Gold and Silver Pomander, 16th Century

4500 years ago, Egyptian women were known to wear large, fragrant cones of sculpted tallow and myrrh on their heads. As the heat of the day melted the animal fat, it would trickle down over the face and body. A few millenniums later, your average Roman might be found lazing in an unguentarium, smeared in hogs’ lard laced with the musky glands of a slaughtered civet. Sadly, this sort of recreation has given way to a more practical and portable means of perfumery.

Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby, 1968

Buried deep beneath the pendant flacons and perfume glaces of the osphretic collector lies a whole history of scent cases and aromatic jewelry designed specifically for solid perfumes, the crown jewel of which is the pomander. Consisting of an elaborate filigreed gold or silver ball on a chain, pomanders were often filled with solid perfume made from ambergris – which was a coveted perfume staple, despite being derived from whale vomit and/or feces. Some pomanders were sectioned like apple slices, with a different perfume in each section.

Ambergris, Found in Whale Faeces, Image by Nathan Aleksander Szpakowicz

Throughout history, precious, solid-state aromatics have been placed in small “unguent boxes” carried by men and women and sniffed to ward off unwholesome smells. These small charms have taken any number of shapes and forms, including the headpiece of a doctor’s walking stick filled with solid perfume and used when visiting rancid plague victims and mortuaries.

The process of isolating aromatics quite naturally lends itself to a thicker, more salve-like consistency. Solvent extraction of fresh flowers yields a waxy semi-solid with a soft aroma known as a “concrete”. It is only the application of hexane and ethanol that produces a liquid absolute. The same is true of tree resins like frankincense and myrrh, as well as sappy balsams with their sweet, cinnamon-vanilla aroma.

Colone, Museum of Applied Arts, Smelling Capsule, Silver, Germany, 16th Century

Solid perfumes and ornamental jewelry are a naturally intuitive combination. Occasionally, advancements can actually come in the form of a simple revival. This is very much the case with the current swell of solids coming from perfumers and fashion houses. They are merely imitating the natural law. Indeed, even Neanderthals from 100,000 years ago were known to adorn themselves with their own type of aromatic jewelry. They were called “flowers”.

The Inscribtion Reads:

FURTHER READING

Chandler Burr. “Everyone’s a Critic”, The New York Times. April 17, 2008.

Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez. Perfumes: The Guide. Viking, 2008.

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Gustave Young Engraved Navy Percussion Revolver with Mother of Pearl Handle, 1851

The luminescent inner lining of seashells, mother of pearl looks as delicate as an ebbing spot of sunlight on the surface of the ocean. But fragile it is not. Mother of pearl is strong without being brittle and according to physics professor Pupa Gilbert, “You can go over it with a truck and not break it.” Nacre, the substance secreted by mollusks to create both pearls and mother of pearl, is mostly humble calcium carbonate — the stuff of eggshells and antacid tablets. Mother of pearl’s incredible resilience comes from thin layers of an organic lubricating substance, a molecular mortar to the bricks of calcium that redistributes force and makes nacre much, much stronger than the sum of its parts. As a natural material, mother of pearl has an eternal quality that modern science strives towards, and consumer plastics cannot even begin to replicate.

Photo by Tom Meijer

Mother of pearl, imported to Victorian England from the Pacific and Indian oceans in great mahogany crates, would be unpacked, inspected for quality, and auctioned to the over two thousand factories and artisans who would polish, cut and bevel the shells into the fineries that distinguished the Victorian gentleman or woman. Mother of pearl, cut as peonies were inlayed into tea tables, formed into gentlemen’s knives, or carved into elaborate filigree for brooches, as well as the aforementioned posy holders — miniature vases fitted with fragrant bouquets that ladies of Victoria’s era carried as practical yet decorative charms to ward off the smells of a time before widespread bathing.

THE WILD, PEARLY WEST

During this same period, mother of pearl was beloved by the gentlemen outlaws of the wild American frontier. Wyatt Earp, the legendary lawman of the West, would likely have maintained that glorious mustache with a straight razor set into a mother of pearl handle. And when he reached into his holster, it would be the cool iridescent shell that would greet his palm. Highwayman Bob Dalton was said to have special-ordered a set of pistols with mother of pearl grips for a spectacular double bank heist in his hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892. Despite being handsomely appointed, the robbery ended in disaster when vigilante townspeople killed Dalton and his entire gang.

Wyatt Earp (1848 - 1929), courtesy of the Craigs Fout Collection

Mother of pearl’s less nefarious incarnation as buttons is the classic tale of beauty and quality falling victim to ever-cheaper industrial production. In the mid-nineteenth century, from the moment the box of shells arrived at the factory floor to the moment when a finely engraved, skillfully shanked button was tacked onto a piece of bright blue card, the precious item would have passed through no less then eight specialized pairs of hands (albeit some of them uncomfortably young and small).

Buttons by Lady Washington Pearls and B. Schwanda & Sons

In the late 1800s, American mother of pearl buttons accounted for nearly half of the total world output of button manufacture, sourced from China, Australia, Ceylon, and the South Seas, as well as abalone from California and freshwater shells from the Mississippi. They were carved into elegant buttons that were beautiful and cherished, reflecting a respect for things that came before two-thirds of the world’s buttons were produced in a single city in China, and one’s plastic cuff buttons cracked in half before a fine shirt wore out.

Two British Pearly Kings in Traditional Suits, courtesy of Pearly King of Peckham

By the 1960s, B. Schwanda & Sons of New York, one of the leading pearl-button firms in America, was caught squarely in the crosshairs of the cheap, plastic future. The directors of the company remained loyal to the beauty and quality of pearl buttons, and refused to succumb to the economic pressures driving other button makers to turn to plastic. As a result, the company went bankrupt and liquidated in 1969, and we marched another step forward to the fate of our own making.

FURTHER READING:

Lue Diver Barndollar. What Really Happened on October 5, 1892: An Attempt at an Accurate Account of the Dalton Gang and Coffeyville, Coffeyville Historical Society, 2001.

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Colgate Advertising with Brooke Shields, 1975

The Chinese, circa 500 BC, chose more palatable ingredients such as sea salt, ginseng, and mint. Many of these ingredients are still used in toothpaste today. Until 1945, toothpastes contained soap and abrasives to clean teeth; after 1945, they replaced soap with controversial and potentially toxic ingredients like triclosan, sodium laureth sulfate, artificial sweeteners and colors.

Calox Tooth Powder Advertising

Tooth powders made the transition into the soft paste we’re so accustomed to in 1850 when a 23-year old dental surgeon and chemist named Dr. Washington Wentworth Sheffield began to market his home brew paste under the enticing name “Creme Dentifrice.”

Dr. Sheffield's Creme Dentifrice Advertising, 1886

Originally packed in jars, Dr. Sheffield’s son Lucius had a light bulb moment in 1892 while studying in Paris. He saw artists painting with tubes of paint. There the idea of a creamy toothpaste gel in a collapsible tube was born. Soon after, the big boys at Colgate followed suit and began to manufacture toothpaste in a tube in 1896, heralding a product that shows no sign of extinction anytime soon.

While still vulnerable to marketing whims and consumer fads, few have successfully ventured to tinker with this now classic form. Does anyone past the age of 12 really use the Colgate pump?

"Bad Breath Separates", Gemany Advertising

There is, however, a highly controversial issue residing in these seemingly benign tubes. The industrial waste product Fluoride was introduced into toothpastes in 1914, as a way to reduce tooth decay. Within five minutes of eating sugar or carbohydrate foods like potato chips, the acids in your saliva begin to start working away at the enamel on your teeth, beginning the process of demineralization that leads to tooth decay. Fluoride acts to slow this process.

Sher-Pira Tooth Powder, Shapria's Pharmacy in San Anselmo, CA, 1917

There is growing research into both the toxic effects of Fluoride as well as its sinister role in the Cold War, including its association with the Manhattan Project and the development of the Atom bomb. Safety concerns have been growing on the possible adverse effects of so much Fluoride intake on the human body’s other functions and there is a wealth of information available online detailing this controversial practice.

America is the only country that performs widespread fluoridation of it’s water supply. 97% of Western Europe no longer fluoridates their water. Interestingly, the supposed need for fluoridating the water supply is actually a result of our mineral-poor diet of fast food and high intake of processed sugar. A diet low in processed sugar and high in mineral-rich foods such as fresh greens will make the need for Fluoride irrelevant. And more natural substance such as green tea has a similar effect as Fluoride in reducing the process of tooth decay.

Myrrh

Despite the ubiquity of Colgate, Crest, and other multinational brands, there is a considerable toothpaste underground easily discovered in any natural food store. These natural products ditch the Fluoride so widely touted in mainstream toothpastes, instead favoring non-toxic herbal healing ingredients such as echinacea, tea tree, myrrh, clove, peppermint oil, sea salt, and food-grade hydrogen peroxide. Many also reject the convenience of the modern paste altogether, uneasy with the binders and other non-essential ingredients required to transform powder to a thick gooey gel.

Colgate Advertising, 1921

Like many modern products, toothpaste doesn’t have to be so complicated. You can even make your own homemade tooth powders and epicurean toothpaste recipes by adding food-grade baking soda and your choice of natural herbal oils or tinctures to sea salt, a natural antibacterial cleanser.

If that’s a little too survivalist for your tastes, there are many exciting natural toothpastes at your health food store. Mint is always first rate for freshening breath, but there are also interesting and exotic choices like anise, fennel, cinnamon or ginger. There’s a whole world beyond supermarket toothpaste to explore.

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Gilette Safety Razor Catalog, 1909 / Razor Archive

My dad told me his father used one of those classic steel razors rarely seen in bathrooms today. It was a Gillette safety razor, the kind that used inexpensive double-edged blades and had been around in some form or another since the beginning of the 20th century. I can still remember seeing it sitting on the sink: beautiful, simple and functional in the way mechanical objects often are, with its two hinged doors that opened like some mechanical flower to reveal the razor.

Combination Set, Gillette Catalog, 1914 / Razor Archive

When he first bought it, it took carbon steel blades (that had to be cleaned with alcohol so that they wouldn’t rust), but eventually switched to stainless steel blades in the ’60s. Though few improvements were introduced in the coming years, the basic design left little to be desired in the hands of one as capable and as patient as my grandfather. For over 40 years, he spent a good 25 minutes a day shaving with that razor, making sure his skin was properly lubricated, holding it at just the right angle so as not to cut himself, and cleaning it thoroughly.  As far as I can remember, I never saw a nick on his chin.

Gillette Knack C, 1968 / Mr. Razor

My father, the scientist in the family, was much more willing to try different technologies (he was also the one with the bits of toilet paper sticking to his face). Back in the mid ’70s he used a Schick Injector, a razor that had been introduced to market 50 years earlier by U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Schick (1878 – 1937).

Jacob Schick

The Schick razor was made popular by a clever engineering feat allowing the user to load a fresh new blade by inserting the end of a clip into the head. This convenience was something that appealed to my mechanical-minded father and many fathers like him. Though his razor was nowhere near as aesthetically interesting as Grandpa’s old double-edged blade version, it was still made of steel and looked much better than the plastic multi-blade razors that would come a few years later.

Schick Injector Mechanism, 1961

Nowadays, razor blades have been almost entirely replaced by cartridges and the competition between the giants, still Schick and Gillette, is fiercer than ever. Before I grew out my beard I invested a tiny fortune in one of these, a Gillette Mach 3, a razor whose name alone promised a close shave in record time. I forked over twenty bucks every few months for cartridges (eight, to be precise, three blades each, replete with rubber fins and lubricating strip). The Mach 3 did shave amazingly well, but it also created a measurable amount of trash in the form of spent cartridges and packaging.

Cheaper Blades: PAL Razor Blade Advertising

There are many theories why companies like Gillette and Schick made the jump to the cartridge-type razor; one explanation was that the transition gave each company control over the blades that were used. In the ’60s, a plethora of manufacturers around the world were making blades that could fit Gillette’s razors creating intense competition, driving prices, and consequently drove profits down. Today, most brands use proprietary cartridges with each cartridge only fitting the razor of the same brand, ensuring profits remain optimal.

Gillette Blue Blades, 1962 / Mr. Razor

Still, the classic safety razor found a loyal following. Various companies continue to make very affordable versions that use double-edged blades which can still be bought for about a quarter each. But will this type of razor outlive nostalgia? Is it inferior to the modern version, with all its fancy bells and whistles? Does it simply lack practicality?

According to a number of blogs on the subject, it’s about the modern man getting reacquainted with the daily ceremonies of his masculinity, with the tools of these ceremonies, and with his own face. My grandfather seems to think as much. He, like thousands of other men throughout the world, have become the practitioners of patience in the bathroom and are more than willing to show us how to “do it right.”

Gillette Thin Blade (B1), 1956 / Mr. Razor

Gillette Safety Razor, Instruction Booklet, 1907 / Mr. Razor

Gillette Razor Catalog, 1914 / Razor Archive

FURTHER READING

Gillette Safety Razors

 Welcome to the Razor Archive

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Ivory Advertising with WWI Soldiers, 1919 (Click on Image to Read Copy)

Historians believe that the word “soap” is derived from the ancient Roman temple site at Mount Sapo, a spot used for the regular ritualistic sacrifice of animals. Animal fat would then run down the mountain into the nearby Tiber River, combining with fire ash to form a substance that women, innocently washing their clothes on the river’s banks, found particularly handy.

Vintage Polish Soap Bar / The Polski Blog UK

There are other, even earlier historic appearances of soap-like substances. Babylonians boiled fats and acids for primitive hair gels and the ancient Gauls concocted a similar mixture to use as a hair dye. In fact, most early soaps were used in this way, as pomades and styling products.

Hand Made and Cut Olive Oil Soap

The Dark Ages put a stop to all the primping and preening, but it wasn’t until much later that soaps began to appear again in a variety of forms, most combining animal or vegetable fats with ash or sodium.

Fragrances were added, herbs such as lavender and flowers such as rose were simmered down to essentials oils and added into baths for a sweet smell. In the 12th century, olive oil became the preferred fatty element for soaps, with olive rich Spain and Italy becoming epicenters of soap manufacturing. Castile was also used as a veggie alternative to animal fats.

1950s & 60s Hotel Soap Bars / Patty Robert

Once considered a luxury item, soap was highly taxed by most countries and available only to the wealthy until well into the 19th century. This meant that if you wanted to be clean, you either had to be rich, or figure out how to make soap yourself, which many did.

Ivory Soap Factory Workers, 1910

Experimenting with a variety of forms, soap-making boiled down to basic chemical reactions — fatty acids melding with sodium or potassium (ash, lye, potash lime) — eventually forming what is essentially a salt. It may not be the tabletop kind, but soap is a salt nonetheless.

Today soap is manufactured all over the world by enormous corporations and mom and pop soap shops alike. What was once a grueling backyard chore amid the stench of melting animal fat and toxic lye is now a product you can purchase at any local convenience store. The best soaps, however, are manufactured on pretty much the same principles developed hundreds of years ago. But comtemporary practices lean away from animal derived fat to a bevy of other natural ingredients that sound more like mealtime than a bath — honey, milk, lavender, oatmeal and olive oil. Yum!

Racist Pears' Soap Ad from the Colonial Times, 1899

The copy of the above racist advertising by the British Pears’ Soap reads: “The first step toward lightening The White Man’s Burden is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness. Pears’ Soap is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances, while amongst the cultured of all nations it holds the highest place — it is the ideal toilet soap.”

Below another Ivory Soap advertising with restrained homoerotic copy.

Ivory Advertising with Restrained Homoerotic Copy, 1917 (Click on Image for Details)

Pears' Soap Advertising, Circa 1875

Sapolio Soap Advertising, 1897

 FURTHER READING

Soap Naturally by Patrizia Garzena and Marina Tadiello

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100% Pure Beeswax

Female worker bees produce wax from the glands on their abdomens. They use the wax to build honeycomb cells where they house pollen, honey and baby bees — creating a kind of nursery and cafeteria in one.  That said, a honeycomb is not a quick thing to build. Bees are known to fly over 150,000 miles (that’s equivilant to six times around the globe) to gather enough pollen for just one pound of wax.

Honeycomb with Eggs at the Bottom of theaCells / Photo from commons.wikimedia.org

Beeswax was widely used in the ancient world. 3,500 years ago, the Egyptians manufactured the world’s first wax candles and figurines. They also used beeswax as a sealant for their ships. In ancient Rome, it was  so valuable that some occupied nations paid their fees and taxes in the valuable beeswax. Up until the Middle Ages, beeswax helped in one of the earliest forms of mobile communication. Wooden plates were covered with a thin layer of wax and the message traced into it.

Today, beeswax is considered a premium ingredient for a variety of products. It is highly regarded for smooth leather and wood restoration, working simultaneously to waterproof and polish surfaces. Mixing pure beeswax with linseed oil yields an incredible wood furniture polish.

Beeswax often gives supermarket apples their shiny appearance, and is used in supplements and food. You can find it on the ingredients list either directly as beeswax, or labled as E901. Even not-so-natural Jelly Beans and Haribo Gummibears rely on beeswax for a glossy sheen.

By far, cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies are the biggest buyers of beeswax, accounting for 60 percent of the market. Beeswax helps to stabilize lotions and creams by  increasing their capacity to hold water. Churches use beeswax candles because they burn longer and drip far less than typical paraffin candles.

Some high-end cheese manufacturers still dip their cheese in beeswax before aging which also serves as the packaging. Unfortunately, most major cheese brands have switched to plastic which sometimes leaves an unpleasant taste. This scamorza has a string tied around it from which it is dipped in beeswax.

Scamorza - A Smoked Mozzarella Dipped in Beeswax

Pure beeswax is usually sold in solid cakes or chips and useful to have on hand — the classic restoration show ‘This Old House’ lists 10 practical uses of beeswax around the home. So whether you are enjoying a beeswax candle-lit dinner or admiring a shiny red apple, remember the honey worker bees and all their indespensible  contributions to world around us.

Napoleon's Wax Death Mask

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Tiger Balm was invented by Chinese herbalist Aw Chu Kin in the 1870s, using the healing combination of menthol, eucalyptus, clove, cassia and mint oil. Kin had two sons, Aw Boon Haw was a hell-raiser known for street fights and mad business skills while Aw Boon Par was gentle and more reserved.  Together, Aw Boon Haw and Aw Boon Par would make their father’s tincture a global phenomenon by the early 1930s.

Aw Boon Haw in China 1949

While Par honed the recipe down to what is now a legendary cure-all, Haw used his persuasive business skills to organize a medicinal empire. A born salesman, Haw knew how to market his product to the public giving the family recipe a strong and sexy name, Tiger Balm. Haw began promoting Tiger Balm across China going so far as to build a custom car featuring an enormous roaring tiger’s head on the grill.

Aw Boon Haw in Singapore 1941

By the time he was 40, Haw was the richest man in Rangoon. He built an enormous mansion and named the extensive botanical gardens after his quiet-natured brother. In spite of his showmanship, Haw was also a great philanthropist, donating his family’s magic ointment to doctors all over China and building countless schools and hospitals.

Tiger Balm Building in Singapore 1941

Aw Boon Haw Showing His Medicines in China 1949

Haw opened his gardens to the public in the early 1950s, and promoted good heath for all. Eighty years later, savvy business sense paired with a generous, caring spirit, has made Tiger Balm a worldwide classic.

Aw Boon Haw Gardens in Singapore 1941

School Children Walking Through Aw Boon Haw Gardens 1941

 FURTHER READING

The LIFE Magazine images found at Google Books.

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Braun Micron (5410), 1976

My first electric shaver was an old one my father didn’t use anymore – a Braun Micron from the ’70s. It’s made out of plastic and aluminum. In some old products, plastic has the ability to look good. Having come to a full understanding of plastic’s negative environmental impact and the widespread use of low quality plastics today, products made of this ubiquitous material are usually a visual and psychological turn-off for me.

Max Braun introduced his first model of electric shavers, the S50, in 1951. He founded Braun in 1921, but true success arrived when the S50 came out. Previously, the company had thrived by manufacturing radios and record players, until the factory was destroyed during WWII. Production resumed again in 1947 after the war had ended and the factory had been rebuilt.

Braun Standard S50 (L80), 1951 / photos by marratime @ Picasa

The company’s excellent reputation for design and quality is mainly due to Dieter Rams. He joined the company in 1956 as one of 16 designers and started overseeing product design in 1961. He kept this position for an incredible 34 years. Rams, who also began designing furniture 1957 – is still an active designer and design consultant today.

Under Rams guidance, the classic Braun shavers appeared on the market. The Sixtant was a thick and solid little piece of machinery whose operating sound would make you believe that inside, a small locomotive was powering the thing. There is an air of myth around the model, as most of them still function perfectly today. And the two parts that require repeated exchange are still widely available – the block of blades and the thin metal foil that wraps around it.

Braun Sixtant Special SM2 (5220), 1963

Braun Sixtant SM3 (5310), 1962

Rams’s credo is “less, but better”. In an interview with Design Boom he is asked to describe his style: “In Japanese they say ‘wabi sabi’. Together these two concepts mean ‘tranquility, simplicity, balance’, but also ‘liveliness’. This is a point of reference for me… I have always been interested in mixing materials, in my earliest furniture designs. I mixed wood with plastic or aluminum”.

Braun Sixtant S (5330), 1968

About whether form follows function, Rams says “yes, form has to come after function, I can’t conceive of it in any other way. There are certainly psychological functions as well, it is a matter of balancing the aesthetic content with regard to use.” As other designers of influence, he names Jasper Morisson and George Nelson.

After Rams left Braun, the design of their products went downhill. Their current product line is a disaster in my mind. It probably didn’t help much in terms of design and quality when the company was swallowed by Procter and Gamble.

Unless you still have an old Braun, a wet shave seems the only solution.

Braun Cosmetic Shaver (5650), 1971 / photos by midcenturydesign @ flickr

Lady Braun Elegance (5660), 1979

Braun Cosmetic Shaver (5650), 1971

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