The Perfume Museum in Istanbul's bustling Grand Bazaar unveils the artistry of perfumery through its extraordinary collection of over 10,000 perfume bottles, displaying authentic scents specific to the Arab and Islamic world.
Consisting of items from different countries, exhibits include ancient perfumes, old perfume bottles from the Ottoman Empire, Europe, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and the Far East, old perfume distillation machines, raw materials and authentic perfume-making workshop materials used in different periods of history.
Avid collector Bekir Kantarcı mentioned that there are over 50 perfume museums worldwide. Over the past 35 years, Kantarcı has amassed a collection exceeding 10,000 perfume bottles from various countries. With more than 50 perfume museums worldwide, Kantarcı's dream was to bring a fragrance museum to Istanbul and Türkiye, a dream now realized with the unveiling of this captivating establishment.
"We tried to reflect the interesting fragrance studies of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Palace and all these processes with historical information from the Ottoman period to the present, including the republic period. We went through a three-year educational process while doing this. In this regard, we compiled information from our expert professors and source works and wrote texts in English and Turkish," he added.
"The Grand Bazaar is among the oldest structures in Istanbul. Therefore, choosing this location was also very meaningful. On the one hand, it was where old Ottoman commercial life took place. But, on the other hand, art, culture and the fragrance of that period were exhibited the most here. Famous traveler Evliya Çelebi mentions that there were more than 500 fragrance shops around the Grand Bazaar," he elaborated.
"We have examples of bottles made from precious stones such as agate and amethyst. In addition to this, since the natural fragrance materials used in the past, 300 or 400 years ago, were completely natural and very expensive, fragrance bottles were also designed as art objects. They were made with great effort and craftsmanship. When you examine these bottles, you can see that they are adorned with valuable decorations, carvings, embroidery and precious stones such as gold, emerald and ruby," he said.
Kantarcı explained: "For example, we have a few rare bottles made of ivory. Each one is a work of art. There are also rosewater containers of Chinese porcelain produced 300 or 400 years ago for the Ottoman market. The silver-worked incense burners are also here, indispensable for the Ottomans and sought after in all world museums. The most important feature of our artifacts is that they have the special seals of the reigns of Ottoman sultan Mahmud II, Abdulmejid and Abdulhamid II."
Fragrance raw materials
According to Kantarcı, oud, amber and musk were the most commonly used raw materials in perfume production in the past, and visitors to the museum can see and experience them in their original, unprocessed form.
"Musk has been the subject of our poetry and literature. It was mentioned in descriptions of paradise. The beloved fragrance of the Prophet Muhammad is musk. But people don't know how musk smells. Here, we exhibit the substance that comes out of the real musk sac, the musk oil produced from that substance."
Among the museum's highlights are distillation tools preserved from Ahmet Faruki's workshop, credited with producing local perfumes and colognes during the Ottoman Empire's early days. Visitors can also marvel at the perfume and cologne bottles from Hasan Şevki, one of the empire's pioneering scent creators. Additionally, the museum showcases Beykoz fragrance bottles dating back to the 1800s.
Beyond its role as an educational platform, the Perfume Museum strives to bridge the gap between iconic historical periods and current generations by exploring the art of perfume-making, traditional production methods, original raw materials, fragrance families, features and varieties through its extensive perfume collections.