Лако-красочные материалы — производство

Napoleon Bonaparte loved aromas, even dispelling a revolution with his ‘whiff of grapeshot’. Hailing from Corsica, Bonaparte liked the fresh citrus and herbal smells, and favoured Eau de Cologne, using by all accounts several bottles a day and more than 60 a month! In an echo back to the days of the French King Henry, he too extolled Josephine by messenger from his campaigns not to wash as he was returning home (the anecdotal accepted origin of the name for ‘Je Reviens’).

Josephine, a Creole from Martinique, employed a different potpourri of smells. She favoured animalics, and was particularly fond of musk oil, to the point that when Napoleon left her for another woman, she smeared the inside walls and curtainings of their house, Malmaison, with the all-pervading tenacious smell as a constant reminder of her. Needless to say, Napoleon was not too enamoured of that Parthian shot, but he still nevertheless kept a place in his heart for Josephine.

The old warrior carried a necklace with her cameo portrait and a pressed violet, one of her favourite flowers, around with him, and on her death visited her grave to strew it with violets. One of his own dying

wishes was to be buried in a certain spot at St Helena where his soul would be soothed by the sweet smell of tuberose.

Queen Victoria can be credited with two ‘smell’ revolutions that hit Britain. The first involved her dress style, which often in casual mode featured a knitted shawl. The shawls she wore were steeped in patchouli, imbuing a rich woody fragrance to the garment. Since half the populace wished to emulate the monarch, patchouli shawls were de rigueur; this is one of the first instances of smell being used as a product plus in the marketing of a fashion item.

Victoria’s second claim to fame was in marrying Prince Albert from the German house of Saxe-Coburg. In doing so that marvellous custom of the Christmas tree, long favoured in Central Europe and Scandina­via, was brought into British homes. The Christian festival of Christ­mas made much of the bringing of greenery into the home, as this signalled the return of springtime and the renewed growth of plant life on which we all depend. The Christmas tree brings an evocative smell of nature to life in our households, and along with clove, cinnamon, candle wax, mistletoe, holly and a cornucopia of scents, ensures that the memory of a merry Christmas is retained.

The wearing of perfume itself, however, was strictly controlled; just a little dab, or carried on a kerchief, never on one’s person, was the rule of the day. Victorian ladies had to be ‘proper’ and scent was too evocative to be worn by a lady! As the Victorian era drew to a close, new names cropped up to cater for the mass-market demand in quality and reliability of scents. Scientists and artisans developed into perfumers of both integrity and repute. To famous names such as Lillie Yardley, Lentheric, and Floris were added Savoury and Moores, Atkinsons, Chardin, Crown, Coty, Hougibant, Guerlain, Roger and Gallet, Penhaligon and Piver; names which are familiar in households today.

Perfumery developed in three fundamental ways: the technique used, the structure and synthetics employed and the industrialization (massi — fication) of the process.