JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS circumference or radial stellar format is expressed, and from such sources patterns are available which lend themselves to a harmonious presenta- tion, and therefore a deeper under- standing, of the grouping of sweet scents, blossom perfumes and "frag- grances" in general. Reverting, however, to Piesse-- we find him continuing his theme, by remarking: "From the odours already known, we may produce, by uniting them in proper proportion, the smell of almost any flower, except Jasmin." He further adds a paragraph which I think is of con- siderable practical importance: "The odours of some flowers resemble others so nearly, that we are almost inclined to believe them to be the same thing .... " Regarding the average components of a perfume composition to-day, we have perhaps become accustomed to the position in the formula of the support afforded by the isolates and synthetics to the natural essential oils and flower absolutes, so that we can note with interest the comment made by Marcel Billot (see Soap, Perfumery-and Cosmetics, January 1949) that, in bygone days, with only five or six elementary floral tones, the perfumer nevertheless managed to reproduce the complete gamut of the floral odours. Obviously the recipe-books dealing with the "manufacture of perfume for the handkerchief" should pro- vide some idea, upon examination for name and frequency, of these floral primaries hence I have been able to produce a useful collation by abstracting from Piesse (1885) and such later texts as "Perfumes and their Preparation," by G. W. Askinson (1907) strangely enough, from the almost wholesale collection to be found in Erich Walter's "Manual for the Essence Industry" (1916) as also from the "Preparation of Perfumes and Cosmetics" of J.P. Durvelle (1923), and finally from the practical r•sum• in the Cher•ist and Druggist's "Pharma- ceutical Formulas" (10th edition, 1934). OLD-STYLE PERFUMERY COMPOUNDING It must be observed, however, that the technique of the "Victorian" perruiner was based upon the blend- ing of extraits or spirituous solutions made from such floral pomades as cassie, jasmin, jonquil, mignonette, rose, tuberose and violet, which affords some idea of the front line materials then available. As forriflers, there were also the "essences" or "spirits," these being alcoholic dilutions of various per- centages of such items as rose otto, neroli petales, rose geranium and other essential oils, and finally there was also available such apothecary's tinctures as ambergris, benzoin, civet, myrrh, vanilla and tonka. In marked distinction to certain aspects of the present. day technique for the production of quickly matured perfumes and toilet waters, in which the concentrate is com- mitted to raw or slightly pre-fixed spirit, the perfumer of the "eighties" had to expend considerable time 182

SIMPLE FLORAL PERFUMES over the preparation of these ex- tracts, so that the subsequent blend- ing was performed with well-matured dilutions and suitably-aged tinctures hence the tonal purity and beauty of these "triple extracts" (as they were often termed) when compared with some examples of conglomer- ates, merely provided with an alco- holic vehicle, which are encountered to-day. From my gleanings among the Victorian simple floral handkerchief perfumes, as epitomised in Table 1, several points of outstanding interest emerge. In the first instance, the listing comprises a representative collection of what may be termed the "popular" florals. I reiterate "popu- lar" because it must be recollected that in the early Victorian era, valentines, panoramic birthday and other greetings cards, birthday date books, autograph albums, oracular TABLE I Composition of the Victorion oe1orol Perfumes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Units 1 Carnation ... x x x x x x x 7 2 Frangipanni ... x x x • x x x 6 3 Heliotrope ...... x x x x x x 6 4 Honeysuckle ... x x x x x • x 6 -- , 5 Lilac ...... x x x x x x x 7 ' 6 Muguet ...... x x x ix x x x x 7 May Blossom ... x x x x x x x 7 -- 8 Narcissus ...... x x x x x 5 0 NewMownHay ... x x x..x x x x 7 i 10 Night-Scented Stock x x x x x x x I x x 9 .i __ 11 Stephanotis ... x x x x x: x 6 12 Sweet7Pe• ...... x x x x x x x x 8 13 Trefle ...... x x x x x 8 14 Violet ...... x x x x x I x x 7 15 x, VMlflower ...... x x x x x x x x x x 9 Frequency ... 15 13 12 12 10 10 9 5 5 5 4 2 2 103 183