Chocolate pot
Date1708-1709
Artist/Maker
John Wisdom
OriginEngland, London
MediumSilver (Britannia)
DimensionsOH: 9 1/4"; H(rim): 6 1/2"; D(rim): 2 11/16"; D(base): 2 15/16"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1954-577
DescriptionChocolate pot of lighthouse form. Peaked ball finial with mid-band supported on turned section surmounting small stepped lid resting on short straight-sided sleeve in center top of main cover; lid attached to cover with hinge with lower plate shaped in the form of a pendent drop; lid conceals and discloses circular aperture in cover for insertion of a stirring rod; high domed cover with applied drawn tripartite mid-band below shoulder and terminating in a flared molded edge; cover attached by right-angle hinge to upper handle socket with scrolled tankard thumbpiece soldered to upper hinge plate at an oblique angle; tapered cylindrical body with applied moldings at rim and base; plain "swan neck" spout with hinged shield-shaped flap covering opening with other half of shaped outline soldered to top of spout above opening; replaced scrolled pearwood handle placed at right angles to spout fitting straight-sided cylindrical sockets attached with plain discs to body. Engraved cipher CSR within a circle of foliated scrolls and pendent bell flowers on face of body opposite handle.Label TextChocolate pots for the most part closely correspond in design to contemporary coffeepots. The position of the handle at right angles to the spout does not serve to distinguish between the two, for this occurs on coffeepots of the late seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century. Usually, the only difference is the presence of a circular hole in the top of the cover of the chocolate pot to accommodate the stirring rod or mill. For this purpose, the finial is either hinged at the side, as in this instance, pivoted, or removable. The spout on this example is wrought from sheet and not cast, as are spouts on most coffee and chocolate pots before 1710.
Stirring rods were consistently referred to as "chocolate mills" in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This term, as Hughes and Pinto have pointed out, has often been understandably confused with a hand machine to grind or pulverize chocolate. Chocolate mills usually consist of a turned wooden handle with a cluster of plain or pierced flanges of wood or metal at one end. Very few chocolate pots retain their mills. A rare example is that of 1738/39 by Paul Crespin of London in the Farrer collection at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Clayton cites, but does not describe or illustrate, an example of 1774. Wenham illustrates a chocolate pot with lamp and stand of 1807/8 by John Parker of London with a mill having pierced silver flanges. Mills are most frequently encountered with miniature chocolate pots, and, in that instance, they are rendered entirely in silver. Full-sized mills were produced by turners in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who sold them separately and probably supplied the wooden parts to silversmiths for mounting. Modest examples entirely of wood were probably intended for use with chocolate pots of base metal. Two examples of extreme size with handsomely shaped and pierced silver flanges and partial silver handles of 1739/40, both fashioned by John Hugh Le Sage of London, would appear too large for use in chocolate pots and may have served as punch whisks. An unmarked example of similar date sold at auction in 1973.
John Worlidge described in 1675 the preparation of chocolate and the necessary role played by the mill: "[Some] boil it [the chocolate 'sliced or scraped fine'] in water and sugar; others mix half water and half milk and boil it, then add powdered chocolate to it and boil them together; others add wine and water. Be sure whilst it is boiling to keep it stirring, and when it is off the fire, whir it with your hand mill. That is, it must be mixed in a deep pot of Tin, copper or stone, with a cover with a hole in the middle of it, for the handle of the mill to come out at, or without a cover. The mill is only a knop at the end of a slender handle or stick, turned in a turner's lathe, and cut in notches, or rough at the end. They are sold at turners for that purpose. This being whirled between your hands, whilst the pot is over the fire, and the rough end in the liquor causes an equal mixture of the liquor with the chocolate and raises a head of froth over it. Then pour it out for use in small dishes for that purpose. You must add a convenient quantity of sugar to the mixture." (Quoted by G. Bernard Hughes, 'Silver Pots for Chocolate,' "Country Life" 125 (October 20, 1960): 856-57.) This procedure had changed very little when Elizabeth Raffald, in her Experienced English Housekeeper (London, 1769), wrote "Scrape four ounces of chocolate and pour a quart of boiling water upon it, mill it well with a chocolate mill, and sweeten it to your taste, give it a boil and let it stand all night, then mill it again very well, boil it two minutes, then mill it till it will leave a froth upon the top of your cups." As late as 1861, Mrs. Isabella Beeton, in her Book of Household Management, illustrates a conventional chocolate mill with a turned handle and pierced flanges and instructs: "Chocolate prepared with in a mill, as shown in the engraving, is made by putting in the scraped chocolate, pouring over it the boiling milk-and-water, and milling it over the fire until hot and frothy."
William Fitzhugh of Stafford County, Virginia, in a 1701 codicil to his will bequeathed "to my son Thomas Fitzhugh my Silver Chocolate Pott which I brought out of England." His estate's inventory of 1703included "1 Copper. Chocolate Pott" with the "Household Furniture." Interestingly enough, there are no articles listed for tea or coffee in his will or inventory. Thomas Lee, on the other hand, a resident of nearby Westmoreland County, owned a considerable quantity of silver, including a chocolate pot, coffeepot and teapot. The 1770 inventory of the estate of Lord Botetourt listed among the goods and furnishings of the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg "3 chocolate pots with four mills," as well as "24 lb of chocolate."
InscribedOwner's cypher engraved on face of body opposite handle.
MarkingsBritannia standard. Maker's mark "WI" in block letters with a fleur-de-lis below within a shaped shield, lion's head erased, Britannia, date letter on face of body below rim to right of handle. Maker's mark, lion's head erased on bezel of cover.
ProvenanceMiss L. Coats, Fomethy House, Perthshire (sold at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 1954)
Garrard & Co. Ltd.. London
Exhibition(s)
