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Scents of Time : Perfume from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century
Scents of Time Perfume from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century Author:Edwin T. Morris Perfume has been with us for more than four thousand years---lingering in unexpected places, evoking memory and desire. Its story draws from cultures the world over: the blending of scents originated in the ancient Near East, traveled west to Greece and Rome, and was dependent on the Arabian trade in aromatics that penetrated to East... more » Asia. The first center of European perfumery was Renaissance Italy, but France took precedence in the eighteenth century. Today the United States shares the spotlight with France as an important producer of fragrance.
In all cultures and periods, craftspeople have lavished their skills creating containers for perfume. Beautiful bottles and jars have always been made to reflect perfume's costliness and rarity. Vials and other perfume containers, made of glass, stone and precious metals, have been carefully preserved for millennia---some have even accompanied their owners to the tomb. Collectively, the accoutrements of perfume reflect in miniature all the arts, vanities and changing styles of civilization.« less