Lettre d’un fabriquant de Lyon, à un Négociant de Paris, sur les vertus & avantages de l'Essence Vestimentale du Sieur Dupleix

[Versailles: s.n., 1772. 12mo (156 x 105 mm). 12 pp. Caption title. Woodcut reproduction of the seal to be found on bottles of Dupleix’s “essence vestimentale.” (Short marginal tear to first two leaves.) Modern wrappers. ***

A unique surviving publicity pamphlet in the form of a testimonial letter, describing the almost miraculously effective properties of a popular liquid stain-remover.

A textile manufacturer from Lyon, writing to a businessman in Paris who had sent him a sample of M. Dupleix’s “essence vestimentale,” describes his experiences removing intractable stains produced by various greasy, sticky substances on many different kinds of textiles and surfaces, without discoloration or other permanent trace. His enumeration of stains and details of their treatment provide a vivid picture of daily existence: wax stains on clothes, greasy stains from wigs, hair, and sweaty hands on coach seats and curtains, tar stains on a man’s jacket... The tone is didactic and the reader is reminded to beat and remove the dust from clothes before treating them with drops from M. Dupleix’s special bottle. Besides removing all manner of stains, this substance was also fatal to bedbugs (usefully for travelers) and (added in an addendum) to the biting insects of the American colonies: mosquitoes, fleas and other vermin. Its only drawback: a very strong smell. Several days of airing out before use are advised. The last page warns distributors not to sell any bottles of Dupleix’s “essence” not bearing his sealed stopper, with a reproduction of the seal, and provides Dupleix’s address in Versailles.

Spoiler alert: In Baillot’s Nouveau manuel du teinturier (1819), the mysterious substance is identified as a composite of essences of turpentine, lavender and lemon.

I locate no other copies of this pamphlet, and have found no mention of Sr. Dupleix, who advertised his invention in several contemporary publications, in any other context. Dupleix was still alive in 1809: he is listed under the rubric Pharmaciens in the 1809 Repertoire du Commerce de Paris; but by 1821 his widow had taken over the business, as revealed by an entry in the 1821 Bazar Parisien (p. 181), which notes that this ”essence” had been invented 60 years earlier.

The University of Delaware holds a different, 8-page pamphlet, Essence vestimentale de Dupleix, rue Martin ... à Paris. [1779 or 1780] (only copy located by OCLC).