Description:
Baluster-shaped brass chocolate pot with a stepped lid with a center circular hole; sides tapering sides to a swelled base with a sharp shoulder and flared foot; and a turned wooden handle that is inset into a brass cylinder attached to a shaped flange attached to the side of the pot with three brass rivets, which extends straight out from the side. The hole in the lid is for the insertion of a chocolate mill or molinet - a knobbed piece of wood used to mix and areate the chocolate beverage. Chocolate was a beverage drunk in early America and in Deerfield, primarily taken for breakfast or as a meal replacement for the elderly or infirm. In 1756 Major Elijah Williams of Deerfield, Massachusetts, purchased 40 lbs. of chocolate at 10 shillings per lb. from a Boston merchant;.he also purchased equal amounts of tea at 37 shillings, 6 pence per lb. and coffee at 8 shillings per lb. There are also account book references to the purchase of chocolate by Lucy Terry, an enslaved African-American owned by Ebenezer Wells in Deerfield; the chocolate may have been used at his tavern which Wells kept within his residence. The preparation of chocolate was a very involved and time-consuming process, quite unlike today’s ready-mix. According to an English source, some people "boil [the chocolate] in water and sugar, others mix half water and half milk and boil it, then added 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 [the stick used for stirring the thick chocolate mixture]. 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. This being whirled between your hands, whilst the pot is over the fire, 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." According to Christopher Fox, Curator at Fort Ticonderoga (5/31/08), this chocolate pot may have been made in the mid-19th - early 20th century. Brass chocolate pots do appear to be more rare than copper chocolate pots; Fox has only seen four or five obviously early brass examples compared to dozens of copper pots. The probable mid 19th - early 20th-century brass pots have the following characteristics: straight seams - not lapped, tabbed, nor dovetailed joints; the body is spun brass - machine-made via spinning the metal on a lathe resulting in an uniform shape and smooth body form; heavy cast brass handle attachment panel; and brass rivets. Objects of brass shaped in this manner do not appear until after 1850.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2007.42 |
