Persian Paperwhites in Mughal Meadows
Newsletter 3.2024
Come, rest your eyes upon the delicate petals of 17th century paperwhites for just a few moments. And taste some sweet cotton candy as well.
A new essay titled “Adorned like a Meadow: Flowers in 17th century Mughal Albums” has come to bloom in our Bagh-e Hind catalogue. Written by Isabelle Imbert, a specialist on Islamic art, this essay explores the floral margins and garden metaphors that evolved since the 1500s. Below is an excerpt:
In 1560, Malik Daylami wrote the preface of Amir Husayn Beg’s album, comparing the elements of each page to parts constituting a chahar bagh, the classical Persian garden:
“Every page of [the album] would be like a garden bedecked, the greenery of which would be ambergris-coloured drawings and the joy-increasing flowers of which would be designs and illuminations. The ruling lines around them would be like streams and rivulets that took their rainbow colours of fold, scarlet and Verdigris from reflections of greenery and flowers, designs of birds and trees in the margins would be like the sweet-throated nightingale and strutting partridge, and its pleasing pictures would be like graceful youths and entertainers who promenade in those gardens to take air. […]” [3]
Chahar bagh, as described in agricultural treatises, were enclosed spaces divided in terraces by water channels, usually four, in which grew flowers and fruit trees. These treatises listed all the species that flowered one after another throughout the year, so that the garden was always in bloom [4]. The canonical Persian garden included irises, roses, pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis) [5], tulips, jasmine, and violets, every one of these flowers being abundantly used in Persian poetry, in album prefaces, and soon in the 17th century being depicted in Persian and Mughal paintings and in album margins. [Read on…]
Here is the year’s first Narcissus ‘Grand Soleil d’Or’ from Nicolas’ garden. This is still a flower I have not encountered in real life, so while I do not know firsthand, the scent of a single fresh bloom, I know what a thousand narcissi smell like. I once made the mistake of deeply inhaling the extract undiluted. I have no memory of what happened after.
The narcissus is the heart of our curatorial garden project and we keep returning to discuss its many layers:
Listen: Scents of India Gardens with Bharti Lalwani and Nicolas Roth
Read: Installation 39: South Asian words for stimulating the nose, brain and palate
After carrying the saltiness of despondency for so long, I wanted to inhale something sweet and sugary like cotton candy. Some days I resent the fact that my spectacular brain is being unspent. I’ve tried to distract myself with some new plants, but they keep perishing as the environment is hot and dry, they don’t like the hard water either. (That said, three out of five saffron crocus bulbs have started sprouting after I planted them in August 2023. I’m not sure they will bloom as it has turned hot already.)
So, for sweetness, I always return to perfume. Here is my space of safety and guaranteed delight. Some sense of neon pink sugariness and innocent childlike pleasure was found in a combination of ethyl maltol, coumarin and ethyl vanillin (pictured). I dissolved some unfussy ratio into a bottle and will decide later if I want a swirl of lactose rainbow or a pure caramel crunch.
Perfumery materials often overlap with food flavouring, and if I’m not mistaken, maltol was first famously excessively used in Thierry Mugler’s Angel (released 1992) to create an almost sickeningly syrupy gourmand note.
Coumarine is my favourite! An integral flavour compound in Tonka Beans, I don’t think I can compose any floral-fruity perfume without it! It smells like a bouquet of vanilla and cherry liquor!
ethyl vanillin - I have to say this smells like the synthetic “vanilla” baking essence. I love how cheap and flat it smells. I’ll decide later on pairing it with some expensive tuberose extract!
Perfumes in Stock:
Dragon’s Blood, Tuberose, Outer Space, Imported Cherries, Marigold & Coriander and others
My friend’s three year old drew me from memory and this is an accurate representation of who I am— unhinged and delighted. And autistic.
After two years of observation and after fixing several issues around sensorial overwhelm, I finally went to get diagnosed early this month. Turns out I’m a “high functioning autistic” person who has endured several burn-outs since childhood just trying to fit into this world like a “normal” person. However, as a woman in her early 40s, free from hetero-normative expectations and obligations, I’m quite happy to be a low-functioning person since 2023 when I decided it was time to shut down, do less and take more naps. My spectacular brain is going to continue being unspent.
