Chapter 12
Author: Suzanne Perkins
Title: Is It a Chocolate Pot?
Chocolate and Its Accoutrements in France from Cookbook to Collectible.
The introduction of chocolate and its diffusion, primarily as a beverage, in royal and aristocratic circles, was accompanied by the development of the chocolatiere, or chocolate pot. Often made of silver and porcelain, the chocolatiere became a specialized item to facilitate the stirring, frothing, and serving of hot chocolate in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The chocolatiere bears similarities to a coffee pot but it is marked by a hole in its unattached cover [couvercle], or hinged lid, into which a wooden stirrer [Spanish: molinillo, French: moussoir or moulinet] is inserted to stir and froth the hot chocolate in the pot below. The Spaniards introduced the molinillo, which they twirled with two hands and they added the closed top, through which the stirrer was inserted. The French are generally said to have introduced the chocolatiere, defined as having a handle placed at a right angle to the spout and unscrewing clockwise so that it would remain tight while pouring from the spout in a counterclockwise direction. A hinged lid at the top had the hole through which the moussoir was inserted. Chocolatieres appear to have been first mentioned in France in 1671 in a letter of the Marquise de Sevigne. Silver chocolatieres can be dated to 1685 in England and it may be assumed that they existed before in France, as a gift of them was made to the French king in 1686. Reference was made to "porcelain" chocolatieres in 1689 in France but this is almost certainly soft-paste porcelain, as the finer hard-paste is developed only in the mid-18th century. In the second half of the 18th century, the Sevres manufactory produced porcelain to order for the royal family and porcelain chocolatieres joined those in silver as high prestige items. The introduction of more mechanized ways of making chocolate beverages in the mid-19th century rendered chocolatieres obsolete. In the 20th century, the chocolatiere assumed a second life as an object of historical interest and as a collectible. Identifying chocolatieres can be difficult. While most silver and some porcelain chocolatieres have holes in their covers, most ceramic chocolatieres do not. Not all chocolatieres have a handle placed at a right angle to the spout. Museum records sometimes identify objects as chocolate-related, which may not have the stirrer, the handle, or other attributes often specific to them. By the late 18th century, the Sevres porcelain manufactory was producing chocolatieres for French royalty and aristocrats, including Madame de Pompadour. Developments in processing, which improved chocolate suspension in liquids, and changing fashions in the 19th century decreased usage of chocolatieres but interest in them as collectibles intensified in the late 20th century.
Previous | Next
Back to Chapter Overview page
