BIRTH OF PERFUME

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 42, 17 August 1929, Page 20

BIRTH OF PERFUME

A FASCINATING INDUSTRY

Perfume, perfume! The bottled fragrance of a thousand flowers. So still and of small account while captive on my lady's aresing'table, yet taking the wings of divine enchantment when once released and sprayed upon her hair.

Wherein lies its secret? (asks Jean Butt in the "Woman's Journal). None can say. It baffles the imagination. But we can see where it is born, away up in the Maritime Alps behind Nice, in the little town of Grasse. There, looking down upon the glorious Cote D'Azur,;under, a blue, blue sky, amid bright sunshine,- millions of 'flowers bloom and th- i' die to give it birth. The fascinating industry of perfumery dates back to the sixteenth century. It was introduced in Grasse by a M. Tombarelli, sent there by Catherine de Medici to found a laboratory. This spot was chosen owing to the excellent quality of the earth and the warm, temperate climate.

Grasse stands, as it were, in a chaplet of .flower gardens. All the hillsides are covered with floral gardens, covering about 50,000 acres and changing colour from month to month —a sight of indescribable beauty. This is. the birthplace of perfume, the paradise from which it gathers its romance. Wave upon wave of colour, in riotous profusion, greets the visitor, and persuades her that never before have the fragrance and colour-perfection of blossoms been truly realised. And over it all the sun ' shines brilliantly in a cloudless sky. , . There are' several methods ■of extracting scent, and they vary according to the flowers. One of the most usual consists in putting fresh flowers in contact with grease.

First, beef and pork grease are melt

Ed together, and then very carefully purified. When tho mixture has hardened, it is laid on both sides of glass frames about an inch thick. Every morning the petals of fresh flowers arc laid on the' grease, which absorbs the scent. This takes from 24 to 4S hours, after which the petals are taken away and replaced by 'fresh ones. ■ i

•This .process is repeated over and over again until'-lib of grease has absorbed the essence of 31b of flowers. The perfumed fat is then called pomade.