Fourth Annual Convention October 16th & 17th 2004
The Committee of the UK Chapter is pleased to report that their recent two-day convention at the Europa Gatwick Hotel, London was another great success. Three first class speakers entertained and informed the members on Saturday and specialist dealers and exhibitors displayed around 5,000 rare and attractive bottles and a variety of perfume ephemera at the fair on Sunday.
The venue, for the second time, was the beautiful hacienda
style Europa and the perfume bottle sale on Sunday was held in a spacious,
attractive room. More than 60 members attended the event including visitors
from the United States, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. Among
the American guests were three past Presidents of the IPBA and two former
Board members.
The convention
was opened on Saturday afternoon by our Chairperson, Pamela Taylor, followed
by an address by Phyllis Dohanian, a past President of the Association.
The
first of our three speakers, Betty Houghton talked about the development of
perfume over the ages and then described the redesign of the bottles, packaging
and display of the entire range of the Cotswold Perfumery of Bourton-on-the-Water,
Gloucestershire.3
3 Next came a team from the Estée Lauder Company, lead
by beauty expert Christine Cartwright. Christine spoke (in her unique and
entertaining style!) about the development of the Estée Lauder Company
and was assisted by 
Alison
Chapman of Harrods in describing the production of their famous ornamental
perfume solids. A short video showed the skilled processes and attention to
detail that goes into producing these collectors’ pieces.
Our final speaker, David Pybus, is known as the Indiana Jones of the perfume
business. David's passion for perfume has taken him on many journeys, from
the depths of the Atlantic and the perfume treasure of the Titanic, 
to
the gardens of Pompeii for another aromatic treasure caught in time, to the
lilies of a water garden in England and the rediscovery of Cleopatra's favourite
juice, to the Incense Trail from Egypt to Japan and to the tatami mats of
Sakai City, Osaka where the incense game Kodo is played. David’s talk
vividly described these experiences and he illustrated it with many fascinating
images.
In the final session of the afternoon, members heard about an ambitious project
to produce a comprehensive encyclopaedia of everything perfume. Adrian Horsham,
the Chapter’s newsletter editor, has spent several years researching
and compiling an enormous database of perfume facts. The next phase is to
illustrate the database, hopefully including photographs of examples from
Members’ own collections and then to transfer the database to the internet
for subscribers to browse and research the world of perfume.
After
a buffet in the evening, expert facilitators hosted “round table”
discussions about various aspects of perfume bottle collecting.
On Sunday a fair was held with eighteen dealers and exhibitors
offering a wide variety of bottles and ephemera for sale – old and new, 
commercial
and decorative, expensive and inexpensive. Perfume jewelry, cards, labels
and advertising material were also available.
Members browsed the bottles on display during the morning and the public was
admitted in the afternoon.
The fair and convention closed at 4:30pm
An album of photographs from the convention can be found here
