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First edition of this comprehensive pocket guide to the art and craft of the perfumer, including a wide variety of eaux, pommades, scented vinegars, soaps and cosmetic remedies (including toothpaste) almost all derived from plants and flowers. Madame Gaçon-Dufour (1753-c.1835) ‘was co-founder of Bibliothèque Agronomique; novels include L’Homme errant fixé par la raison (1787), Le Préjugé vaincu (1787), Georgeana (1798), Melicrete et Zirphile (1802), and Les Dangers de la prévention (1806); wrote essays in defense of women’s rights, including Mémoire pour le sexe féminin contre le sexe masculin (1787), Contre le projet de loi de S.M. (1801), and De la nécessité de l’instruction pour les femmes (1805); also edited collections of letters, wrote manuals on domestic and rural economy, and published trade manuals for pastry chefs, soap-makers, and perfumiers’ (Dictionary of Women Worldwide, online). Manuel du parfumeur was issued in printed wrappers (preserved in some copies) and with differing publisher’s adverts (or none at all). Ours is bound without wrappers in a pleasing contemporary binding, with eight pages of adverts for Roret’s ‘Collection de manuels formant une Encyclopédie des sciences et des arts. Format in-18’ (including the Manuel du parfumeur priced at 2 francs 50 centimes).

Four rare perfume labels, colour printed ‘à la poupée’ with floral designs: Extrait de Rose et de Pois de senteur, Extrait de Jonquille, Extrait d’Oranges de Portugal, Extrait suave. The largest (Extrait de Rose includes a space below for a text or legend, uninked or cancelled in this example, but with traces of the engraved text visible. A charming and rare example of this colour printing technique in which each impression contains all the colours at once, with inks carefully applied to the plate with a cushion-headed tool (the ‘poupée’ or doll). The technique is immediately recognisable from the gentle gradations between the various colours of the resulting imprint.