The Rose Jar - Recipe for an Old Perfume

Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, Volume 11, 1881:

"THE ROSE JAR A RECIPE FOR AN OLD PERFUME. Gather your roses in dry weather, remove petals and when a half peck is obtained take a large bowl and strew table

 

 salt on the bottom, then handfuls of rose petals and repeat until all the petals are covering the top with salt. Let this remain five days, stirring and turning twice a day when they should appear moist. 

Add three ounces of bruised or coarsely allspice, one ounce cinnamon stick bruised, which forms the stock. Allow it to remain a week, turning daily top to bottom. 

Put into the permanent jar one ounce allspice and adding the stock, layer by layer, sprinkle the layers the following mixture: One ounce cloves and cinnamon, two nutmegs all coarsely powdered. Some ginger root sliced thin, half an ounce of aniseed, braised, ten grains finest musk, half pound of dried lavender flowers, two ounces of powdered or sliced orris root, and essential oils ad libitum, also fine colognes, rose or orange flower water, orange, lemon peel. 

Freshly dried violets, tuberoses, clove pinks or other highly scented flowers should be added each in season. Fine extracts of any kind will enhance the fragrant odor, while fresh rose leaves, salt and allspice, made as at first must be added when convenient in rose season. 

Shake and stir the jar once or twice a and open only during use. The delightful effect produced throughout the by the daily use of these jars is not as universally as it should be for apartments rendered unpleasant by odors arising from the kitchen. Noxious gases may dissipated by the frequent use of the rose jar." 

Table Talk of 1888:

“One of the leading fads of the moment is the rose jar; this may be of any size of of any choice ware, although the Oriental-looking Satsuma is most frequently chosen. The jars have perforated lids and the fragrance of the rose leaves, enhanced by the addition of fine spices, is very sweet and refreshing. The rose jar, by the way, is by no means a novelty. 

Centuries ago the Turks had the same romantic idea of preserving the leaves of blossoms, given them by cherished friends. They placed them, however, in strong urns, made of lead, and no apartment was considered complete without one. The modern rose jar is a combination of the leaden urn of the Turks and the daintier tea jar, made of china and porcelain, originated hundreds of years ago, by the Japanese. 

Some idea of the prevailing fancy for rose jars may be gathered from the statement that one New York dealer alone, recently imported four hundred different styles of jars, varying in prices from fifteen cents to fifteen dollars.” 

A Rose Jar, by Ruby Archer, c1900:

“Each heart- a rose jar- teemeth, richly sweet,
With prisoned perfume of a vanished time;
The spice of memory holds those odors fleet;
A birthday lifts the lid, and we may greet
Once more the breath of life’s fair blossoms,
Gathered in their prime.”

Memories, by M. From The Promise of Youth, c1930:

"Oh, golden memories are sweet roses To be laid away in a rose jar. The roses can never bloom again, No — never. But their sweet fragrance can flow out, And you can look back On their withered petals." 

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