LUXE
Sudhir Gupta Rare Collection of Factices BY B E N N E T T M A R C U S
‘‘I SPENT MY FREE TIME SEARCHING FLEA MARKETS AND OLD PHARMACIES FOR FACTICES. I DIDN’T HAVE A CAR, SO SOMETIMES I HAD TO GO ON THE TRAIN AND CARRY THEM HOME.’’
World’s Biggest Collection of Fragrance Bottles
O
ver the past 30 years, Sudhir Gupta amassed the world’s biggest collection of fragrance bottle factices - the large, exquisitely crafted replicas of perfume bottles used for display in department stores. Among the highlights from his collection of more than 3,000 specimens are a rare 1920s Baccarat factice for the Caron fragrance Madame Alexander, estimated to be valued at $100,000, as well as a rare 1970s Estée Lauder Aliage factice. An exceptional Parera factice from 1927 is one of only two in the world; the other is on display at the Museu del Perfum in Barcelona. Baccarat, Lalique & Guerlain Once made of fine etched glass of the type utilized by artisans of houses like Baccarat, Lalique and Guerlain, factices are rarely produced like that today, and Gupta considers them significant historical objects. This lifelong passion was ignited when he spotted a L’Air du Temps by Nina Ricci factice in the basement of a perfume shop where he worked as a penniless grad student in the early 1990s. Captivated by the classic bottle with its intertwined frosted glass doves, he was determined to obtain it
despite its $2,000 price tag. “I found this bottle from the postwar era, collecting dust on the floor in a corner of the room,” Gupta says. “I get goosebumps every time I talk about that. I didn›t know what it was, but I still remember.” That remarkable discovery in that dusty basement on Canal Street was the start of what became a true obsession. It took him a long time to purchase that bottle. Earning $200 per week, he saved and saved, and once he had the money, the store’s owners actually refused to sell it to him. “They laughed at me and said, ‘What is a poor boy like you going to do with something like that!’” He eventually snagged his prize by enlisting the help of a family friend to buy it for him.
Guinness World Records From that day, factices became his passion, and in the ensuing years, any money he saved went to buying these special bottles. And now his collection has made it into the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest. An immigrant from India who came to New York to pursue graduate studies in engineering, Gupta was from a poor family. “I never had any aspirations; I was not going to clubs, I don’t drink,” he says. “So, I spent my free time searching flea markets and old pharmacies for factices. I didn’t have a car, so sometimes I had to go on the train and carry them home. Some days, I would just walk to make sure they wouldn’t get broken.”
108 | parkmagazineny.com
PARK_Summer22_Profile_ Gupta.indd 108
6/22/22 12:00 AM
