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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Leather Series 2: Scented Leather and its Origins

It wouldn’t be inaccurate to claim that French perfumery owes its birth to the malodorous tanning process and its nauseating smell of decay. Shocking as this statement might sound, it is nonetheless true.

Tanning requires the use of nitrogenous waste to cure hides, to make them fit to be processed for the items the aristocracy requested and to kill bacteria that would infest dead tissue. Even today in places where traditional tanning techniques are used, such as Morocco, there are big basins of human and animal urine and feces, along with various tree barks rich in tannin, where workers have to stand with their feet naked, immersed in this revolting liquid, stretching the shaved hides, making them pliable and soft. The smell is trully insupportable for the wandering tourist and it is not without intense distaste that one has to urgently seek solace in a scented handerkchief or a small bunch of greenery to relieve the nose from the malicious fumes emanating from those ponds of filth.

It was not that dissimilar back during Renaissance times, when treating hides followed this method, the atmosphere of which Atelier Grimal from the “Perfume” coffret by Mugler (based on the novel and movie “Perfume: story of a murderer”) tried to capture.
From Florence and Italy, a stronghold of the European commerce with the East and its aromatic tradition, perfumes came to France through historical personages of the Medici family and through an item of clothing: gloves.

The Gantiers, the Guild of Glovers that is, was one of the most important guilds in France. It was in 1268 that it was granted the status of corporation in Paris. It was later under Colbert’s economic management that the gantiers parfumers were awarded pride of place in the Six Corps; the six most powerful societies of the day. This allowed them to have access to expensive products from overseas. The production of leather goods took place principally in Montpellier, a town famous for its tanneries. It was there that Eau de la Reine de Hongrie (Hungary Water) was produced as well. Another centre for tanneries was Grasse. The two towns were economic rivals.

Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 and mother to three kings, was a personality that hasn’t been reinstated historically-speaking yet. The stigma of murderess is still attached, as she used special mixes to get rid of her enemies and was implicated in the St.Bartholomew’s Night massacre. When she left Italy to marry Henri, Duc d'Orleans, she didn’t leave behind her favourite artists, poets and even her own perfumer, René le Florentin ~named Renato Bianco at birth. It was he who scented the gloves that poisoned Jeanne D’Albert, mother of Henry IV. Catherine also made use of poison rings: jewels that opened to reveal a hollow place that contained poison to be poured into drinks and food. Monstrous as the habit seems to us, it was nonetheless very common in the courts of Europe at the time and Catherine turned it into high art. René was the first perfumer to open shop in Paris and soon anyone who was anyone flocked to his door to purchase his offerings; scented goods and ~discreetly, following the tapestry that hid the secret passage to a chamber upstairs~ non-scented goods…

Leather products did not smell particularly good in their raw state. This was due to the tanning process. Tanning de facto involved less than pleasant smells (mainly urinous, used to make hides pliable) and tradition in many countries was to further aromatize the end product with fragrant essences to hide the manufacturing process off notes: In Italy they used musk, civet and orris butter introduced by Muzio Frangipani (hence "gants frangipani"), in Spain camphor and ambergris, in France orange blossom, violet, iris and musk were the usual essences prefered. It is worthy of mention that it is hypothesized that it is exactly this re-odorized smell that accounts for our perception of what leather smells like, in both sartorial and perfume terms.
Catherine, proud of her beautiful hands and a fan of opera gloves to keep them soft, in her desire to mask the smell of cured leather, liked her leathery garments to be scented with agreeable essences. There was also another reason behind the habit though: the dire need to bring something scented to the nose when crossing the streets of the times, which were in actual fact open sewers transporting human and animal waste to the rivers and ultimately to the sea. The improvement on sanitation in the following centuries was a welcome relief that diminished the need, but the tradition remained, having given European perfumery its kick-start.

The real craze for leather goods in the mid-16th century and especially gloves was allegedly imposed by Marie de de Médicis (1575-1642), queen consort and part of the Medici family. Lured by perfumes from Cyprus, the famous chyprés, she sent for her Florentine perfumer Tombarelli to come to Grasse, where the flowers were renowned, instructing him to capture their ambience in perfumed essences. It was thus that Grasse knew a rebirth in economical terms. Tanneries profited from the trend producing the famous Gants à la Frangipane, from the name of the Roman family of the 12th century. Thus the name “frangipani” enters the scented vernacular. The gloves were made by odorizing the leather with fresh jasmine flowers (in lieu of plumeria fowers) for 8 days and fixating the scent with the use of civet and musk.

Soon indigenous plants, such as lavender, Cassie, myrtle and lentisque (mastic) as well as those that took well to the mild climate (such as jasmine, rosa centifolia and Italian tuberose) started to be cultured for the expressed purpose of using them for harvesting their aroma. Grasse therefore gave priority to the scented part of the industry, while Montpellier remained more focused on tannery per se.
However when in the 1760s the French government raised taxes on hides considerably, the gantiers parfumers suffered a crush to their revenues; especially those of Montpellier naturally. Thus Grasse managed to outdo her rival, retaining the privilege of perfume capital for centuries to follow.

Even today the noble practice of scenting leather is echoed in the niche brand Maître Parfumeur et Gantier, created by the perfumer Jean Laporte, previously founder of L’artisan Parfumer. To this day, mr.Laporte sells scented gloves in his Paris boutique, fusing past and present into one fragrant stanza. The legacy of scented leathers has trully enriched our appreciation of fragrance.




Next instalment will focus on another aspect of leather in perfumery.
Pic of leather gloves Ledge by Paul England/Flickr. Painting of Marie de Medici by Rubens, courtesy of Wikipedia

13 comments:

  1. The very idea of fine leather gloves scented with jasmine, civet and musk is so incredibly sexy I am about to swoon over my computer.

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  2. Dear M,
    I coulnd't agree with you more :-)
    I had a great time researching for this series, I can tell you that!

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  3. Anonymous12:44

    Oh, what would i give for a pair of grey suede Gants à la Frangipane... *drool*
    ;-)

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  4. Yup, especially now that it's chilly; they would look as good as they'd smell.

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  5. I love reading this history on things such as these. Thank you for providing us the history behind and moving forward to the influence that leather has played a part in fragrances of the future which I'm sure you will in time here with this new series to your wonderful blog.

    Armando;-)

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  6. Thank you Armando for your compliments. I think it's good to find out how modern interpretations evolved from older times, don't you?

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  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  8. I bought Parfum de Peau by Claude Montana
    The Savon de Bain,and mens leather gloves in his trademark Cobalt BLUE...
    on my first trip to Paris back in 1989

    All these years ...I never used the Savon the Bain ...I kept the Cobalt Blue Gloves wrapped gently around the soap box still in its original boutique bag.
    His Fragrance, as well as the Savon de bain is so amazingly
    well constructed and expertly made ..... that the Cobalt Gloves are now infused with the amazing fragrance...
    and I wear them with great pride of rare special occasions....

    I just did it for fun ..
    to keep my purchases intact together as a Souvenir of my first trip to Paris
    I had no idea of the rich history ...
    the noble practice of scenting leather endures

    What is Old is New again!!

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  9. Fascinating!! Would you please recommend some books for me, on the history of perfume and also Catherine de Medici? I want to read more about the subject. Thank you!

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  10. Sibilum,

    thanks for commenting.

    I would recommend the Annick Le Guerer books on perfume (easily found on Amazon); they're the best, if you read French. Essence and Alchemy by Mandy Aftel is the next best thing (in English); concise, rich and to the point. Also Edwin T.Morris history of perfume ("from Cleoptra to Chanel" I think?) is good reading, gives you a comprehensive view of things.

    As to Catherine Medici, I'd suggest Paulson's "Five portraits"; gives a rather more balanced view on her and should be available at Amazon and the like.

    Hope this helps!

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  11. native boy,

    late but WOW!!! Sounds like an excellent idea at the time has gifted you with a rare and exquisite object of deep appreciation. I'm jealous.

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  12. I does help, thank you! I already have the M. Aftel book, and the one from Edwin T. Morris seems rather interesting. Thank you for your time. ;-)

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  13. S,

    you're most welcome and no trouble at all, I assure you. Thank YOU for taking the time to write.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete

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