The Fragrance Museum in Istanbul’s bustling Grand Bazaar unveils the artistry of perfumery via its extraordinary assortment of over 10,000 fragrance bottles, displaying genuine scents particular to the Arab and Islamic world.
Consisting of things from completely different nations, reveals embrace historic perfumes, outdated fragrance bottles from the Ottoman Empire, Europe, the Center East, the Arabian Peninsula and the Far East, outdated fragrance distillation machines, uncooked supplies and genuine perfume-making workshop supplies utilized in completely different durations of historical past.
Avid collector Bekir Kantarcı talked about that there are over 50 fragrance museums worldwide. Over the previous 35 years, Kantarcı has amassed a group exceeding 10,000 fragrance bottles from varied nations. With greater than 50 fragrance museums worldwide, Kantarcı’s dream was to convey a perfume museum to Istanbul and Türkiye, a dream now realized with the disclosing of this charming institution.
“We tried to replicate the attention-grabbing perfume research of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Palace and all these processes with historic data from the Ottoman interval to the current, together with the republic interval. We went via a three-year academic course of whereas doing this. On this regard, we compiled data from our skilled professors and supply works and wrote texts in English and Turkish,” he added.
“The Grand Bazaar is among the many oldest constructions in Istanbul. Subsequently, selecting this location was additionally very significant. On the one hand, it was the place outdated Ottoman business life befell. However, then again, artwork, tradition and the perfume of that interval have been exhibited essentially the most right here. Well-known traveler Evliya Çelebi mentions that there have been greater than 500 perfume retailers across the Grand Bazaar,” he elaborated.
“Now we have examples of bottles created from treasured stones resembling agate and amethyst. Along with this, for the reason that pure perfume supplies used previously, 300 or 400 years in the past, have been fully pure and really costly, perfume bottles have been additionally designed as artwork objects. They have been made with nice effort and craftsmanship. Whenever you study these bottles, you possibly can see that they’re adorned with helpful decorations, carvings, embroidery and treasured stones resembling gold, emerald and ruby,” he mentioned.
Kantarcı defined: “For instance, we now have just a few uncommon bottles fabricated from ivory. Each is a murals. There are additionally rosewater containers of Chinese language porcelain produced 300 or 400 years in the past for the Ottoman market. The silver-worked incense burners are additionally right here, indispensable for the Ottomans and wanted in all world museums. An important function of our artifacts is that they’ve the particular seals of the reigns of Ottoman sultan Mahmud II, Abdulmejid and Abdulhamid II.”
Perfume uncooked supplies
In accordance with Kantarcı, oud, amber and musk have been essentially the most generally used uncooked supplies in fragrance manufacturing previously, and guests to the museum can see and expertise them of their unique, unprocessed kind.
“Musk has been the topic of our poetry and literature. It was talked about in descriptions of paradise. The beloved perfume of the Prophet Muhammad is musk. However individuals do not understand how musk smells. Right here, we exhibit the substance that comes out of the true musk sac, the musk oil produced from that substance.”
Among the many museum’s highlights are distillation instruments preserved from Ahmet Faruki’s workshop, credited with producing native perfumes and colognes in the course of the Ottoman Empire’s early days. Guests can even marvel on the fragrance and cologne bottles from Hasan Şevki, one of many empire’s pioneering scent creators. Moreover, the museum showcases Beykoz perfume bottles courting again to the 1800s.
Past its position as an academic platform, the Fragrance Museum strives to bridge the hole between iconic historic durations and present generations by exploring the artwork of perfume-making, conventional manufacturing strategies, unique uncooked supplies, perfume households, options and varieties via its intensive fragrance collections.