Every self-respecting woman of the 1950s and 1960s displayed a bottle of 4711 Eau de Cologne on her dressing table, and it’s a scent that still lingers to this day.
The legend of 4711’s creation dates back to the late 18th Century, when merchant Wilhelm Mülhens was given the recipe for an ‘acqua mirabilis’ by a Carthusian monk as a wedding gift.
He began manufacturing and selling the ‘miracle water’ as a revitalising health remedy, to be drunk undiluted or with wine.
During the French occupation of Cologne, Napoleon decreed that all medicines must display a list of their ingredients.
Not wishing to disclose his secret recipe, Mülhens decided to market the German miracle water as a fragrance instead.
The recipe remains a closely guarded secret, unchanged for more than 200 years, but the seven main ingredients are known to be lemon, orange, bergamot, lavender, rosemary, petitgrain and neroll.
The name 4711 derives from Wilhelm Mülhens’ business address.
Although bombs destroyed the original factory and company headquarters during the Second World War, they were rebuilt in the 1950s, and the store at 4711 Glockengasse 4 in Cologne now attracts more than 100,000 visitors from all over the world every year.
Holly Golightly uses 4711 in Truman Capote’s novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dr Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) has the number 4711 tattooed on his thigh.
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