Plants and Perfume: Exploring the Archive of John Charles Sawer
September’s Treasure of the Month delves into the history of perfumery through the archive of chemist and botanist John Charles Sawer FLS (1842–1904). Our Honorary Curator of Artefacts, Glenn Benson FLS, looks at some of the items from the archive.
Published on 4th September 2026
Figure 1 - Carte de viste of John Charles Sawer c.1879-1885, Reference: MS/486
The first record so far of someone we might describe as a chemist dates to c.1200 BCE; it names an Assyrian professional perfumer, Tappūtī-Bēlet-Ekallim, and details her recipe for processing aromatic cane oil made from the rhizomes of Acorus calamus (1). Thanks to the work of Cary Phillips, one of our volunteers, the archive of John Charles Sawer FLS (1842-1904) a chemist, botanist and writer on the sources of natural perfumes was recently added to the Society’s archive catalogue.
John Charles Sawer, a zinc manufacturer and industrial chemist, was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1881, having been nominated by Edward Morell Holmes, Robert Braithwaite and James Renny.
Between 1892 and 1894 he published his encyclopaedic Odorographia: a natural history of raw materials and drugs used in the perfume industry: intended to serve growers, manufacturers and consumers.
Combining his knowledge of business, chemistry and botany, the book gives the details of perfumes sourced from fauna and flora across the world, and how they are processed. He would later focus on the rose oil industry in his Rhodologia. A discourse on roses, and the odour of the rose (published 1894).
Figure 2 - Leaf rubbing of Patchouli valued for its fragrant essential oil used in perfumes, Reference: MS/478
The Sawer archive contains a working draft of his Odorographia written in his meticulous handwriting, with few corrections that I could see. The rest of the material, eight boxes, contains letters, press cuttings on the sources of perfume, adverts, photographs of Bulgarian Rose oil production and commercial plantations, leaf rubbings, and tracings for the illustrations used in his publications.
Figure 3 - One of over 30 drawings from the sketchbook said to have belonged to Count Paul Strzelecki, donated to the Society in 1923 by Daisy Delvalle Sawer as part of her father’s archive, Reference: MS/175
Among the more unusual items is a sketchbook said to have belonged to Count Paul (Paweł) Strzelecki (1797-1873), the Polish explorer and scientist. I have qualified the provenance of the sketchbook because Strzelecki’s will famously instructed his executor, John Lamb Sawer (1818-1881), to burn the Count’s personal effects on his death. This sketchbook contains annotated portraits and landscapes from Asia. It might therefore be a rare, perhaps the only, survivor of Strzelecki’s estate. I was so fascinated by the sketchbook that I adopted it through the AdoptLINN scheme and hope to research it further in the future.
Figure 4 - Watercolour design for a dessert plate, possibly by Daisy Delvalle Sawer, that was part of our Wonder exhibition, Reference: MS/484
The archive contains numerous diagrams, botanical illustrations and watercolours, including designs for plates; these, I speculate, are the work of Daisy Devalle Sawer (1875-1943), John’s daughter, who taught art and published several books on art technique and art education. Her 1935 book, Art in daily life for young & old, contains photographs of illustrations from Linnaean material held by the Society.
The Sawer archive offers a fascinating insight into the history and chemistry of perfumery; you can now explore it too via the Society’s Library at New Burlington House.
Glenn Benson FLS, Hon. Curator of Artefacts
Sources:
- Women in the History of Science | UCL Press
