“Put it on sale, or heads will roll!” – surprise demand for Décapitation perfume!

A perfume created as a not-for-sale limited edition by the team at York’s Barley Hall may well be on its way towards the retail shelves after demand for the novelty fragrance grows from prospective purchasers across the globe! 

A survey within Barley Hall over the last month has revealed that over 70% of visitors would wear the luxury fragrance, which was given the tongue-in-cheek name of ‘Décapitation by Femme No. 5’, whilst enquiries have been received from Europe and the United States from history enthusiasts keen to buy the perfume.

The perfume was created to coincide with an exhibition at York’s Barley Hall about Henry VIII’s one and only visit to the city in 1541, when his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, is alleged to have had an affair with a courtier, Thomas Culpeper.  Catherine and Thomas both paid for their indiscretion with their heads.

“The perfume was crafted with aromas that were either in common use, or had specific connotations during Tudor times, from rose to represent Henry’s ‘rose without a thorn’, to violet which was associated with bereavement and death,” comments Paul Whiting, marketing manager for York Archaeological Trust which owns Barley Hall.  “We wanted to add a signature scent to a room in which Catherine’s costumes from TV dramas feature, but didn’t dream that visitors would like it so much that they wanted to wear it themselves!”

Indeed, the perfume was described by one perfume blogger* as ‘a fabulous scent – definitely floral but after a few minutes, the lemon comes to the fore on me, then it fades to a soft musky scent’, with both visitors to Barley Hall and people around the world who have heard about the perfume asking where they can get their hands on a bottle!

“It is perhaps a little too early to say for certain, but we have had a conversation with the perfumiers who blended the scent for us, and we are looking into producing a limited run of the perfume to stock in our shop – if we can make a limited edition viable, there’s no reason why we can’t provide Décapitation for this year’s Christmas stockings – though it will have to come with a health warning, as we don’t want people losing their heads over it!” adds Paul.

In the meantime, the perfume is exclusively available to sample at Barley Hall in York, as part of the ‘Power & Glory: York in the time of Henry VIII’ exhibition.

For more details, please visit www.barleyhall.co.uk/femmeno5

ENDS

* http://www.msdemeanour.co.uk/featured/new-tudor-perfume-check-out/

For further media information or photographs, please contact:

Jay Commins

Pyper York Limited

Tel:         01904 500698

Email:    jay@pyperyork.co.uk