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Perfumery Through The Ages
Part 1 – Introduction and Antiquity
Introduction:
Some of the relics of human history discovered in recent years strongly suggest that the use of fragrance for purposes of personal adornment is likely to date from pre-Egyptian times, more than 5000 years before the birth of Christ
create your own fragrance
The paintings themselves bear witness to remarkably high levels of aesthetic sensibility and technical skill and exemplify the strength even in primitive mankind of a desire for self-expression: the natural human urge to translate personal feelings, experiences and ideas into forms in which they can be communicated meaningfully to others, that has, over the centuries, given rise to the fine arts.
Communication through the sense of smell has become the province of an art, the art of perfumery.
In terms of human endeavour, a fine perfume or create your own fragrance represents the culmination of many years of study, experience and research on the part of a master-perfumer, whose work is made possible through the medium of materials which themselves speak of outstanding achievements in the natural sciences and in technology.
It is by any standard of comparison a truly enormous step from the gathering of blossoms for their fragrance to the create your own fragrance of a captivating, modern perfume yet. aesthetically, the purpose of these two activities is essentially the same: the creation of pleasure through the sense of smell.
Whereas, however, the flowers of the countryside need no more than an agreeable environment in which to grow and to manufacture their fragrances or create your own fragrance, the production of even the simplest of man-made perfumes has always required expertise in preparing the necessary ingredients, and creative flair in successfully bringing them together in perfect harmony.
Today, these procedures demand the resources of a great and complex industry. Although the work of the perfumer is more often than not concentrated upon creating perfumes for consumer products that must above all be competitive in the market-place, no lesser skill is required for their realisation than for the production of the latest in fashion perfumes if they are to be true representations of the perfumer’s art.
Antiquity
The art of making best perfume, it is believed, originated many thousands of years ago, soon after primitive man had learned how to make and control fire, for then it was inevitable that sooner or later he would find that parts of certain plants when allowed to smoulder gave off pleasing aromas.
Notable among materials of this nature, wherever they occurred, would have been Sandalwood, Cinnamon bark, the roots of Calamus and Vetiver, and resinous substances such as Myrrh, Frankincense (known also as Olibanum), and Benzoin, all of which when thrown upon an open fire soon produce odours which today we would describe as ‘heavy’ or ‘sombre’ and which, it should be carefully noted, are quite different from the odours of the corresponding unheated materials and from the odours of their essential oils or extracts.
From antiquity until very recent times, the belief seems to have been almost universal that mankind was created by gods, or by God, whose power to control nature and man’s destiny was infinite, yet whose providence was capable of being influenced by worship, sacrifice and intercession.
For the purpose of fulfilling this latter requirement there developed the practice of burning incense, probably the first form of man-made perfume, which was prepared from ingredients of the kinds mentioned above by the pagan priests of antiquity.
The incense employed in the churches and temples of today consists of Olibanum, or mixtures of similar oleoresins with aromatic woods, and it is in reference to this source of fragrance that the Latin expression per fumum, which means ‘through smoke’, gave rise to the word ‘perfume’
In seeking to honour and find favour with the Deity, it was natural that the offering of gifts of rarity should come to be regarded as an essential part of religious observance, and that importance should be attached to the creation of a physical atmosphere appropriate to the attendant ceremonies.
