A fragrance for rooms that have read too much.
Un parfum pour les pièces qui ont trop lu.IILa pyramide · the pyramid
Le nez · the nose
Séverine Aubrac
Parfumeuse · formerly of the paper tradeSéverine Aubrac worked for eleven years as a paper conservator, which is to say she was paid to stop old things from smelling of anything at all.
One winter a small fire in a private reading room was put out with what was to hand, which was a pot of tea. She was called the next morning to assess the damage and stayed, by her own account, forty minutes longer than the work required.
No. 7 is those forty minutes. It took four years and 212 trials; she maintains that trial nine was already correct, and that the remainder were manners.
« Le papier se souvient de tout, surtout de ce qu’on lui a fait. »
L’objet · the object
Cinquante millilitres,
un feu, un chêne.
- Verre · glass
- Hand-blown at the Verrerie de Val-d’Orne, a village of 311 people and one furnace. Walls six millimetres thick; no two flasks quite agree.
- Contenance · volume
- 50 ml. Sufficient for one room and a year of evenings.
- Bouchon · cap
- Oak, turned, then blackened in an open fire and rubbed with beeswax. It will mark white gloves. This is intended.
- Col · collar
- Brass, gilded, engraved with the batch.
- Concentration
- Extrait, 28 %. Two sprays towards the curtains; the room does the rest.
| Édition | Vol. | Prix | Tirage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extraitthe flask as drawn | 50 ml | €240 | edition of 900 |
| Flacon d’archivenumbered; label singed by hand | 50 ml | €410 | edition of 70 |
| Rechargerefill, in plain apothecary glass | 50 ml | €165 | to owners of a flask |
| Carte parfuméesample card, scented by hand | — | gratis | by post |
La carte · the card
Avant le flacon, la carte.
We would rather you did not buy it unsmelled. Leave an address; a card, scented by hand, will be posted to it.