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Museo Italiano della Profumeria is unique of its kind. It was opened in 1990 and it is located inside Palazzina Borsari, which was built in the thirties and used to host the headquarters of the factory Borsari, and it traces back the history of the industry, founded in 1870, but at the same time it represents an interesting chapter of costumes’, graphics’ and publicity’s history, till the first half of the 20^th century.

Since the end  of the 19^th century, when Borsari started the industrial production of perfumes, a lot of attention was paid to the aspect of  the preparations. The flagship of the production is the famous “Violetta di Parma”, a scent which finds its inspiration in perfumes, but realises by the friars and alchemists dell’Annunziata for Maria Luigia d’Austria, duchess of Parma, second wife of Napoleon, who had worked to promote the cultivation of violets and the production of parfumerie in its small reign. Many of the ampullae belonged to the duchess and they were created by glass workers especially for her.
The exhibition is formed by two sections: the first is historic, dedicated to  Violetta di Parma, the second one is centred on graphic and tells the story of the evolution of Borsari perfumes. The collections includes the working tools, the instruments needed to distill the essences and the materials for the preparations and for the study of their image; bottles of different shapes, whose production was favoured by the qualified local glass manufacture, the etiquettes, the manifestos and small-scented calendars, which were spread among hairdressers  and fashion rotogravures, which testify the attention for graphic and for advertising messages.
The collection in its complex gives to the visitors a sight in an interesting chapter of the history of the 20^th century.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)