Édouard Pinaud, Préface, 'Preamble', 40 ml. or 1.35 oz. Flacon, Parfum Extrait, 1937, Paris, France ..

Édouard Pinaud appeared officially in 1841 as “Superior Perfumeries Maker” in the Commercial Court’s registers of the city of Paris. He soon practised sale in bulk both in France and abroad and had warehouses in Brussels which funded his sales to Great Britain. As he bore in mind the example of his illustrious predecessor Jean-Louis Fargeon, the appointed supplier of the Queen Marie-Antoinette, “Perfumer of the King and the Court” during the Revolution, then appointed supplier of Napoleon I; Édouard Pinaud did not content himself anymore with replication or improvement of famous compositions of that time.

“Perfume is the paradise of vanished flowers. They find in there their Eternity. Upon opening a bottle starts for me a pleasing journey towards my memories. If I close my eyes the smile of a friend or the sweet face of a young lady met on the way around could arise from my memory. Yes, perfumes are really the most delicate beholders of our past life”. Pinaud, memoirs 1860.

Édouard Pinaud was born in 1810, in a prosperous city called Abbeville, in the North of France. He came into the world within a family of craft workers and traders. He was fascinated by those silhouettes who left behind a slight perfumed trail. He instantaneously felt in love with perfumes and decided very young to make his profession of it. At 13 years old, he left his family to become apprentice to master all the techniques of perfumery. Passion was born inside him, and it would change his destiny.

Intelligence would replace experience and his main asset was his remarkable genious for creation. Extraordinary hard worker and indefatigable, “the flowers he was distilling into the stills were for him love words that he linked one to another to give birth to a perfume brimming with poetry and tender feelings.”

At that time he would elaborate his first chef d’oeuvre : a Violet of Parma Bouquet both so light and so fine that old masters themselves were dumstruck by such a skill. Soon he joined up with the best workers of the capital, to the Corbeille Royale, where one could find from then on a giddy diversity of Eau de Cologne, enthralling flowered bouquets and toilet waters with various fragrances.

An 1856 magazine praised the Pinaud style in those laudatory terms : “the brand is exclusively exceptional because of the excellence and superiority of its products”. On the 18th of August 1855, the Queen Victoria came to Paris for the occasion of the Universal Exhibition. Édouard Pinaud had the confessed ambition to seize the majestic monarch’s attention and had the inspired idea to commemorate her coming by launching a perfume with her name “Bouquet de la Reine Victoria”. The Queen had been instantly charmed by the talent and enthousiasm of the young creator. Édouard Pinaud became the appointed supplier of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French country and the Empress Eugénie, and finallly of her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, Victoria. His perfumes received three gold and silver medals in 1855 in Paris, in 1862 in London and in 1867 in Paris.

Launched in 1937, Préface is a honied woody chypre perfume, with lovely sweet notes. There are no perfume notes available for this perfume on the Internet, but I can smell the beautiful captivating fragrance at the neck of the bottle. The fragrance reminds me a little of Rafael's Replique .. but more deep and intense. Here is what I think the structure might be like ..

Top notes are Bergamot, Lemon, Neroli, and Clary Sage
Heart notes are Ylang Ylang, Lily of the Valley, Jasmine, Mimosa, and Tuberose
Base notes are Oak Moss, Olibanum, Ambergris, Vetiver and Patchouli.

To me Préface is dark, earthy, animalic and tinged with green and leather. There's enough sweetness and even a creamy feel that softens this beautiful perfume. Presented in a gorgeous heavy crystal flacon, and in its own original box, this is a lovely, collectible vintage perfume .. Long gone with the flow of time ..