The
sweet whiff of nostalgia
by Sally Blake
(websites
added by Emma Blake...)
Crabtree
& Evelyn
 |
| Crabtree & Evelyn - Regent Street |
Crabtree
& Evelyn is so emphatically Olde Worlde
English that it simply has to be foreign
- and of course it is; the firm’s origins are actually American. They
did give a nod to this in the 1980’s with the delightfully unusual Savannah Gardens, and Nantucket Briar, although the former did
not prove popular and was discontinued.
Unlike,
say, Penhaligon’s, who don’t have to work at it because they are English, even Floris which, although
founded by a Spaniard [Juan Famenias Floris from Menorca], has a 200-year
St.James’ head-start on C&E, making comparisons unkind. Lovely Crabtree
have to be seen to be English because
they are not.
But
if Crabtree & Evelyn have not been around for 200 years, they like to look as
if they have, hence the dear little bow-windowed shops, tiled porches, wooden
shop floors, and free-standing baskets laden with dried flowers and
pot-pourris; the bowls filled with lace-trimmed sachets, and the soaps and
colognes with suitably old fashioned names assiduously copied from antique
labels.
The
bottles of course are faithful copies of the flaconnage Atkinson saw fit to
discard so long ago on their flight to Milan.
And
even if it is all a nostalgia trip down Memory Lane to the days of the “Farmer
King” and Good King George’s Golden Days with Loveday Merridew, bonneted and
be-ribboned, bobbing down cobbled streets in sprigged muslin, carrying a
glowingly golden wicker basket laden with lavender through a fairytale town of
houses with overhanging gables and twinkling mullioned windows which never,
ever existed in reality – does it matter? Isn’t it pleasant?
Being
American of course, they have combined respect for the past with a commercial
awareness of the profit potential of nostalgia. Nostalgia is big business, and
the proliferation of Crabtree & Evelyn shops throughout the world proves it.
 |
| 'Ye Olde Civet Cat' - Kensington Church Street |
200
years ago, London was filled with perfumers [it had to be – it stank to high
Heaven with open ditches running with dead dogs and human waste! – EWB], the
sign of the Civet Cat sprouted from a thousand shop-fronts. Now there is just
one left: hanging over Barclays Bank in Kensington Church Street, the site of a
former pub calling itself Ye Olde Civet Cat. Crabtree & Evelyn set up their
flagship store as close to it as physically possible without actually setting up
a counter within the bank’s Bureau de Change.
Such
dedication deserves its success.
Jean
Laporte – L’Artisan Parfumeur
A
more recent addition to the select world of perfumers is young, enthusiastic
and imaginative Jean Laporte, who by 1977, had opened five salons in Paris
under the sign of “L’Artisan Parfumeur” with branches in New York, London, Los
Angeles and Rome.
At
the time of writing, every salon features a life-size effigy of a 18th Century
Marchand de Parfums, a certain Monsieur de Larmessián, wearing a coat of claret
velvet extravagantly frogged in gold, with breeches tied at the knee, claret
coloured stockings and satin bows to his shoes, bewigged and moustached liked
Charles II, Monsieur de Larmessián stands bearing a tray of his products with
others pinned about his person in faithful replica of a contemporary print of
the times.
The
dreadful fate of poor M. Fargeon, perfumer to the courts of Louis XV and XVI,
forced [like Mozart] by his illustrious clients, into bankruptcy with debts
outstanding to the tune of almost a quarter of a million pounds (an astonishing
sum in those days, and hardly insubstantial now either), with £20,909 owed by
Louis XV alone, has obviously not deterred M. Laporte from following in his
footsteps.
Bewitched
and enamoured by the master perfumers of the 18th Century, he has produced a
range of toilet waters, oils, essences, burning perfumes, soaps and pot-pourris
in the style of le Grand Siècle, a vast range of fragrances gloriously packaged
in gold topped flacons. Another range, “Les Rètros - scents of the 1930’s”,
recaptures the most glamorous decade of the 20th Century.
The
pièce de resistance however, has to be Le
Parfum Qui Vous Métamorphose, strikingly beautiful, the flacon bears a milk
glass butterfly with folded wings on a ground glass stopper[i];
the toilet water, an even grander butterfly with wings outspread.
With
all presented in boxes of either claret or black with gold lettering, the
fragrances include: Amber, Opoponax, Exotique, Vanilla, Iris, Lilac, Eau d’Osman, Vetyver, Rose Bigarade (wild oranges), Grapefruit,
Passion Fruit, Mure et Musc, and La Haie
Fleurie du Hameau – the warm heady scent of cottage gardens tangled with
roses and honeysuckle nestled in sleepy villages.
Such
an explosion of scents bombards the senses and sends one out of the shop on an
intoxicating cloud of sensual pleasure.
Sally
Blake
Date unknown
Post
Script by Emma Blake
The
Crown Perfumery
Founded in 1872 by William Sparks
Thomson, a maker of crinolines and corsets, and catering to the high society in
London and Europe, Thompson launched a collection of floral fragrances called ‘Flower
Fairies’. Queen Victoria granted the Crown Perfumery her own crown's image to
top the fragrance bottles. By the end of the century, Crown Perfumery was
exporting nearly 50 different perfumes and accompanying products to countries
all over the world. Mrs. Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, was the
inspiration for the creation of 'Crown Bouquet'.
Some
time during the 1980s, my mother tried her best to help the new owner, Clive
Christian, to relaunch. They took on a tiny outlet on Park Lane, and began to
offer their fabulous scents again. Using the old recipes, they reinvented (amongst
others) Stephanotis, Heliotrope, and the famous Crown Rose. Sadly, the business
foundered, and was sold on, with Clive moving on to create his own signature
scents under his own name. You can still buy a few of the old favourites online
– if you’re quick.
Taking
up the standard since however, are:
Anglia
Perfumery
From
their home page: “Anglia Perfumery was founded in 2002 with the stated aim of revitalising
precious treasures threatened by obsolescence, as some of the old traditional
English manufacturers had started to "go with the times" and were
discontinuing fragrances when demand slackened, or creating new scents lacking
in the essentials of the art of English perfumery.
Anglia
Perfumery has pledged to maintain the English scent tradition and commenced the
range with formulae dating back to 1900: Royal Court and Imperial Lime. We
revived and slightly revised some of Crown Perfumery’s discontinued fragrances
and created new fragrances in the traditional English manner (Velvet Rose, Strand, Anglia, Amber, Richmond,
Somerset and Patchouli, Queen’s, and
Isle of Man).”
Roja Dove
The guy simply
does it best. My mother’s dearest friend and ally in perfumery. With a love for
the old scents and the way they were made that was to a large extent, nurtured
over many’s the long night at our old kitchen table at Hanover Gate, Roja has
dedicated his life to creating ‘proper’ perfume for the modern age. Perfume
that offers unspeakable glamour, sophistication, and luxury. If I ever win the
Lottery, I’ll be going to Roja’s Haute Parfumerie at Harrods to choose my next pong...
Emma Blake
October 2014
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