In 1999, the Metropolitan Museum of Art produced a wonderful booklet by Edwin T. Morris called Scents of Time. It gave a concise overview of perfume history, and came with a charming set of fragrance minis with scents like rose, sandalwood, orange blossom, and a traditional eau de cologne. A more elaborate book on the same subject (and by the same author) is Fragrance: the Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel, published in 1984; while the former is a decent but limited introduction that appeals mostly to novices and collectors, the latter is a more comprehensive source for advanced readers. The trouble is that they can only be obtained secondhand, and proper alternatives are very hard to find. Marie-Christine Grasse's Histoire mondiale du parfum is one of those exceptions that proves the rule: a beautiful, recently issued coffee-table book that is widely available, yet only in French. Here's an impression of what you will probably be missing, followed by a short, final thought.
The first section of Une Histoire mondiale du parfum is dedicated to “Antiquity”, and deals with perfume and cosmetics in America, Europe, and the Middle East…
Coming later this month from