“I have discovered a scent that reminds me of a spring morning in Italy, of mountain narcissus, orange blossom just after the rain. It gives me great refreshment, strengthens my senses and imagination…”
When Johann Maria Farina wrote this description of a scent he’d created to his brother in 1708, he did not yet know the scent would become the most famous of the 18th century. His scent, named Eau De Cologne for his adopted city-on-the-Rhine, made him one of the most successful international businessmen of the Rocco period, inspired an imitation still in production today (the renown 4711) and has continued to support his descendants for 300 years.
Johann Marina Farina was born in 1685 in Santa Maria Maggiore, Italy. His Piedmont ancestors had been aromatiseurs—specialists in distilling pure alcohol (the base of any perfume) from wine—for centuries. Farina showed an early talent for identifying scents, but the family decided he was to become apprenticed to his uncle, a merchant of fine goods in the Netherlands. While working with his uncle, he traveled to the Netherlands, Genoa, London, Rome, Versailles, Rotterdam, Madrid, Vienna and Constantinople, refining his sense of smell along the way. Later in life, he was said to have a ‘nose’ so well-developed he could identify a person’s country, region and occupation with his eyes closed.
In 1714, he settled with his brother in the city of Cologne. Cologne was a free imperial city and the Rhine was an important trade route navigable year-round. There, he took up the only occupation allowed foreigners: the sale of luxury or “French” goods. But he didn’t forget his first love, and with every sale, he gave away cloth doused with his signature scent.
Regular bathing at the time was uncommon, and wealthy carried with them balls doused in heavy essences such as rat or deer musk. Farina wanted to offer a better product…a light scent that would transport the wearer to a sunny, warm clime. To do so, he brought the scents of Italy to the cold north. Although since 1709 only 30 people have ever known the secret recipe, Eau de Cologne contains notes of Bergamot and grapefruit. Of the scent, Voltaire said in 1742, “At last a fragrance that inspires the spirit.” And Goethe is said to have kept a bowl of Eau De Cologne-scented cloth on his writing desk.
According to the Farina museum, no one before this time had attempted to create a single scent whose quality was so complex, so light and so consistent. Without synthetics, scents could vary from harvest to harvest, so to achieve consistency, Farina insisted the cuvees and monoessences be reconstituted with each vintage to match a reference sample he kept. He also demanded quality. In one letter, he chastised a supplier of bergamot for not properly watering his trees, thereby destroying the purity of the essence. Another sign of his obsessive commitment to quality: Eau de Cologne had to mature for two years in barrels made of wood from Lebanon cedars before being bottled for sale.
His passion paid. When the emperor Charles VI needed the support of 36 princes to ensure his daughter Maria Therese (Mother of Marie Antoinette) would be crowned empress on this death, he sent each noble house a flacon of Eau Du Cologne. By 1736, the cost of two flacons (220 milliliters) equaled the monthly salary of a church official or ½ a civil servant’s annual salary. Napoleon is said to have had boots made to fit a flacon, so he’d be ready to ‘refresh’ at any time.
Although the turn of the century brought many imitators, Eau De Cologne enjoyed wide popularity among the noble. Among those mentioned, the books of the family Farina include the names of Madame DuBarry, Honore de Balzac, Alexander I of Russia, Maria Theresa of Austria, King Louis XV of France, Mozart and Queen Victoria. So if choose to use Eau De Cologne while attending our house party, you’ll be among the most refined (though sometimes notorious) of company.