The Perfume Collector

Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062257854
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
A remarkable novel about secrets, desire, memory, passion, and possibility. Newlywed Grace Monroe doesn’t fit anyone’s expectations of a successful 1950s London socialite, least of all her own. When she receives an unexpected inheritance from a complete stranger, Madame Eva d’Orsey, Grace is drawn to uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor. Weaving through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London, the story Grace uncovers is that of an extraordinary women who inspired one of Paris’s greatest perfumers. Immortalized in three evocative perfumes, Eva d’Orsey’s history will transform Grace’s life forever, forcing her to choose between the woman she is expected to be and the person she really is. The Perfume Collector explores the complex and obsessive love between muse and artist, and the tremendous power of memory and scent.

The Little Book of Perfumes

Author: Luca Turin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110154533X
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 101

Book Description
The quintessential guide to the one hundred most glorious perfumes in the world. When Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez published Perfumes: The Guide in 2008, it was hailed as "ravishingly entertaining" by John Lanchester in The New Yorker, "witty and knowledgeable" on Style.com, and "provocative and hugely entertaining" by the Times Literary Supplement. The Little Book of Perfumes focuses on just one hundred masterpieces of perfume: ninety-six five-star perfumes from the original book, as well as four "museum" perfumes-legendary scents that are preserved in the Versailles Osmothèque. This stunningly produced petite volume offers lovers of perfume the best of the best-a perfect gift book for anyone looking either for a brilliant fragrance or an intelligent, witty read.

The Debutante

Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062014315
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Book Description
A brilliant, unforgettable novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector. Can the secrets of one woman's past change another woman's future? Cate Albion is a gifted young artist at a crossroads in her life. Looking to escape New York for the summer, she takes a job in her aunt's London auction house and is soon sent on assignment to the English countryside to value the contents of Endsleigh House, the once gracious but now crumbling estate of a former Jazz Age socialite. There, hidden in the back of a dusty bookshelf, Cate discovers an old shoebox, and inside, a peculiar assortment of objects, including an exquisite pair of 1930s dancing shoes; a faded photograph of a handsome young sailor, and a rare Tiffany pearl and emerald bracelet. Intrigued, Cate sets out to learn more about the box and its contents, and becomes immersed in the mystery of its owner, Diana “Baby” Blythe, the younger of the infamous, glamorous Blythe sisters. Bright, beautiful, and reckless, Baby was the most famous debutante of her generation . . . until she suddenly disappeared entirely from view. As a shocking tale of love and betrayal begins to unravel, Cate finds herself being drawn deeper into Baby's tragic life story—one that will force Cate to confront some dark truths about her own choices.

Elegance

Author: Ali Rahim
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470029684
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 129

Book Description
Elegance represents an important watershed in architectural design. Since the onset of computer-driven technologies, innovative designers have, almost exclusively, been preoccupied with the pursuit of digital techniques. This issue of AD extrapolates current design tendencies and brings them together to present a new type of architecture, one that is seamlessly trying processes, space, structure and material together with beauty. ‘Elegance’ here is cast with a new contemporary meaning as it is applied to work that is effortlessly complex. It is analogous to an elegant algorithm that uses a small amount of initiative code to great effect. In a structure elegance may be expressed by a complex surface that retains its continuity and integrity even when punctured. In many ways, Elegance marks a coming of age for, ‘digital architecture’, as architects become more adept at producing complexity and integrating digital design technologies, production and assembly systems producing elegant solutions. It is the potent finesse that is often associated with the work of Zaha Hadid Architects and other featured architects, such as Mark Goulthorpe of Decoi and Hani Rashid of Asymptote.

Antique Trader Perfume Bottles Price Guide

Author: Kyle Husfloen
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440219141
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 569

Book Description
A precious commodity since ancient times, the powerful presence of perfume lies not in the fragrance alone, as you'll discover after spending just a few minutes with the beautiful new reference to the regal world of antique and vintage perfume bottles. Each of the bottles in this book (which includes commercial successes such as Avon and Coty, and high-end spectacles including Chanel No. 5 and Lalique) is represented in a stunning color photos, accompanies by recent auction and realized pricing, plus, production information to assist the accurate identification of these containers.

Perfume

Author: Jean-Claude Ellena
Publisher: Skyhorse
ISBN: 1628721707
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Book Description
To women the whole world over, perfume means glamour, and in the world of perfume, Jean-Claude Ellena is a superstar. In this one-of-a-kind book, the master himself takes you through the doors of his laboratory and explains the process of creating precious fragrances, revealing the key methods and recipes involved in this mysterious alchemy. Perfume is a cutthroat, secretive multibillion-dollar industry, and Ellena provides an insider’s tour, guiding us from initial inspiration through the mixing of essences and synthetic elements, to the deluxe packaging and marketing in elegant boutiques worldwide, and even the increasingly complicated safety standards that are set in motion for each bottle of perfume that is manufactured. He explains how the sense of smell works, using a palette of fragrant materials, and how he personally chooses and composes a perfume. He also reveals his unique way of creating a fragrance by playing with our olfactory memories in order to make the perfume seductive and desired by men and women the world over. Perfume illuminates the world of scent and manufactured desire by a perfumer who has had clients the likes of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, and Hermés.

Scent and Subversion

Author: Barbara Herman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493002023
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
An intriguing look at vintage perfume's powerful past, including reviews of more than 300 scents, with stunning period advertisements throughout.

Rare Objects

Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007419864
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
The stunning new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector.

A Collector's Handbook of Miniature Perfume Bottles

Author: Jeri Lyn Ringblum
Publisher: Schiffer Pub Limited
ISBN: 9780764300387
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
A convenient handbook with hundreds of clear color photographs and fascinating stories about each fragrance. Fragrance names, their creators, launch dates, bottle and package designs and dimensions are all here, as well as a price guide reflecting today's fragrance bottle market.

The Scent of Empires

Author: Karl Schlögel
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 150954660X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
Can a drop of perfume tell the story of the twentieth century? Can a smell bear the traces of history? What can we learn about the history of the twentieth century by examining the fate of perfumes? In this remarkable book, Karl Schlögel unravels the interconnected histories of two of the world’s most celebrated perfumes. In tsarist Russia, two French perfumers – Ernest Beaux and Auguste Michel – developed related fragrances honouring Catherine the Great for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. During the Russian Revolution and Civil War, Beaux fled Russia and took the formula for his perfume with him to France, where he sought to adapt it to his new French circumstances. He presented Coco Chanel with a series of ten fragrance samples in his laboratory and, after smelling each, she chose number five – the scent that would later go by the name Chanel No. 5. Meanwhile, as the perfume industry was being revived in Soviet Russia, Auguste Michel used his original fragrance to create Red Moscow for the tenth anniversary of the Revolution. Piecing together the intertwined histories of these two famous perfumes, which shared a common origin, Schlögel tells a surprising story of power, intrigue and betrayal that offers an altogether unique perspective on the turbulent events and high politics of the twentieth century. This brilliant account of perfume and politics in twentieth-century Europe will be of interest to a wide general readership.