Creative Chemistry: Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical IndustriesSlosson, Edwin E. (Edwin Emery)
Science
Creative Chemistry: Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries
Slosson, Edwin E. (Edwin Emery)
Chemistry, Technical
It is absurd to object to "artificial" perfumes, for practically all
perfumes now sold are artificial in the sense of being compounded by the
art of the perfumer and whether the materials he uses are derived from
the flowers of yesteryear or of Carboniferous Era is nobody's business
but his. And he does not tell. The materials can be purchased in the
open market. Various recipes can be found in the books. But every famous
perfumer guards well the secret of his formulas and hands it as a legacy
to his posterity. The ancient Roman family of Frangipani has been made
immortal by one such hereditary recipe. The Farina family still claims
to have the exclusive knowledge of how to make Eau de Cologne. This
famous perfume was first compounded by an Italian, Giovanni Maria
Farina, who came to Cologne in 1709. It soon became fashionable and was
for a time the only scent allowed at some of the German courts. The
various published recipes contain from six to a dozen ingredients,
chiefly the oils of neroli, rosemary, bergamot, lemon and lavender
dissolved in very pure alcohol and allowed to age like wine. The
invention, in 1895, of artificial neroli (orange flowers) has improved
the product.
French perfumery, like the German, had its origin in Italy, when
Catherine de' Medici came to Paris as the bride of Henri II. She
brought with her, among other artists, her perfumer, Sieur Toubarelli,
who established himself in the flowery land of Grasse. Here for four
hundred years the industry has remained rooted and the family formulas
have been handed down from generation to generation. In the city of
Grasse there were at the outbreak of the war fifty establishments making
perfumes. The French perfumer does not confine himself to a single
sense. He appeals as well to sight and sound and association. He adds to
the attractiveness of his creation by a quaintly shaped bottle, an
artistic box and an enticing name such as "Dans les Nues," "Le Coeur de
Jeannette," "Nuit de Chine," "Un Air Embaume," "Le Vertige," "Bon Vieux
Temps," "L'Heure Bleue," "Nuit d'Amour," "Quelques Fleurs," "Djer-Kiss."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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