Oiselets de Chypre

In the 17th and 18th centuries in France a popular means of scenting a room was oiselets de Chypre, the "little birdies of Cyprus." The birds were supposed to be made from a recipe of the harems. A solid perfume mixture, originally made famous in the twelfth century, cinnamon, amber and gum tragacanth, molded of gum tragacanth paste in the shape of a bird and filled with scented powder and covered in feathers. Other composition of those birds was reported in 1721 to include: willow charcoal, roots Cyperus, labdanum, sealant, incense, styrax, marjoram, cinnamon, clove, sandalwood citrine, red roses. 

They were placed in a censer and as the coals of the censer burned down and melted the oiselet, the perfume scented the room. These were called ' Oiselets de Chypre ', and were heavily scented. They could also be burnt in a chafing dish . Lemerys said they were called 'oiselets' because they rose up in the air when set alight.

The birdies of Cyprus had not ceased to be fashionable. These birdies were made of fabrics, and sometimes covered with feathers in order to better imitate nature. After filling them with scented powder, they were placed, like true birds, in rich cages suspended from the ceilings; or else, they were locked up in censers, in half-open boxes. Sometimes, too, it was molded with a paste or spices and flammable substances entered. These were used like the serail pastilles; they were scent balls "which one slowly boils over the fire, to enjoy the sweet and pleasant smoke that comes out of the eyes". Birds of Cyprus appear very frequently in the books and accounts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

It is probable that among the many perfume-burners in goldsmithery, they was intended to put birdies from Cyprus. There were some that were made in Cyprus itself, so the bird's-eye shape given to perfume boxes came about because Cyprus is famous for its ortolans and hawks. The feathers that revived them could also be borrowed from the brilliant livery of the rollier, a bird common in Cyprus.

These were stored inside little silver or gold hanging cages, small lanterns or small boxes where their scent would hover in the general area. Some of the boxes were made of porcelain, gold, silver, glass or enameled. In the Middle Ages, birdies of Cyprus, scented balls, made in the shape of birds, perhaps even covered with feathers of birds, and they burst to spread the powder scent.