1. John Blocki was one of America's pioneer perfumers.
25 Facts About John Blocki
1. 2.
John Blocki was well-known in the trade for his leadership and commitment to the advancement of the American perfume industry.
3.
John Blocki was born on a feudal estate near Konigsberg, Prussia in 1845.
4.
John Blocki's parents were Friedrich Wilhelm Blocki, a Prussian and Polish noble, and Emma of Pomerania.
5.
John Blocki was educated in the public and private schools in Wisconsin and afterwards moved to Chicago where he lived the rest of his life.
6.
John Blocki married an English woman, Emma Leadbeater, in 1867.
7.
John Blocki moved to Chicago in 1862 and joined the drug firm of Fuller, French and Fuller; this was his first and only employer.
8.
Early in his career, John Blocki began to specialize in perfumes and toilet waters.
9.
John Blocki gained a local reputation in Chicago for the excellence of his fragrance creations and opened a shop on Michigan Avenue for the exclusive sale of perfumery.
10.
John Blocki was well respected for his management of city finances and for actions such as lending the city money from his own account to pay police and firemen before Christmas.
11.
John Blocki died on May 7,1934, at the age of eighty eight having been active in his business up to the end.
12.
John Blocki is buried in a family memorial room in the mausoleum at Rosehill Cemetery; a Victorian era cemetery that is the burial place of many well-known early Chicagoans.
13.
John Blocki was an active advocate for the pharmaceutical industry and the burgeoning American perfume industry.
14.
John Blocki was a founding member and permanent corresponding secretary of the Chicago Veteran Druggists Association and the first president of the Perfumery, Soap and Extract Makers' Association of Chicago.
15.
Well trained chemists were essential to this progress and John Blocki was an early supporter of the UIC College of Pharmacy being an active member since 1867.
16.
John Blocki donated several perfumery trade items to the school's pharmaceutical museum: a musk pod, two containers of East Indian buffalo horn packed with civet as well as an essay on the use of musk and civet in perfume, and a small model of a copper still like the type used to distill rose oil in the Kazanlak district of Bulgaria.
17.
John Blocki's engaging character, dedication to the industry and involvement in numerous social clubs won him many loyal friends.
18.
John Blocki had been selected to baptize the steamer due to his expertise in cracking perfume bottles for that purpose.
19.
John Blocki frequently offered tours of his laboratory and showroom to visiting pharmacists and perfumers.
20.
In 1907, John Blocki obtained one of the first United States patents related to perfumery packaging: No 840,105.
21.
John Blocki created a vibrant holiday display for this line that included a colored felt mat, 2-foot tall etched display bottles, lithographed announcement cards and colored blotters.
22.
John Blocki created a sample set for this line that was in the form of a miniature book named "The Story of the Flower by Blocki" and contained four perfume samples each with a preserved flower.
23.
John Blocki derived inspiration from his family and one of the more artistic results was a perfume named Psyche Rose.
24.
John Blocki created a perfume with this name in 1916 along with scented sachets and powders.
25.
John Blocki was one of America's pioneer perfumers and one of the largest manufacturers of perfumes and cosmetics of his time; his perfumes and toiletries were sold throughout the United States and abroad.