Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer

A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette's Perfumer

Feydeau, Elisabeth de
Lizop, Jane

Paperback

Fashion BiographiesHistorical FiguresFrench History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0755647149
ISBN13: 9780755647149
Publisher: I B Tauris
Published: Feb 22 2022
Pages: 176
Weight: 0.38
Height: 0.47 Width: 5.51 Depth: 8.60
Language: English

The untold story of Marie Antoinette's perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon.

Montpellier, 1748: Jean-Louis Fargeon was born into a family of perfumers and soon became apprentice to his father's modest perfumery. But he dreamed of the glittering court of Versailles and of becoming perfumer to the young queen, Marie Antoinette.

His ambition carried him to Paris where his boutique became one of the most elegant and well-patronised in France. Concocting sumptuous perfumes and pomades for most of the French nobility - the ingredients and procedures of which are listed in the book's appendices - Fargeon eventually caught the attention of the queen. After meeting Marie Antoinette in the Trianon Palace, he began creating lavish bespoke scents that perfectly reflected her moods and personality.

Through Fargeon's relations with the royal court, where he spent fourteen years as the queen's personal and exclusive perfumer, the reader is granted privileged access to the world of Marie Antoinette. A Scented Palace is a unique perspective on her life including her fascination with dress and fashions - a fascination that was to contribute to her downfall.

Fargeon's story touches on many aspects of life in eighteenth-century France, from the development of a bourgeois family and career, to how the suffering of hungry Parisians led to revolt, to in-depth information on the development of the cosmetics and perfume industry and its relation to scientific development during the Enlightenment. The descriptions of Parisian society and commerce provide a window into the ways of life during this turbulent chapter of France's history.

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