The Story of Perfume

De Feydeau (The Herbarium of Marie Antoinette), an instructor at the Versailles School of Perfumers, delivers a lush bouquet of knowledge in this wide-ranging book, based on extensive research. Her account begins in ancient Mesopotamia with archaeological evidence of perfume use, then travels through time and around the world to chronicle millennia of human fascination with the power of scent, covering topics like perfume bottle design, fragrance ingredients, and celebrity endorsements. De Feydeau describes perfume’s shift from sacred to secular: first used in rituals, later for therapeutic and medicinal purposes, it eventually became associated with fashion and style. The spice trade was also the perfume trade, stimulating international commerce in rare ingredients of all kinds, and now fragrance fuels worldwide markets for European luxury brands. De Feydeau divvies her chapters up into interrelated blocks with headings that let audiences read cover-to-cover or dip in and out. Color images adorn every page, offering substantial information in a glamorous volume that also looks great on coffee tables.