Pomander

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Venetian woman with a pomander Pomander 3.jpg
Venetian woman with a pomander

A pomander, from French pomme d'ambre, i.e., apple of amber, is a ball made for perfumes, such as ambergris (hence the name), musk, or civet. [1] The pomander was worn or carried in a case as a protection against infection in times of pestilence or merely as a useful article to modify bad smells. [1] The globular cases which contained the pomanders were hung from a neck-chain or belt or attached to the girdle, and were usually perforated in a variety of openwork techniques and made of gold or silver. [1] Sometimes they contained several partitions, in each of which was placed a different perfume. [1]

Contents

The term "pomander" can refer to the scented material itself or to the container that contains such material. [2] [3] [4] The container could be made of gold, silver or other materials and eventually evolved to be shaped like nuts, skulls, hearts, books, and ships. Smaller versions were made to be attached by a chain to a finger ring and held in the hand. Even smaller versions served as cape buttons or rosary beads. [5]

A pomander can be a bag containing fragrant herbs and might be viewed as an early form of aromatherapy. Pomanders can be considered related to censers, in which aromatics are burned or roasted rather than naturally evaporated.

History

Pomanders were first mentioned in literature in the mid-thirteenth century. [6] They were used in the late Middle Ages through the 17th century. [7]

Medieval

Pomanders were first made for carrying as religious keepsakes. [8]

Renaissance

A recipe for making pomander was included in John Partridge's The Treasury of Commodious Conceits, and Hidden Secrets (London, 1586). [9] Benzoin resin, calamite, labdanum, and storax balsam were ground into a powder, dissolved in rose water and put into a pan over a fire to cook together. The cooked mixture was then removed from the fire, rolled into an apple shape and coated with a powdered mixture of cinnamon, sweet sanders, and cloves. After this, a concoction was made from three grains each of ambergris, deer musk, and civet musk. The ambergris was dissolved first and the deer and civet musk mixed in later. The "apple" ball was rolled through the musk concoction to blend in these ingredients and then kneaded to combine and molded back into the shape of an apple. [10] [11]

The scented product was used by royal and aristocratic women in a pomander, a silver or gold ball worn suspended on a chain from a girdle. In 1520, the Duke of Buckingham commissioned a gold pomander with the heraldic badges of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon for her New Year's Day gift. Other kinds of jewellery were made as containers for the scent, including tablets or lockets, pendants, bracelets, aglets, buttons, and chains with filigree beads. [12] [13] Among the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots, were two complete suites of head-dresses, necklaces and belts comprising openwork or filgree gold perfumed pomander beads to hold scented musk. [14] [15] In 1576, a London goldsmith, John Mabbe, had 224 "pomanders of gold filled with pomander". [16] A string of filigree pomander beads, suitable for a rosary, is thought to have been a gift from Mary, Queen of Scots, to Gillis Mowbray and is held by the National Museum of Scotland. [17]

Pouncet box

In the late 16th century, the pouncet box appeared which, whilst retaining the traditional features of the pomander, was designed to hold liquid perfumes, blended with powder and absorbed on a sponge or piece of cotton. It was favoured by the upper classes who appreciated the delicacy of the liquid perfumes. Its name stemmed from the fact that the box was "pounced" or pierced to release the scent. [18]

Modern

An orange studded with cloves. Orange pomander.jpg
An orange studded with cloves.

One twentieth century style of pomander is made by studding an orange or other fruit with whole dried cloves and letting it cure dry, [19] [20] after which it may last many, many years.[ citation needed ] This modern pomander serves the functions of perfuming and freshening the air and also of keeping drawers of clothing and linens fresh, pleasant-smelling, and moth-free.

Ingredients

Other ingredients in the process of making pomanders are:

Culture

A pomander is worn by Rosemary Woodhouse, in Roman Polanski's 1968 film, Rosemary's Baby . It figures as a central part of the plot development.

The pouncet box is mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I when Hotspur is accused of withholding Scottish nobles captured in a skirmish and in self-defence pleads, in describing the King's messenger:

He was perfumèd like a milliner,
And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took't away again,
Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talked.

Etymology

Medieval pomander paste formulas usually contained ambergris. From this came "pomme ambre" (amber apple) and from there the word pomander was developed. [7] Other names for the pomander are Ambraapfel, Bisamapfel, Bisamknopf, Bisambüchse, balsam apple, Desmerknopf, musk ball Desmerapfel, Oldanokapsel, Pisambüchse, and smelling apple.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Ambergris, ambergrease, or grey amber is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. It acquires a sweet, earthy scent as it ages, commonly likened to the fragrance of isopropyl alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency.

Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Perfumes can be defined as substances that emit and diffuse a pleasant and fragrant odor. They consist of manmade mixtures of aromatic chemicals and essential oils. The 1939 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, Leopold Ružička stated in 1945 that "right from the earliest days of scientific chemistry up to the present time, perfumes have substantially contributed to the development of organic chemistry as regards methods, systematic classification, and theory."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musk</span> Class of aromatic substances used in perfumes

Musk is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and artificial substances with similar odors. Musk was a name originally given to a substance with a strong odor obtained from a gland of the musk deer. The substance has been used as a popular perfume fixative since ancient times and is one of the most expensive animal products in the world. The name originates from the Late Greek μόσχος 'moskhos', from Persian mushk and Sanskrit मुष्क muṣka derived from Proto-Indo-European noun múh₂s meaning "mouse". The deer gland was thought to resemble a scrotum. It is applied to various plants and animals of similar smell and has come to encompass a wide variety of aromatic substances with similar odors, despite their often differing chemical structures and molecular shapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censer</span> Vessel for burning incense or perfume

A censer, incense burner, perfume burner or pastille burner is a vessel made for burning incense or perfume in some solid form. They vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction, and have been in use since ancient times throughout the world. They may consist of simple earthenware bowls or fire pots to intricately carved silver or gold vessels, small table top objects a few centimetres tall to as many as several metres high. Many designs use openwork to allow a flow of air. In many cultures, burning incense has spiritual and religious connotations, and this influences the design and decoration of the censer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onycha</span> Unknown biblical substance used in incense

Onycha, along with equal parts of stacte, galbanum, and frankincense, was one of the components of the consecrated Ketoret (incense) which appears in the Torah book of Exodus (Ex.30:34-36) and was used in Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. This formula was to be incorporated as an incense, and was not to be duplicated for non-sacred use. What the onycha of antiquity actually was cannot be determined with certainty. The original Hebrew word used for this component of the ketoret was שחלת, shecheleth, which means "to roar; as a lion " or “peeling off by concussion of sound." Shecheleth is related to the Syriac shehelta which is translated as “a tear, distillation, or exudation.” In Aramaic, the root SHCHL signifies “retrieve.” When the Torah was translated into Greek the Greek word “onycha” ονυξ, which means "fingernail" or "claw," was substituted for shecheleth.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Chisholm 1911, p. 46.
  2. "Pomanders". larsdatter.com.
  3. POMANDER MEMENTO MORI
  4. Corine Schleif and Volker Schier, Katerina's Windows: Donation and Devotion, Art and Music, as Heard and Seen Through the Writings of a Birgittine Nun, University Park: Penn State Press, 2009, pp. 237, 242-244
  5. "Small Wonders – Aromatic Adornments". ganoskin. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  6. "Project MUSE - The Bulletin of Hispanic Studies - Perfumes and perfume-making in the Celestina". jhu.edu.
  7. 1 2 Groom, p. 274
  8. Jewelry of the middle ages
  9. John Partridge, The treasurie of commodious conceits (London, 1586), EEBO text
  10. Longman, p. 339
  11. Madden, p. 257
  12. Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Britain (Norwich, 1994), pp. 145–146.
  13. Holly Dugan, The Ephemeral History of Perfume: Scent and Sense in Early Modern England (Baltimore, 2011), p. 111.
  14. Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse' (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1863), p. 12.
  15. Rosalind Marshall, Queen Mary's Women: Female Relatives, Servants, Friends and Enemies (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006), p. 99.
  16. Thomas Rymer, Foedera, vol. 15 (London, 1713), p. 759.
  17. Anna Groundwater, Decoding the Jewels (Sidestone Press, 2024), p. 156
  18. "Small Wonders – Aromatic Adornments". Ganoskin. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  19. Lister, Margot (1968). Costume: an illustrated survey from ancient times to the twentieth century. Boston, Plays, Inc. ISBN   9780823800964.
  20. "Pomander | Fragrant, Aromatic, Scented | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2024-12-05.

Sources

Attribution