1855 The Art of Perfumery, and the Methods of Obtaining the Odours of Plants; With Instructions For the Manufacture of Perfumes For the Handkerchief, Scented Powders, Odorous Vinegars, Dentifrices, Pomatums, Cosmetiques, Perfumed Soap, ETC.

Description

Colour Plates, First Edition, Illustrated, Rebound, Very Scarce

The very scarce first edition of this work, last seen at auction in 2016.

Half-title is present.

Illustrated with an engraved title page, three plates, and twenty-seven in-text engravings. 

Twenty-four pages of adverts to the rear.

Collated, complete.

A very important early book on the methodology behind the extraction methods and blending in perfumery. 

The author, George William Septimus Piesse, was an important chemist and perfumer, a leading innovator of modern perfume. In particular Piesse invented the concept of notes in perfumery, which is still in universal use today. The notes describe the scents of the perfumes upon application.

In this work, Piesse expresses the unique view that the scent of smell can be described in a way correlating to musical notes on a diatonic scale. He also created a scale to categorise and rank the perfumery notes by octaves

Piesse, with this work, popularised the use of synthetic materials in perfumery. 

This first edition includes an appendix on the colours of flowers and artificial fruit essences, as well as interesting information on the manufacture of perfumes to be used in particular on handkerchiefs, cosmetics, perfumes soap, scented powders, and more.