The museum is unique in its kind. The collections, which include work tools, equipment for distilling essences, and materials related to the preparations and the study of their image, testify to the activity of the Borsari company from 1870, the year of its founding, until the mid-1900s. The collection, housed in the building constructed in the 1930s as the office headquarters of the Borsari factory behind it, traces the history of the company named after its founder, Lodovico. Since the late nineteenth century, when the industrial production of perfumes began (notably the “Violetta di Parma,” inspired by Maria Luigia, Napoleon’s second wife), particular attention was paid to the image of the preparations. This explains the variety of lines and shapes of the bottles, favored by the skilled local glassmaking, the carefully designed graphics of the labels, and the care for the advertising message, testified by the large posters as well as the scented calendars widely distributed at hairdressers or through fashion magazine pages. Overall, the collection offers an interesting chapter in the history of fashion, graphic design, and advertising up to the first half of the twentieth century. The exhibit path is completed by the original furnishings of Borsari’s chemical laboratory: the work table with tools and small vials of the basic essences used to prepare perfumes, alongside the metal containers for storing the product.
Information about Borsari Collection 1870 – Italy’s First Perfume Museum
Via Trento, 30/a,
43121 Parma (Parma)
0521771011
borsari1870@libero.it
https://www.turismo.comune.parma.it
Source: MIBACT
