by Mandy Aftel
69 “The opulently rounded shapes”: Jellinek, The Psychological Basis of Perfumery, p. 54.
70 “The opulently rounded shapes”: Jellinek, The Psychological Basis of Perfumery, p. 54.
71 alchemical symbols are susceptible: Titus Burckhardt, Alchemy (Dorset, England: Element Books, 1987), p. 155.
72 “Graphic images of Coniunctio”: Mark Haeffner, Dictionary of Alchemy (London: Aquarian, 1991), p. 62.
73 “the concept of harmonizing”: Haeffner, Dictionary of Alchemy, p. 62.
74 “Flotillas of sturdy vessels”: Ernest Guenther, The Essential Oils, vol. 4 (New York: Van Nostrand, 1950), p. 397.
75 “clear eye”: William A. Poucher, Perfumes and Cosmetics (London: Chapman and Hall, 1923), p. 127.
76 “All is permitted”: Colette, “Fragrance,” p. 296.
77 “Despite all the crises”: Marie-Christine Grasse, Jasmine (Grasse: Parkstone Publishers, 1996). p. 63.
78 It takes more: Grasse, Jasmine, p. 50.
CHAPTER 5. THE SUBLIME AND THE VOLATILE: HEAD NOTES
79 The alchemical symbol means “volatile.”
80 “the fluid state”: Gaston Bachelard, Air and Dreams (Dallas: Dallas Institute Publications, 1988), p. 4.
81 “With air”: Bachelard, Air and Dreams, p. 8.
82 “The absolute absence”: Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), p. 5.
83 “Habit”: Bachelard, Air and Dreams, p. 11.
84 “It is no mere chance”: Edmond Roudnitska, “The Shapes of Fragrances,” Dragoco Report, January 1976, p. 27.
CHAPTER 6. AN OCTAVE OF ODORS: THE ART OF COMPOSITION
85 The alchemical symbol means “quintessence.”
86 Colette’s “Fragrance”: As quoted in “Colette’s Salon” by Robert Reilly, Vogue, November 1998, p. 296.
87 National Geographic issue: Cathy Newman, “Perfume: The Essence of Illusion,” in National Geographic, October 1998, pp. 94–119, later published as Cathy Newman, Perfume (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1998).
88 “In my early days”: Jean Carles, “A Method of Creation in Perfumery,” in Perfume, ed. William 1. Kaufman (New York: Dutton and Co., 1974), p. 173.
89 Maupassant: Quoted in Paolo Rovesti, In Search of Perfumes Lost (Venice: Blow-up, 1980), p. 42.
90 a long, glorious, and often mystical tradition: Roland Hunt, Fragrant and Radiant Symphony (London: C. W. Daniel and Co., 1938), p. 13.
91 “Some perfumes are as fragrant”: Charles Baudelaire, “Correspondences,” The Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen, trans. William H. Crosby (Brockport, NY: BOA Editions, 1991), p. 31.
92 “When the composer writes”: Edmond Roudnitska, “The Art of Perfumery,” in Perfumes: Art, Science, and Technology, ed. P. M. Müller and D. Lamparsky (London: Elsevier, 1991), pp. 40, 41.
93 “Odors that produce”: Arnold J. Cooley, Instructions and Precautions Respecting the Selection and Use of Perfumes, Cosmetics and Other Toilet Articles (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1873), p. 556.
94 “The composer will start thinking”: Roudnitska, “The Art of Perfumery,” p. 38.
95 “The shape of a perfume”: Edmond Roudnitska, “The Shapes of Fragrances,” Dragoco Report, January 1976, p. 18.
96 “This form must be considered”: Roudnitska, “The Art of Perfumery,” p. 8.
97 “For intuition is no miracle”: Roudnitska, “The Shapes of Fragrances,” p. 23.
98 Bergson on intuition: Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1992), pp. 32, 161, 162.
99 arcanum: Marinus Rulandus, A Lexicon of Alchemy, 1612 (Reprint, Kila, MT: Kessinger Publications, 1999), p. 36.
100 “In everything that is graceful”: Bergson, The Creative Mind, p. 243.
CHAPTER 7. FLACON DE SEDUCTION: PERFUME AND THE BOUDOIR
101 The alchemical symbol indicates “mix together.”
102 “Celestial Bed”; Eric Maple, The Magic of Perfume (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973), p. 49.
103 “Death and destruction”: Roy Bedichek, The Sense of Smell (London: Michael Joseph, 1960), p. 184.
104 “The vegetable world”: Bedichek, The Sense of Smell, p. 180.
105 “How strange it was”: Herman Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund (New York: Bantam, 1971), p. 95.
106 Iwan Bloch: Iwan Bloch, Odoratus Sexualis (New York: Panurge Press, 1934), p. 229.
107 “The scented profile”: Alain Corbin, The Foul and the Fragrant (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986), p. 205.
108 Havelock Ellis on body odor: Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Selection in Man (Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Company, 1905), p. 62.
109 “With the refinements”: Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn (New York: Grove Press, 1961), p. 132.
110 “discover some Drug”: Benjamin Franklin, On Perfumes (New York: At the Sign of the Blue-Behinded Ape, 1929), pp. 12–13.
111 “Sexuality is the totality”: Paul Jellinek, The Psychological Basis of Perfumery (London: Chapman and Hall, 1997), p. 9.
112 “out of your own experience”: Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962), p. 35.
113 As befits a zoologist: D. Michael Stoddart, The Scented Ape (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 163.
114 a fascinating experiment: Jellinek, The Psychological Basis of Perfumery, p. 18.
115 Paolo Rovesti recollects: Paolo Rovesti, In Search of Perfumes Lost (Venice: Blow-up, 1980) p. 37.
116 three categories: Jellinek, The Psychological Basis of Perfumery, pp. 145–46.
CHAPTER 8. PERFUMED WATERS: THE REVERIE OF THE BATH
117 The alchemical symbol means “sea salt.”
118 “In his inmost recesses”: Gaston Bachelard, Water and Dreams (Dallas: Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, 1983), p. 6.
119 “Let the most absent-minded”: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (New York: Library of America, 1991), pp. 26–27.
120 “I guess I feel about a hot bath”: Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), p. 22.
121 “I was trembling with cold”: Colette, Break of Day (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1961), p. 114.
122 “The necessary thing”: Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962), p. 46.
123 “For the soul”: Bachelard, Water and Dreams, p. 104.
124 a mid-nineteenth-century Turkish women’s bath: Françoise De Bonneville, The Book of the Bath (New York: Rizzoli, 1998), p. 52.
125 a visit to Baden-Baden: De Bonneville, The Book of the Bath, p. 38.
126 “I always experience”: Bachelard, Water and Dreams, p. 7.
CHAPTER 9. AROMATICS OF THE GODS: PERFUME AND THE SOUL
127 The alchemical symbol means “spirit.”
128 Chrism: Constance Classen, The Color of Angels (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 45.
129 “Throughout the sixteenth”: Eric Maple, The Magic of Perfume (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973), p. 35.
130 “That the human body”: Annick Le Guérer, Scent (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1992), p. 120.
131 “It also serves”: Le Guérer, Scent, p. 123.
132 “When the alchemists”: Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 274.
133 a nineteenth-century recipe: Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, Rose Recipes from Olden Times (New York: Dover, 1973), p. 45.
Bibliography
As I got interested in perfume, I began to scout antiquarian book fairs for old books on the subject. Over the years I have accumulated a significant collection, more than two hundred volumes in all, their dates of publication spanning the years 1720 to 2000. Their tones range from the academic to the speculative to the merely decorative, a testament to the staying power—the tenacity, if you will—of human fascination with scent and the desire to communicate it in writing. The topic tended to attract the self-taught, the passionate, and the idiosyn
cratic, and on the page the authors come across as at once learned and naive, often brilliant, occasionally inspired, and sometimes downright lunatic. There is charming and eccentric information to be gleaned from almost all of them.
Some of these books are easy to come by, others scarcer than hens’ teeth. Even the rarer ones turn up from time to time at dealers, book fairs, and on the rare-book sites on the Internet.
GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS TO PERFUME
Many of these books rehash the same information. Morris’s book is very well written and thorough and is highly recommended. Kaufman’s is a large coffee-table book with beautiful photographs of ingredients in their natural state and a wonderful interview with and essay by the great perfume creator and theorist Edmond Roudnitska. Ellis’s and Kennett’s books give the broad sweep of perfume’s history along with some well-chosen details.
Ellis, Aytoun. The Essence of Beauty. London: Secker and Warburg, 1960.
Genders, Roy. Perfume Through the Ages. New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1972.
Groom, Nigel. The Perfume Handbook. London: Chapman and Hall, 1992.
Jessee, Jill. Perfume Album. Huntington, NY: Robert E. Krieger, 1951.
Kaufman, William I., ed. Perfume. New York: Dutton and Co., 1974.
Kennett, Frances. History of Perfume. London: Harrap, 1975.
Morris, Edwin T. Fragrance. Greenwich, CT: E. T. Morrison and Co., 1984.
Redgrove, H. Stanley. Scent and All About It. New York: Chemical Publishing Company, 1928.
Rovesti, Paolo. In Search of Perfumes Lost. Venice: Blow-up, 1980.
Sagarin, Edward. The Science and Art of Perfumery. New York: Greenberg, 1945.
Thompson, C.J.S. The Mystery and Lure of Perfume. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1927.
Trueman, John. The Romantic Story of Scent. London: Aldus Books, 1975.
Verrill, A. Hyatt. Perfumes and Spices. Clinton, MA: L. C. Page, 1940.
ILLUSTRATED GENERAL PERFUME BOOKS
These sumptuous books lap up the extraordinary graphic possibilities inherent in a book on perfume. Coty is an extremely beautiful book about a truly original and fascinating man. Annette Green and Linda Dyett’s book on perfume jewelry is an inspiration to anyone in search of imaginative ways to package solid perfume. Jasmine has beautiful photos of the flower which evoke its rich history in perfumery.
Barille, Elisabeth. Coty. Paris: Editions Assouline, 1997.
Barille, Elisabeth, and Catherine Laroze. The Book of Perfume. Paris: Flammarion, 1995.
De Bonneville, Françoise. The Book of the Bath. New York: Rizzoli, 1998.
Ettinger, Roseann. Compacts and Smoking Accessories. West Chester, PA: Schiffer, 1991.
Grasse, Marie-Christine. Jasmine. Grasse: Parkstone Publishers, 1996.
Green, Annette, and Linda Dyett. Secrets of Aromatic Jewelry. Paris: Flammarion, 1998.
Haarmann and Reimer. The H and R Fragrance Guide to Feminine and Masculine Notes. Hamburg: Gloss Verlag, 1991.
Heal, Ambrose. London Tradesmen’s Cards of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Dover, 1968.
———. The Signboards of Old London Shops. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1972.
Irvine, Susan. Perfume: The Creation and Allure of Classic Fragrance. New York: Crescent, 1995.
Müller, Julia. The H and R Book of Perfume. Hamburg: Gloss Verlag, 1992.
Newman, Cathy. Perfume: The Art and Science of Scent. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1998.
Pavia, Fabienne. The World of Perfume. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1995.
Poltarnees, Walleran. Design in the Service of Beauty. Seattle: Blue Lantern, 1994.
CLASSICS
If you choose to study natural perfumery seriously, these books will be your primers. Arctander is a fluent writer with definite opinions about perfume ingredients and an original, descriptive vocabulary; no one rivals his ability to communicate the nuances of smell. His book is quite expensive but still in print; it is worth checking out used-book dealers and Web sites for a used copy. Clifford’s is a rather odd but charming book published by a Boston pharmacy in the late nineteenth century. It is a discussion of perfume ingredients wrapped around the story of an imaginary adventurer, with advertisements for remedies and perfumes between the chapters. Eugene Rimmel was a London perfumer at the turn of the century, and his book is filled with woodcuts illustrating perfumes and also very stylized hairdos. (He must have been a frustrated hairdresser.) His book and that of Piesse, another perfumer, are the cornerstones upon which all other perfume books have built their information.
Arctander, Steffen. Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin. Elizabeth, NJ: Self-published, 1960.
Clifford, F. S. A Romance of Perfume Lands, or the Search for Capt. Jacob Cole. Boston: Clifford, 1881.
Franklin, Benjamin. On Perfumes. New York: At the Sign of the Blue-Behinded Ape, 1929.
Lillie, Charles. The British Perfumer. London: W. Seaman, 1822.
Piesse, G. W. Septimus. The Art of Perfumery. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1867.
Poucher, William A. Perfumes and Cosmetics. London: Chapman and Hall, 1923.
Rimmel, Eugene. The Book of Perfumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1865.
Schimmel and Co. Semi-Annual Reports. Miltitz, Germany: Schimmel and Company, biannually 1887–1915.
PERFUME IN ANTIQUITY
The literature on ancient perfumery opens a very personal window on the rituals and pleasures of life in ancient times. The Fragrant Past gives details of Cleopatra’s perfume workshop from archaeological excavations. Sacred Luxuries is a meticulously researched book that conveys the enormous role of perfume in the religious and domestic life of ancient Egypt through its well-written text and numerous beautiful photographs.
Dayagi-Menndels, Michal. Perfumes and Cosmetics in the Ancient World. Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1989.
Donato, Giuseppe, and Monique Seefried. The Fragrant Past: Perfumes of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. Atlanta: Emory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, 1989.
Groom, Nigel. Frankincense and Myrrh. London: Longman Group Limited, 1981.
Manniche, Lisa. Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy, and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Nostradamus. The Elixirs of Nostradamus. Edited by Knut Boeser. Wakerfield, RI: Moyer Bell, 1996.
CULTURAL HISTORY
This category holds an embarrassment of riches. The Foul and the Fragrant is one of my favorite books for the extraordinary way it weaves scent into the social history of nineteenth-century France. Corbin is a magnificent writer and thinker, able to articulate with vigor and artistry the cultural issues surrounding scent. Aroma is another highly recommended book for its intelligent evocation of the role of fragrance in many cultures throughout history. The Scented Ape is a marvelous study of the biology and culture of human odor.
Classen, Constance, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott. Aroma. London: Routledge, 1994.
Corbin, Alain. The Foul and the Fragrant. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
Dorland, Gabrielle J. Scents Appeal. Mendham, NJ: Wayne Dorland Company, 1993.
Dragoco Reports. Totowa, NJ: Dragoco Inc., 1994–99.
Le Guérer, Annick. Scent. New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1992.
Maple, Eric. The Magic of Perfume. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973.
Rindisbacher, Hans J. The Smell of Books. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1992.
Stoddart, D. Michael. The Scented Ape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
ALCHEMY
Many, many books on alchemy have been published over the years. I have included only those that discuss the parallel processes of psychic transformation. Another great resource for exploring alchemy is the Web site run by Adam McLean, which can by found at www.levity.com/alchemy. Haeffner’s and Gilchrist’s books give a basic introduction to alchemical concepts, and Paracelsus’s writings are a good foundation for understanding the deep philosophy of a
lchemy. An interesting side note: both Redgrove and Thompson wrote introductory books on perfumery as well as on alchemy in the 1920s and 1930s.
Abraham, Lyndy. A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Albertus, Frater. Alchemist’s Handbook. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1974.
Burckhardt, Titus. Alchemy. Dorset, England: Element Books, 1987.
Edinger, Edward F. The Anatomy of the Psyche. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1985.
Fabricus, Johannes. Alchemy. London: Diamond Books, 1976.
Ficino, Marsilio. The Book of Life. Woodstock, CT: Spring Publications, 1996.
Forbes, R. J. A Short History of the Art of Distillation. Boston: E. J. Brill, 1970.
Gilchrist, Cherry. The Elements of Alchemy. London: Element, 1991.
Haeffner, Mark. Dictionary of Alchemy. London: Aquarian, 1991.
Jung, Carl. Mysterium Coniunctionis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.