was sold to perfume manufacturer Saul Ganz. It changed hands several more times until it was acquired by Anglo-Dutch company Unilever in 1987. In 1993 the Chesebrough-Ponds division of Unilever sold the Prince Matchabelli brands to Parfums de Coeur.