A HEADY HISTORY
According to the Perfume Society, fragrance has been entrancing and beguiling us for millennia, with hieroglyphics in Egyptian tombs showing that Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians were making perfume as long ago as 3,000 BC to sweeten the smell of sacrificial offerings to the gods. It was the Ancient Greeks, though, who created the first perfumes for wearing on the skin, by suspending ground aromatic plants and resins in oil. Hippocrates, “the father of medicine”, even prescribed the use of perfumes to help prevent disease.
The Romans took to perfume with a passion and gave it its name: “per fumum” (through smoke). Still used in religious rituals at this time, it was also widely used to anoint the body. By the 1st century AD, Rome used about 2,800 tons of imported frankincense and 550 tons of myrrh a year, though moralists like Pliny the Elder condemned its excessive use.
After the fall of Rome, Europeans continued to turn their back on perfume well into the Middle Ages, though it flourished elsewhere in the world, such as
India, China and the Middle East. Things changed in Europe, however, when in Modena, Italy, a breakthrough led to the production of a scented alcohol close to 95% proof, which became known as “Aqua Mirabilis” (wonder water) and by the tail end of the 14th century liquid perfumes had replaced solid ones. But it was in Hungary in 1370 that natural fragrance as we know it today was really born. The story goes that Queen Elizabeth of Hungary was offered a fusion of aromatics as an “elixir of youth”, and the trend took off. Well, she did end up marrying the King of Poland at the age of 72!
The epicentre of perfumery moved to France thanks to Queen Catherine de’ Medici, who married King Henry II in 1533. The French already used scented sachets, but Catherine introduced them to scented gloves from her native Tuscany, used to mask the unpleasant aroma of poorly tanned leather. Louis XIV – nicknamed “the sweetest smelling king of all” despite being said to have taken only three baths in his life – commissioned a new perfume for each day of the week. Napoleon Bonaparte seemingly adopted this obsession; he had a standing order with his perfumer, Chardin, for 50 bottles of cologne a month! An order not to be sniffed at . . .
morals. Queen Victoria was “not amused” by the overuse of fragrance, though she herself wore the heady scent “Fleurs de Bulgarie” throughout her reign. It combined Bulgarian rose, musk, ambergris and bergamot, and an updated version is a bestseller today.
From Jermyn Street, down St James Street, London’s perfume trail leads you to the world’s oldest barber shop, Truefitt & Hill. Founded in 1805, Truefitt heralded a new age of male cleanliness and hygiene. Its first fragrance was re-named “1805”, originally called “Palmerston Bouquet” after the Prime Minister. “Spanish Leather” was their second fragrance, created in 1814. The first citrus fragrance, “West Indian Limes”, followed. Its pomades were salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic.
French-born Eugène Rimmel (1820-1887) worked in his father’s fragrance shop in Bond Street before opening his own premises in 1834. He sold mouthwash, “toilet vinegar” (an emollient) and mascara allegedly made from fish scales. His Book of Perfume was published in 1865.
Rimmel advertised by fragrant magazine inserts and scenting theatre programmes. His sons took over the business, now a cosmetics company.
The Crown Perfumery was founded in 1872 by William Sparks Thomson, a maker of crinolines and corsets. He invented reviving lavender salts for ladies whose corsets were too tight. Queen Victoria allowed her own crown’s image to top the fragrance bottles. Crown products were in the first-class cabins on the Titanic, and Amelia Earhart used lavender salts on her solo Atlantic flight in 1932. The company was taken over by Clive Christian in 1999 and sells the world’s most expensive perfume, “No1
Passant Guardant”, which is an eye-watering £143,000 for 30 mls.
Meanwhile, on the Continent, fragrances such as “Jicky”, named after Aimé Guerlain’s pet dog, were being produced. This led to far more complicated and bolder fragrances, culminating in the launch of Chanel No 5 in 1921 by couturier Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. The scent was a game-changer thanks to its generous use of aldehydes, which give a champagne-like sparkle to a fragrance.
With thanks to perfumesociety.org.