A History of Fragrances

FRAGRANCES Brian Moeran A history of fragrances BRIAN MOERAN Institut for Interkulturel Kommunikation og Ledelse Copenhagen Business School Porcelænshaven 7 (Rosenvilla) Frederiksberg, DK-2000, Denmark Over several millennia, incense has been put to religious, ABSTRACT: While we think of fragrance primarily in terms of practical, symbolic and medical uses. It was burned in modern perfumes, smell itself is a crucial component in the religious rites in Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, make-up of our social and cultural world. It is used to Hebrew, Maya, Minoan Cretan, Parthian, Phoenician, discriminate between gods and humans, men and women, Roman, Shang Dynasty Chinese, even - eventually - in high and low classes, and different races. Old habits die Christian rites of worship. Its smoke has given rise to the word hard. The practice of burning incense in ancient China is perfume (from the Latin per fumum): fragrant resins burned replicated in the practice of letting smoke inform the world “through smoke”, creating a physical pathway between that a new Pope has been selected; modern perfume heaven and earth to communicate with the gods above. advertising promises repeat performances of Cleopatra’s Incense has thus had a symbolical relationship to prayer (7). seduction of Mark Antony by means of fragrant oils. This Is it any surprise, then, that the assembly of cardinals, article looks at the role of famous people in the formation of gathered to elect a new Pope, should signal agreement on the history of fragrances. their choice by lighting a fire and sending out smoke through a chimney in the Vatican for all outside to see? The Pope, like the kings of ancient Assyria, is an intermediary Smell lies at the very heart of culture and civilization. It between people and gods, separated from each by “holy affects us physically and emotionally, activating memory, fire”. aiding social bonding, and warning us of danger (primarily From ancient times, the gods have smelled “sweet” and with regard to food and diseases). Above all, however, smell incense was seen to be the very sweat of the gods that had is cultural. It underpins cosmologies, social hierarchies and fallen to earth, a “divine odour”. The words of Buddha were political structures all over the world (1). Those who smell believed to be fragrant; Mohammed prized incense and good are by definition “good”, and those who smell bad perfume above all else; and the gifts brought to Christ at his are “inferior”. The history of fragrances, then, is in large part birth included two of the most precious incense materials: a history of the practices of elites. This is as true of Egyptian frankincense and myrrh (signifying divinity and persecution pharaohs, the Heian court in Japan, and French kings and respectively). Until the mid-18th century, these two spices emperors, as it is of contemporary society with its celebrity were still presented by the sovereign of England, and later perfumes. Putting on a fragrance is still a magical act (2). by two of the Lord Chamberlain’s officials, on Twelfth Day at Fragrance is so volatile, fleeting and impermanent in form the Chapel Royal in St. James’s Palace (8). that it cannot be captured adequately by language – other This “odour of sanctity” extended to humans. The Egyptians than in terms of its cause (the smell of roses, dung, or myrrh) believed that a cadaver would only pass on to the next life or effect (a smell that is romantic, dangerous, or mysterious) if it were richly fragrant, although this belief was probably (3). Indeed, its very elusiveness tells a story of the transience stimulated by a practical need to prevent it from putrefying of humanity. And yet it is used to classify and fix socio- in a warm climate. In the Middle Ages in Europe, if a sweet cultural categories of all kinds: the sacred and profane, life smell issued forth from a corpse when a tomb was opened, and death, hygiene, appearance, aesthetics, sexuality, it was held to be proof of sainthood. Saint Theresa of Ávila is gender, class, race, and morality, as well as social status (4). said to have emitted four different odours of sanctity. Any history of fragrances has to start with incense, the But a sweet fragrance also had its place in this-worldly earliest recorded use of which seems to have been in activities, as advertising and the modern use of perfume ancient China in about 8,000 B.C.. From there it spread to attest: A declaration of independence (9); all out glam (10); India, and thence - in the Hindus’ search for frankincense - Sheer sensuality (11). Most famously, when it comes to the to Egypt in about 3,600 B.C. These three ancient civilizations fragrance of love (12), Cleopatra had her body massaged made prolific use of incense whose ingredients were also with fragrant oils, and her ship’s sails doused in rose water used to make the body smell fragrantly (5). Their (and other and myrrh, before meeting - and seducing - Mark Anthony. civilizations’) search for the aromatic materials used in Most infamously, the English Parliament passed an act in incense and later in perfumes spawned the discovery of 1770 annulling any marriage into which a man had been new lands and the development of trade routes beyond the “seduced” and “betrayed” by “scents, paints, cosmetic horizons of the known world (6). Here the history of washes, articificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, fragrances becomes an exploration of, and continued hoops, high heeled shoes, bolstered hips” (13). resort to, the exotic. The separation of perfume from incense occurred with the 6 FRAGRANCES - Supplement to Household and Personal Care TODAY - n 1/2010 FRAGRANCES development of distillation, evaporation and filtration various kinds - a passion that led to the emergence of the techniques towards the end of the first millennium. first major perfume houses in Paris: Houbigant and L.T. Piver. An Arab perfumer, Avicenna, pioneered the distillation of Although perfumes and other luxury goods were frowned rose water, which was used on the body, as well as for upon during the French Revolution, attitudes changed perfuming rooms and interior gardens (14). This led to again when Napoleon Bonaparte became the first Emperor fragrance playing a more significant role in people’s of France in 1804. Famous for his addiction to eau de everyday lives. Arab perfumers set up business in Granada cologne - he is said to have consumed sixty half-gallon when the Moors took over the south of Spain and, from the bottles a month (16) - he imposed its use on his family and eleventh century, the crusaders brought back knowledge of court and so instigated a renewed fashion for fragrances, Oriental fragrances and their use to Europe. which now extended to the newly emergent bourgeoisie. With the refinement of alcohol from around the turn of the The refreshing blend of rosemary, neroli (orange flower), 14th century, it became possible to distil light, floral bergamot and lemon that makes up eau de cologne was perfumes. The first alcohol-based eau de toilette, l’Eau de la used in numerous ways: diluted in bath water, mixed with Reine de Hongrie, was manufactured from around 1390 in wine, taken as a mouthwash, and even eaten on a sugar Montpellier in southern France. While Venice was then the lump in times of stress. Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, was major trading port for spices and other fragrance materials, herself fond of heavy, animal scents and spent a fortune Montpellier - and later Grasse - gradually became a major every year at her favourite perfume makers. When production centre of both materials and perfumes. summarily dismissed, in an act of olfactory revenge she Originally known for its gloves - which were perfumed in drenched the walls of her dressing room with so much musk, order to overcome the smell of urine in which the leather civet, vanilla and ambergris (smells that the Emperor was softened - Grasse benefited from a climate that disliked) that their combined fragrance still hung in the air of enabled the cultivation of exotic flowers like jasmine, the château de Malmaison seventy years later. orange and tuberose used in perfume making. The twin Napoleon’s influence extended well beyond fashion, professions of glove making and perfumery did not become however. He encouraged the break-up of the old guild of separate until 1724 (15). glove-makers and perfumers, so that perfumers could In many ways, the history of fragrances is the history of independently create any scent or perfumed product they famous personages. Louis XIV was responsible for the wished (17). His edict led to a rapid increase in the number popularity of eau de cologne when it became fashionable of new perfume makers in France. Some were located in for courtiers at the “perfumed court” to change their Paris, but many others set themselves up in the town of fragrance every day. Marie Antoinette, known as the Grasse (the “city of perfumes”) in Provence, where they “Queen of Flowers”, also had a passion for perfumes of could have direct access to the materials they required. The FRAGRANCES - Supplement to Household and Personal Care TODAY - n 1/2010 7 FRAGRANCES development of an irrigation system around Grasse in the enough for them to feel imbued with a sense of luxury and 1850s enabled extended cultivation of flowers like rose, exclusive social status. Once they have taken this first step, it jasmine, and lavender used in perfume manufacture. is reasoned, they will purchase accessories (belts, Upgrading of facilities at the port of Cannes also allowed handbags, scarves) by the same fashion houses and then, increased imports of other important perfume ingredients finally, the expensive clothes that they produce and such as patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver and ylang ylang, reproduce every season.

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