The art of perfumery : and the methods of obtaining odours of plants. With instructions for the manufacture of perfumes ... to which is added an appendix on preparing artificial fruit-essences, etc / [George William Septimus Piesse].

  • Piesse, G. W. Septimus (George William Septimus), 1820-1882.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The art of perfumery : and the methods of obtaining odours of plants. With instructions for the manufacture of perfumes ... to which is added an appendix on preparing artificial fruit-essences, etc / [George William Septimus Piesse]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rose or jonquille, procured by infusing the tuberose pomade in spirit, requires for every pint about one ounce of tincture of storax to be added as a “fixing to the handkerchief. It is also useful in combination with other scents to imitate certain odours of plants: thus it is found in lily of the valley, &c. Storax and Tolu are used in perfumery in the same way as benzoin, namely, by solution in spirit as a tinc- ture. An ounce of tincture of storax, tolu, or benzoin, being added to a pound of any very volatile perfume, gives a degree of permanence to it, and makes it last longer on the handkerchief than it otherwise would : thus, when any perfume is made by the solution of an otto in spirit, it is usual to add to it a small portion of a substance which is less volatile, such as extract of musk, extract of vanilla, ambergris, storax, tolu, orris, vitivert, or benzoin ; the manufacturer using his judg- ment and discretion as to which of these materials are to be employed, choosing, of course, those which are most compatible and in harmony with the odour he is making. This can be ascertained by reference to the Gamut, page (28). Every octave is in harmony. The power which these bodies have of “fixing” a volatile substance, renders them valuable to the per- fumer, independent of their aroma, which is due in many cases to benzoic and cannamic acids, slightly modified by an essential oil peculiar to each substance, and which is taken up by the alcohol, together with a portion of resin. When the perfume is put upon a handkerchief, the most volatile bodies disappear first: thus, after the alcohol has evaporated, the odour of the ottos appears stronger; if it contains any resinous body, the ottos are held in solution, as it were, by the resin, and thus retained on the fabric. Supposing a perfume to be made of otto only, without any “fixing