Polak & Schwarz’s Essencefabrieken — Polak & Schwarz’s Essence Factories — was a Dutch essential-oil and flavour-and-fragrance firm at Hilversum in the Netherlands, one of the principal Dutch essential-oil houses of the early twentieth century, and a regular consultant of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum at Amsterdam in the evaluation of Netherlands Indies essential-oil samples. The firm’s analytical report on the first Atjeh-distilled patchouli oil, dated January 1922 and preserved in *Bericht* No. 21 of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum (April 1925), was one of the three European expert verdicts that framed the early history of the Atjeh patchouli experiments of 1921-1925.
The Firm
Polak & Schwarz’s Essencefabrieken was founded in the late nineteenth century as a Dutch essential-oil and flavour-extract manufacturer. The firm’s principal factory was at Hilversum in the province of North Holland, with a laboratory for the analysis and quality-control of essential oils. By the early twentieth century the firm was one of the principal Dutch essential-oil houses, alongside the smaller Dutch flavour-and-fragrance firms of the period.
The firm was a regular consultant of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum at Amsterdam, which distributed Netherlands Indies essential-oil samples to Polak & Schwarz alongside Schimmel & Co. of Miltitz and Roure, Bertrand fils of Grasse. The Hilversum firm was the principal Dutch expert house for the Handelsmuseum’s Atjeh patchouli-oil evaluations, and its reports were therefore given particular weight in the Handelsmuseum’s correspondence with the Afdeeling Nijverheid at Buitenzorg.
The January 1922 Atjeh Patchouli Report
Polak & Schwarz’s Essencefabrieken received the first Atjeh patchouli-oil samples from the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum in the autumn of 1921, alongside Schimmel & Co. of Miltitz and Roure, Bertrand fils of Grasse. The firm’s report, dated January 1922, opened with the laboratory’s analytical findings:
“De constanten van deze beide oliën zijn geheel en al gelijk. Het S.G. is 0.9489. Optische draaiing +1°7’. Brekingsindex 1.5068. Zuurgetal 0.9. Estergetal 3.17.” — The constants of these two oils are wholly identical. The specific gravity is 0.9489. Optical rotation +1°7’. Refractive index 1.5068. Acid value 0.9. Ester value 3.17.
On the decisive question of odour, the firm’s verdict was:
“terwijl de reuk in vergelijking met olie, welke als standaard is te beschouwen, zeer matig moet worden genoemd.” — while the odour, in comparison with oil that is to be considered the standard, must be called very mediocre.
The report continued:
“Alhoewel de constanten aan de eischen voldoen, heeft de olie voor de parfumerie weinig waarde, want de reuk is niet goed. Alleen dan, wanneer de prijs buitengewoon laag zou zijn, bijv. 30-40 % lager dan de huidige prijs voor deze olie, welke momenteel = ƒ 45.— per Kilo is, zou deze wellicht toch nog voor goedkoope doeleinden gebruikt kunnen worden.” — Although the constants meet the requirements, the oil has little value for perfumery, for the odour is not good. Only if the price were extraordinarily low — for example 30-40% below the current price for this oil, which is at the moment ƒ45.— per kilogram — might it perhaps be used for cheap purposes.
The Handelsmuseum’s Reaction
The Afdeeling Handelsmuseum at Amsterdam was nonplussed by the disagreement of the three European houses. Schimmel & Co. of Miltitz had judged the first Atjeh oil not a “vollwertiges Konkurrenzprodukt für das Singaporeöl” — a full-value competitive product for the Singapore oil. Roure, Bertrand fils of Grasse had found the same oils “de très bonne qualité” (of very good quality) and of “une valeur commerciale indiscutable” (an indisputable commercial value). Polak & Schwarz’s verdict — the constants good but the odour “zeer matig” — stood between the German and the French positions.
The Handelsmuseum’s advice, in its letter to Buitenzorg of 11 January 1922, was that the project should not be stopped on the basis of three divergent verdicts. The three reports together suggested that the quality problem was not in the chemistry but in the odour — a problem that might be addressed by improvements to the distillation process (the picking-to-distilling interval, the distillation temperature, the steam quality).
Significance
Polak & Schwarz’s Essencefabrieken is significant for the encyclopedia of Aceh history as the Dutch expert house whose analytical reports, preserved in the 1925 Bericht of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum, documented the early history of the Atjeh patchouli experiments of 1921-1925. The firm’s January 1922 verdict — the constants good but the odour mediocre — was the principal Dutch external judgement on the first Atjeh-distilled patchouli oil, and was the basis of the Afdeeling Handelsmuseum’s recommendation that the technical questions of distillation (the picking-to-distilling interval, the distillation temperature, the steam quality) be addressed before further commercial judgement was passed.
See Also
- Atjeh patchouli experiments (1921-1925)
- Over patchouly-olie en patchouly-blad van Atjeh (1925)
- Atjehsche Oliefabriek
- Schimmel & Co.
- Roure, Bertrand fils
- Laboratorium voor Technische Botanie (Delft)
- Afdeeling Handelsmuseum
- Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut
- Hilversum
- Netherlands
- Tapa Toean
- 1922
- 1925
Source
Over patchouly-olie en patchouly-blad van Atjeh (Noord-Sumatra). Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Kon. Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut, No. 21. Overgedrukt uit De Indische Mercuur van 8 en 15 Mei 1925. Amsterdam: Druk De Bussy. OCR-filename: 20260801_233856_DLP-153-Over_patchouly_olie_en_patchouly_blad_van_Atjeh_Noord_Sumatra_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 6-7 (January 1922 report by Polak & Schwarz’s Essencefabrieken).