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Scent from Nature: Beauty’s botanical origins

This exhibition is now in our archive.

Plants have been used in the beauty and fragrance industry for thousands of years, from ancient times up until the present day.

The exhibition features beautiful watercolours from our exceptional botanical collection which are displayed alongside a range of perfume vessels from ancient Egypt and Greece, as well as scent bottles from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Works include those by Pieter Withoos (1655-92), Nicolas Robert (1614–85), Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–70), Joseph von Plenck (1735–1807), Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) and Henriette Knip (1783–1842).

Selected objects

An image of Scent bottle

Scent bottle

M.2 & A & B-1956

An image of Scent bottle

Scent bottle

M.4-1949

An image of Scent bottle

Scent bottle

M.154 & A-1973

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Curators and experts behind this exhibition

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