Book collecting came early for Ben Kinmont.
He first took interest in the avocation during his adolescence and cultivated a passion (and, equally important, an instinct) for the craft throughout college, during which he primarily collected mid-17th-century English radical literature.
After making the switch from collecting to selling in his mid-20s, Kinmont turned his focus to rare books about food and perfume, a decision that has since granted him the unique ability to say he has unearthed once-in-a-lifetime finds, several times in his life.
His latest: A 19th-century perfume sample album from L.T. Piver — one of the earliest French perfumery houses — filled with more than 220 printed and hand-painted illustrations of antique fragrance bottles and myriad cosmetics products also produced by the company, including oils, aromatic vinegars, soaps and creams.
“For me, there’s this crossover between rarity, original condition and an interesting subject — when those three things intersect, that’s what makes a book truly astonishing,” said Kinmont, who believes that due to the book’s “utterly remarkable” condition (down to its unimpeded binding), it was likely created strictly for in-house use by the company, which was established in the late eighteenth century and was a leading supplier of perfumed products at the time.
Kinmont will unveil the album at the annual International Antiquarian Book Fair, sanctioned by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, taking place from April 27 through April 30 at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory.
The book will be available for purchase for $28,000.
“What’s exciting about rare and antique books is they embody much more than just text,” said Kinmont, adding that the increasing digitization of knowledge only makes such books — of which few are made and even fewer survive — even more profound. “A book is almost like a body; it shows its wear, it shows if it has been loved — it moves and changes over centuries.”
So what does an antique perfume sample book smell like? “To me, it’s a very earthy, homey smell; it’s what I call old book smell,” said Kinmont, adding after a pause: “It’s the smell of knowledge.”