A short history of perfume, from Bronze Age Cyprus to Chanel N°5

Long before Paris, people on this island were pressing plants into scented oil. The story of perfume passes very close to where we fill our decants.

A workshop near Limassol

At Pyrgos-Mavroraki, a short drive from Limassol, an Italian mission led by the archaeologist Maria Rosaria Belgiorno excavated a Bronze Age industrial site with workshops for olive oil, textiles and metal, and an area its excavators identified as a perfumery. It is generally dated to around 2000 BC, although published dates vary. Researchers later recreated scents from the plants found there, and they were shown at an exhibition in Rome.

The first named perfumer

A cuneiform tablet from Mesopotamia, from around 1200 BC, names a woman called Tapputi as a maker of perfume. She worked with flowers, oil and calamus, which makes her one of the earliest chemists known by name.

Gloves and Grasse

In the sixteenth century the town of Grasse in Provence was known for its leather. Tanned gloves smelled unpleasant, so they were scented, and the local trade gradually moved from gloves to perfume. Grasse remains closely tied to perfumery today.

From Cologne to the laboratory

In the early eighteenth century, Italian perfumers in Cologne made a light citrus water that gave eau de cologne its name. Late in the nineteenth century synthetic materials reached perfumery, and Guerlain’s Jicky of 1889 is often cited as an early example. In 1921 Ernest Beaux composed Chanel N°5, famous for its generous use of aldehydes.

Why it matters today

Perfume has always been about materials and skill, and it still changes on every skin. That is why trying a few millilitres first makes sense, whether the bottle comes from Paris or from a small house.