Perfume that sent Marie Antoinette to guillotine weaves its spell again

Published on Saturday 16 December 2006 00:11

A NEW version of the perfume that may have led Marie Antoinette to the guillotine went on sale yesterday.

Known as Le Sillage de la Reine - or The Queen's Wake - the fragrance was resurrected after its formula was discovered in an archive.

According to some historical accounts, the doomed wife of Louis XVI was arrested after the scent revealed her identity as she tried to flee during the French revolution.

Tiny flasks containing just under 1oz of the perfume - which is described as "an 18th century precursor of Chanel No5" - went on sale for 350 (235) at the Chateau de Versailles, the queen's residence west of Paris. Only 1,000 samples are on offer.

It has been recreated by Elisabeth de Feydeau, a writer who stumbled upon the "lost" recipe, along with the Parisian perfume-maker Francis Kurkdjian.

Ms Feydeau was preparing a biography of its inventor, Jean-Louis Fargeon, the court perfumer, when she made the discovery.

Mr Kurkdjian agreed that he should try to resurrect the scent using the techniques and ingredients of Fargeon's day "just to see if we could".

In the 18th century, bad smells were closely associated with disease and Fargeon secured the hygiene-conscious queen's good graces by presenting her with a pair of scented gloves, a recent invention at the time.

The Austrian-born Marie Antoinette, who was busy transforming Versailles routines by introducing devices such as bathrooms, was enchanted.

Fargeon was later appointed perfumer-in-chief and was soon supplying fragrances not just to the French court but also to other royal families around Europe. Ms Feydeau said: "Fargeon was one of the founders of modern cosmetics. Perfumes at that time were customised, attuned to the personality of the client and usually varying according to the season.

"He refined the techniques of preservation, creating finer, more concentrated essences and made it possible to create a broader bouquet of aromas."

It took Mr Kurkdjian and Ms Feydeau about 18 months to work out and set up the process of recreating the royal odour.

Mr Kurkdjian said: "It was very difficult because although we possess the same primary materials, the environment now is very different."

But he was satisfied with the result - a mixture of jasmine, rose, iris, tuberose, lavender, musk, vanilla, ambergris, cedar, sandalwood and other essences. "The perfume is 100 per cent natural, and certainly something that the queen would have worn," he added.

Ms Feydeay said smelling the Queen's Wake is "as if you're walking past a magnificent bouquet comprising flowers of every season. It has an incredible fullness."

Marie Antoinette's love of perfumes is believed to be her undoing. Many accounts have been written of the events of 20 June, 1791, when Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their family retinue attempted to escape to eastern France, where troops loyal to the monarchy were waiting.

Their flight was cut off at Varennes where they were recognised and arrested.

One version has it that a vigilant chamber-maid, observing the queen's travelling chest packed with several months' supplies of powders, pommades and perfumes, realised that the royal family were making a break for it.

Ms Feydeau believes the truth may have been much simpler, however. Late-18th century France was a pungent place, a world of open drains, cesspits and sewers and where taking a bath was a rare indulgence.

"The queen's fragrance must have made a strong contrast. I think it may well have been her scent that gave her away, either to other travellers or to people at the inn where they stopped," Ms Feydeau said.

The royal couple were taken back to Paris under escort and publicly executed two years later.