[Herbalist] Pomanders-roses

[Tricia Emery]

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Well, like you suggest, first what IS a pomander?  As previously mentioned, Mary Doggett's Book of Recipes (1682) description of a Pomander is apparently quite different from what you or I might have imagined.  Could the word pomander have been used to describe any type of spherical perfuming device?  John Babtist Port suggest that scented beads were often sewn directly to clothing.  He also intructs us to shape our washing balls into pomanders:
Then strain it out into broad platters, and expose it to the hot Sun, mixing it often every day.  When it is grown hard, make Pomanders of it, and reserve them.  You may thus perfume them.  Put two pounds of the Pomanders into a bowl, and with a wooden spoon, mix it with Rosewater, till it be very soft.  When it has stood still a while, and is grown hard, add more water, and set it in the Sun.  Do this for ten days.

However Oranges ARE period, at least in Italy, (just how far back I do not know) and might certainly have differed from our modern varieties.  Again, John Babtist Porta refers to them several times:
      An Orange or Citron Tree
      an Orange or Lemon
       the juice of Citrons, Oranges, Onions, or almost any sharp things
      "...these are very fit to be Grafted by Emplastering, and these kinds of compound Oranges and Lemons are very commonly to be seen in many orchards in Naples..."


Apparently the scent of oranges and cloves were both quite popular in period perfumery, and the two were often used together, but I don't know if/when an orange might first have been studded with cloves and called a pomander...

Jessimond (who LOVES John Babtist Porta's book!)

 BJ of NZ <bjofnz at yahoo.co.nz> wrote:
I'm interested in the history of pomanders. I've seen the decorated Orbs suspended on a chain (tudor accesories)-and maybe falsely imagined these stuffed with fragrant herbs or wax herb balls -basicly a perfumed substance and I've labeled these pomemander

Then theres the modern Practice of taking a citrus and beribboning it then inserting cloves in it and rolling it in a spice mix-dried it makes a perfumed ball

now oranges as we know them are 17th century or 20th what would a period Pomemander be? and when did the cloven orange type appear??

Bj of Nz -Bea of Ildhafn


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