One of the most famous scents in the world invented by the man, "Cuir de Russie", now represented by the masterpiece of Ernest Beaux for Chanel, is a type of fragrance much older than we imagine, but always surrounded in mystery and addictive fascination. In the article about embalming I developed the theory for the archetypal nature of this scent, now it's time to see what "Cuir de Russie" means.
Known today mainly as the scent related to the Russian boots, "Cuir de Russie" was above all a type of leather or a special treatment of the leather different from the French, Spanish or Italian styles. One of the earliest mentions can be found in "Le grand dictionnaire historique (1725)" where it is said that the Russian leather was very appreciated in Europe and was an important merchandise. Later, in XVIIIth century French documents like "Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue françoise (1750)", we find the version "roussie" (from roux = reddish) with the explanation - "Cuir de Russie" means tinted in red with a strong odor and the expression "cela sent le roussi" means the scent of something before it starts to burn.
For the XVIIIth century French a leather product prepared in Russia, tinted in red and smelling the birch tar (with its unmistakable burnt note so different from the "floral" French leather of the delicate gloves) made perfectly sense. It was one of the many happy coincidences in French which ensured the outstanding popularity of this type of scent.
It took a long time until people in the West knew the preparation method of the Russian leather. When it was unveiled, in the XIXth century, "Cuir de Russie" was prepared even outside Russia. This type of leather was used for boots, but also for many other articles, like boxes, necessaires, furniture or book bindings. One should notice how well the scent of "cuir de Russie" matches with the scent of paper and parchment, producing that unmistakable scent of old books.
In "Dictionnaire bibliographique (1824)" librarians were advised to use the strong scents of "Cuir de Russie" (the leather binding) for the conservation of their books:
"Les odeurs fortes, et surtout celle du Cuir de Russie, non-seulement les garantissent, mais encore suffisent souvent pour préserver tous ceux qui les environnent. Une bibliothèque précieuse mériterait donc qu'on y admît un certain nombre de volumes reliés en Cuir de Russie, que l'on placerait çà et là, et que l'on mît aussi des rognures de ce cuir en divers endroits dans le fond des tablettes. Une telle bibliothèque mériterait également que l'on employât des tablettes en bois de cèdre, ou du moins en chêne, bois préférable aux autres espèces pour la conservation des livres."
As the aristocratic XIXth century was also an intellectual one when books were more real than their XXIth century i-Pad versions, the scent of "Cuir de Russie" was not something unknown or exotic. Au contraire, it was more present than we could imagine. In fact, it is mentioned many time in magazines of all types (including fashion), always with a scent connotation.
Already in the 1830's, Russian leather accessories were highly fashionable. The preparation methods and the properties of "Cuir de Russie" were fully explained in "Dictionnaire technologique (1824)". The text attests also the importance of this scent as a main characteristic of the leather and without any doubt the reason of its popularity. Here you have a small fragment in French:
" Ce cuir, de temps à autre, est entré dans le vacillant domaine de la mode ; les dames ne pouvaient porter en ceintures, saes , agenda , gaines de ciseaux, ete., que du Cuir de Russie; les porte-feuilles des hommes, leurs bibliothèques de luxe, devaient attester, par leur odeur, la présence de ce cuir recherché et d'un prix assez haut. Son utilité réelle parait aujourd'hui s'être réduite à la reliure, des livres, parce qu'il les préserve , pendant de longues années . de la moisissure dans les lieux humides , et des attaques des insectes; que sa propriété, lorsqu'elle est épuisée, lui peut être rendue, en l'imprégnant de nouveau de l'huile odorante. "
The importance of the leather note in the XIXth century can be understood only if we look back at a very curious event that took place in 1822 and described in "Nouveau manuel complet du relieur (1844)". It was a public contest with a high prize for the preparation of a true "Cuir de Russie" with a very persistent odor. Half of the prize was offered after the event and the other half after one year to test the tenacity of the scent. I reproduce here the whole story in French:
"On sait que la Société d'Encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, qui s'occupe sans cesse du perfectionnement des arts industriels, proposa en 1821, un prix de 3,000francs, pour la fabrication du cuir d'œuvre, façon de Russie. MM. Duval-Diwal et Grouvel reçurent en 1822, la moitié du prix, la société se réservant de décerner l'autre moitié l'année suivante , si la persistance de l'odeur se trouve constatée par les expériences comparatives auxquelles les échantillons de cuirs seront soumis. Les échantillons ayant parfaitement conservé leur odeur, la société leur décerna la seconde moitié du prix qu'ils furent reconnus avoir entièrement mérité. M. Chevalier, chimiste distingué, s'est occupé avec succès de recherches sur le même objet. Après plusieurs essais tous extrêmement satisfaisans, il a communiqué ses procédés à M. Berthe aîné. Cet habile ouvrier est parvenu à donner l'odeur du Cuir de Russie, non seulement à toute espèce de peaux, quelle que soit la couleur dont elles sont teintes; mais même à la soie et à toute autre substance, sans produire sur elles la moindre tache, pas même la plus légère altération de nuance. Il a mis aux précédentes expositions de l'industrie des volumes qui ont été honorablement remarqués."
The "Cuir de Russie" note became a popular scent in the XIXth century, an olfactory reference of the society, as it was a well known odor produced by the Western Society and no more imported from Russia. Its importance as an olfactory standard, present in the daily life is attested by the many writers who used it, including George Sand and much later Emile Zola in Nana. There were several other types of leather known in the XIXth century (Peau d'Espagne, Cuir de Levant, Cuir d'Angleterre, Cuir d'Hongrie, gants de Suède, etc.) but "Cuir de Russie" with its strong personality became the most characteristic and the embodiment of the leather note in the popular culture. It is most surprising to notice that in 1890 a French writer visiting Moscow, the markets and the industries, noticed that the leather scent doesn't suggest, even vaguely, the well known scent in the West and "Cuir de Russie" could pass with success as an invention of the French perfumers.
It is not easy to establish the first appearance of "Cuir de Russie" as a perfume extract because the perfume production of the first part of XIXth century is not fully documented and the use of fancy names complicates even more.
Septimus Piesse briefly mentions in 1855 the "Cuir de Russie" note and how it is prepared but shows his skepticism about the popularity of type of scent. This should not surprise us because the fashion of the mid XIXth century was for floral scents, promoted by British perfumers.
One of the earliest "Cuir de Russie" extracts I found was prepared by the famous perfumer L.Legrand (later Oriza Legrand, supplier of the most important European courts) and was advertised in 1863. Another document from 1868 describing the essential oils attests also the existence of "Cuir de Russie" as a modern perfume of the era showing that in 1860's this was already a perfume, but certainly not the hit of the day. In 1875 Rimmel had in his catalogue a "Cuir de Russie" perfume but I believe it was created about 10 years earlier.
Only later, when more complex and strong perfumes were created, including the first synthetic notes, the Russian leather scents entered once again the scene with Guerlain in 1890 and around the same period Roger & Gallet with another type of leather. Right before the Art Nouveau floral explosion of the 1900 exhibition, strong scents including leather had a brief success in Paris. During the "Orchidelirium" or the orchid mania that characterized the late XIXth century and influenced even the 8th Art through several spectacular creations, there was even an orchid from the Vanda family smelling of leather in the morning and orris in the evening, also a perfume.
All this long gestation period for the special "Cuir de Russie" scent, a beautiful perfume but never too popular, ended with the most beautiful conclusion. Thérèse de Laire created the famous Cuir de Russie specialty based on the birch tar note and this can be considered as the ultimate masterpiece for this type of note. It should not to be mistaken with the Chanel type which is NOT the XIXth century prototype but a different leather with a particular accord. This "Cuir de Russie", with a very unusual composition, will represent the prototype for 2 new perfumes, but this is already another story. The difference between the birch tar type evolved in the XIXth century, and the prototype created by Ernest Beaux can be considered symbolic.100 years after the creation of the scent prototype for leather products by French manufacturers, a perfumer that actually lived in Russia, worked for their aristocrats and knew the real scents, created something new and maybe authentic. Previous perfumers created what the West believed to be Russian standardizing a type of note through permutations around a true fact. The leather family, the shortest in the official SFP classification, has in fact many branches with at least 6 different prototypes and its own genealogy, virtually unknown for modern perfumers and consumers.
Now you will understand why cigarettes are better in a "Cuir de Russie" case, pipe tobacco in a classic chevrotin pouch and how you can recreate the scent of old books.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
.This spring comes with a surprise for those wanting to study in depth the scents and their chemical perspective. The classic book written in the 90's by the famous Günther Ohloff comes in a new edition imagined as the Bible of perfume chemistry or the molecular Art, from the scents in nature to the latest creations. 400 fragrances are discussed with insight into formula details by GC/MS analysis, and many by direct input from the respective perfumers.
(2005), and 
(2008).
, when he traveled around the world to bring unknown scents for Givaudan.
Her presentation was one of the most profound reflection about this Art and I'll probably devote an article to the very important elements she underlined.
(1855), an opus that caused a sensation and was the first modern basis of a new art (Rimmel will publish his book 10 years after). He was a chemist with a profound knowledge but also a genius of promotion and proto-marketing. He put the basis of what we call today the advertising and copywriting of perfumes. As I have already explained in earlier articles, the formulae published in his book should not be seen as a perfume formula for luxury perfumes in the XIXth century. Their purpose was different. Offering their names (before they could be even trademarked) and unveiling only a small fraction of his perfumes, much similar to the pyramid of notes of any 2011 creation, he was actually setting the trends in a world where he was the king. In his book, published 10 years after, Rimmel mentions that only in Paris there were about 150 perfumers. Piesse made his creations the "perfume types" par excellence for many generations in a time when information was rare. 
