Four Decades as a Perfumer-Comments by a Contrarious Curmudgeon

They gave me twenty minutes to tell you about the last forty years of perfumery. That's typical of the type of requests most perfumers get.

Before I begin my talk, I would like to state that the opinions expressed are strictly my own and result from being in perfumery for over forty-five years. In no way, do they reflect the opinions of the company I work for.

Four Decades of Perfumery--in English, that means forty years—where have we progressed, where have we retrogressed, and where have we reinvented the wheel? I propose to present not only a rear mirror view of perfumery in comparison with what it is today, but I’d also like to comment on some of our current practices, foibles and discombobulations.

The annual perfumers’ symposium has always been a very important event in the life of a perfumer. Originally, the topics discussed concerned problems of perfumery, the growing of natural material, the synthesis of new aromatic chemicals, and other topics specifically aimed at the perfumer.

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