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What’s that around your neck? It could be perfume jewelry. Though they’ve somewhat fallen out of fashion, fragrance pendants have fascinating origins that date back to Ancient Egypt.
The first recorded use of perfume jewelry came in the form of skhab—a scented paste made from ambergris, rose water, saffron, cloves, and other aromatics that was fashioned into beads and worn around the neck. These necklaces were seen as such powerful aphrodisiacs that only wives were permitted to wear them, and even then only in the presence of their husbands.
Fragrance jewelry wasn’t merely confined to Egypt. Take the pomander. Hailing from France, pomanders—pommes d’ambre, or literally “amber apples”—were small pendants worn as necklaces, bracelets, or rings. Inside, the wearer would place dried spices and flowers, animal-derived substances, or other fragrant materials.
Though they originated as simple spheres, pomanders quickly became more intricate, showcasing the wearer’s taste through semiprecious stones or ornate shapes such as skulls, hearts, and crucifixes. Some had multiple chambers to house different scents at once. With a little imagination, they could have been considered the proto-Discovery Set.
Much like a portable Discovery Set, these pendants allowed fragrance to be worn and reapplied as desired. Pendants either housed the liquid itself, which would have been dabbed directly onto the skin, or cloth saturated with fragrance oil to be sniffed ad hoc. As an embroidered serviette accompanies each purchase, it is a behavior nearly readymade to replicate.
There have been dazzling modern interpretations of perfume jewelry, from Tiffany pendants to Christian Dior’s Elizabeth Taylor “poison” bracelet bottle. Is it time for a return to form?