This talk celebrates Mandy Aftel's new book The Museum of Scent, inspired by The Aftel Archive of Curious Scents -the first museum of fragrance in the United States, featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and Goop.
Aftel will share pictures from this abundantly illustrated volume, which delves into the natural and cultural history of scent, rich with fascinating stories and lore. She will talk about the different families of botanical fragrances (flowers, woods, resins, etc.), depicting each with a hand-colored antique woodcut and revealing its olfactory notes and uses. Special chapters of the book are devoted to the most rare and precious fragrances-such as ambergris, formed of a rare secretion of the sperm whale-and to antique essential oil bottles, handwritten recipe books, and other evocative artifacts from her collection. Following a slide presentation, artist Eliza Swann and perfumer Syd Buffman will moderate a discussion and take questions from the audience.
Mandy Aftel is a preeminent artisan perfumer, educator, and author on natural fragrance and flavor. As the founder of Aftelier Perfumes, she has been hailed as one of the fragrance industry’s “most prolific talents” by Vogue and an “angel of alchemy” by Vanity Fair, and listed as one of the top seven bespoke perfumers in the world by Forbes. She is a founding advisor of The Institute for Art and Olfaction, which has created the Aftel Award for Handmade Perfume in her honor. In 2022 the IAO awarded her the Septimus Piesse Visionary Award for her lifetime achievements.
Aftel is the author of nine books, including The Art of Flavor: Practices and Principles for Creating Delicious Food. (Riverhead Books, 2017, with 2-Michelin-star chef Daniel Patterson), Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent (Riverhead Books, 2014, Perfume Plume award for writing), Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume (FSG, 2001, 15 foreign editions, Richard B. Solomon Award from The Sense of Smell Institute), Scents and Sensibilities: Creating Solid Perfumes for Well-Being (Gibbs Smith, 2005), and Aroma: The Magic of Essential Oils in Food and Fragrance (Artisan Books, 2004, with 2-Michelin-star chef Daniel Patterson)
In 2017, she created the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents in Berkeley, California -- the only museum in the world dedicated to the history and experience of natural fragrance, showcasing her collection of one-of-a-kind-antique artifacts. It has received thousands of visitors and been covered in NYT Style, Goop, Vogue, O: The Oprah Magazine, Art News, and Sunset.
Syd Buffman is a perfumer and interdisciplinary artist in Los Angeles, California. She has a background in perfumery, incense making, herbalism and art direction/design. Her creative work is influenced by the poetry of nature, transformation and emotions.
Emerald Eliza Swann is an interdisciplinary artist, intuitive, writer, and educator based in New York City and Twentynine Palms, CA. Emerald received a BA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an MFA from Central St. Martins in London in addition to training in Gnostic Christianity and Hermeticism. Their book "The Anatomy of the Aura" was released by St. Martin’s Press in April 2020. Emerald is the founder of The Golden Dome School and currently teaches alchemy at Pratt Institute.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Immerse yourself in the natural and cultural history of scent with this richly illustrated book inspired by the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents-the first museum of fragrance in the United States, founded by world-renowned natural perfumer Mandy Aftel.
Among her many projects, Aftel has created custom fragrances for celebrities such as Leonard Cohen, Liv Tyler, Kate Hudson, and Madonna, and recreated the burial fragrance for a 2,000-year-old child mummy in collaboration with the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.
The Museum of Scent includes a bookmark naturally scented with the essential oil extracted from the leaves and flowering tops of clary sage, salvia sclarea, which is sweet, ambery, warm, and herbaceous. Scratch to release the scent.
Order a copy of THE MUSEUM OF SCENT from the PRS Bookstore that includes a signed bookplate from Mandy Aftel. ORDER HERE! www.prs.org/store/p3750/The_M...
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