The Romance of Perfume

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22468, 11 July 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Romance of Perfume

AN INDUSTRY AS OLD AS THE WORLD

PERFUME has played an odd part in the background of civilisation: such a part, indeed, that the literature dealing with it in European languages alone runs into several thousand volurneß. In many of these it is grouped among magic, and the more enchanting branches of what are distrustfully called the black arts. In spite of many theories, perfume, wo may bo sure, had its beginnings, not in any practical use it may nave had for later and more fastidious phases of civilisation, but in its power of mysterious evocation, in creating among primitive peoples and those not so primitive, the most favourable atmosphere tor incantation and tho practice of magic. Perhaps that is why to-day perfume is more than erer before an intrinsic part of every woman s make-up. ri , Even in living memory, did not Seriabin, tho Russian composer, who died during the War, prescribe that certain of his orchestral works should be performed, where possible, to tho accompaniment of perfumes, tanned and wafted through the concert hall, in order to evoke the exact mood in which the composition was written. And what of that other strange man of Septimus Piesso, who, with all "the combined skill of the highei mathematician and the contrapuntalist graded and arranged perfumes according to .a strictly ><gi|||| evolved musical scale of some fifty tones—tho "Odophone JfeggSp*

Ermine revers give a distinctive look to the little cont ot the top left with fascinating sleeves to complete the effect. In the middle is one of the popular three-quarter swaggers, very smart as to tucked shoulder line. Going on to the neat tweed affair at the upper right we note the unusual fur trimming, and a striking element of contrast is also noticeable in the model at the lower left—scarf collars are the very latest. Next door to it is another swagger outfit —in nigger brown with a lemon fleck.

I in which the sharper scents repreI sented the higher notes and the heavier tho lower notes, anci in which harmonious and unharmonious chords were found to be equivalent to pleasant and unpleasant scents respectively? Tho most ancient perfumes of which there is record, and of which mention is made in tho Now Testament, are the gum-resins which trickle and exude from tropical trees. Of such are benzoin, myrrh, opoponax, storax, tolu, which even to-day are found as the basis of incense. It was, however, leit to those somewhat latter-day sybarites, tho Greeks and the Romans, to introduce into the manufacture of scents tho process of distillation which tho Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians, Once introduced into Greece and later to Italy, distillation soon became the means of giving something like permanence to tho thousand and ono sweet-smelling flowers with which tho hillsides' of both countries abound. Wo can imagine with what delight tlixj

Athenian or the Koman unguent-maker first stumbled on ( lie secrets of blending scents, and thus began what is still an unended voyage in tho long history of perfume-making. There are to-day, of course, many ways and means of producing perfumes from flowers and fruits, that is to say, apart from tho manufacture of artificial or synthetic scents by chemical means. In its more primitive forms, such as that practised by the peasants iri many Balkan villages' to-day, perfumo distillation is a simple process. The odour-bearing part of the flowers 'is immersed in water in the bowl of a still resembling an enormous kettle. Tho water is then heated to boilingpoint, when tho ottos (sometimes known as attars) or essences rise with the steam, and are condensed with it in tho pipe of the still. It is, by tho wav, an interesting fact that some of tho blossoms most widely used in perfumery, such as roses, violets, jasmin, jonquils and acacia, yield virtually no essence in distillation. Orange flowers, for instance, when distilled do not produce a perfume in the least resembling orange blossoms. Nor must it bo forgotten that perfumes are by no means exclusively produced from flowers. In fact, the most numerous perfumes are actually those extracted from lemons, oranges and citrons. Again, two age-old ingredients to be found in varying proportions in tho perfumer's art from Solomon's day to our own—musk and civet, are obtained from furred animals bearing their respectW&jm ive names, and both of them are exceedingly potent.