THE OLDEST PILGRIMAGE PIECES ARE HERE

Stating that he created his 30-year collection for the Fragrance Museum of his dreams, Kantarcı stated that the reason for the delay in the exhibition was these works. The collector from Yalova said that his first encounter with scent began in 1984 when he came to Istanbul to study at university. Stating that Meccan scents are indispensable to his collection, Kantarcı talked about the first piece he acquired as follows: “The first scents I encountered and researched were musk, amber and oud. Musk and amber in particular are extremely mysterious. Our Prophet and the Masjid al-Nabawi smelled of musk. What is musk, what was the musk of that day like? Solving this mystery was a very important issue for me. I went to Mecca in 1987. Thanks to the perfumers there, I made an effort to get to know those musks. The Meccan scents sent from Istanbul are important both in terms of being the subject of the Surre-i Hümayun and in terms of scenting those places. Pilgrims also have a tradition of bringing scents from Mecca. While researching the oldest scent containers, I found Hajj scent containers dating back to the 1890s. The first ones I came across were small copper containers with glass mouths sealed with special wax.”

The items used by the first perfumer of the Ottoman period, Ahmed Faruki, were on display for the first time at the exhibition. Bekir Kantarcı, who said that he had enough materials to publish a book about Ahmet Faruki, explained how the collection came to him in 2020 as follows: “The perfume piano we are exhibiting was made in Germany in 1885. I own all of its materials, machinery, and scales. I took over the works that a collector who had done research on the subject had collected over 40 years.”

There is also Ataturk's perfume bottle

Curator Beste Gürsu, who stated that they have been working on the exhibition for about three years, said, “The history of cologne in Türkiye can be seen through the bottles. Bekir Bey is the person who has the largest perfume bottle collection in Türkiye and who has brought together the most beautiful collections. The example of the perfume bottle that was at Atatürk’s bedside when he died, the first bottles produced by Beykoz, the British Royal bottles as well as all the cologne brands in Turkey and Europe are here. Some bottles in the collection pieces are double. Their collection value is high. The bottles express the value given to scent. The importance in the Ottoman Empire is the place of beautiful scent in our religion.”

News Link: A Lifetime in Pursuit of the Prophet's Scent

Author: Yeni Şafak