LIBERTY ISLAND

New York-centric Bond No. 9 has a summertime tradition launching fresh and breezy island and beach scents. Coney Island was the first. Then came Fire Island, Montauk, Hamptons and Shelter Island - all of them celebrating leisure-time milieus. Now, we take a different tack and pay homage to a destination island of a totally different sort. Liberty Island - the world's most famous island, visited by four million freedom-lovers a year. Yes, a joyous eau de parfum honoring the hallowed 12-acre tract of land in Upper New York Bay that is home to none other than the crown-wearing, torch-bearing 151-foot tall, Franco-American Statue of Liberty itself.

This little island has always served a welcome purpose. In pre-colonial days, the Delaware Indian tribe used it as a hunting and fishing preserve. The early colonists harvested oysters there. Then by the turn of the 19th century, its strategic location, just south of Manhattan, was seen as an ideal for defense, and a massive granite fort was built there in the shape of an irregular star, each point serving as a lookout. That star fortunately would remain even after the fort had been dismantled.

Fast-forward to 1865. As a symbol of friendship and an expression of their own longing for democracy, the people of France (where, incidentally, modern perfumery began, at the start of the 20th century) had decided to give the United States a statue representing liberty for its centennial. A young sculptor who favored working on a colossal scale, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, was chosen to design it. On a scouting visit to New York, he viewed the little island, and realized its granite star would make a perfect base for his Statue of Liberty, its radiant crown shedding light on the 7 seas and continents. Not only would the statue be aligned to face ships as they entered New York Harbor from the Atlantic Ocean, but the island's location permitted a constantly changing perspective as these ships made their way to Manhattan.