Figure 1. An example of a toilette set by Sebastien Igonet, Alexis Loir, Antoine Lebrun and Etienne Pollet (1738-9) complete with all the necessaires for a dressing table - tools to make hot chocolate would typically be included. Commissioned by the Portuguese Duc de Cadaval.
Figure 2. Late seventeenth-century fashion print advertising the trendiness of the exotic beverage, chocolate, by showing well-dressed members of Louis XIV's court.
“Served in small, fragile porcelain cups, it [chocolate] played a key role (along with coffee and tea) in the rituals of self-presentation and polite interaction through which privileged individuals crafted their social personas.” (Hellman 9)
Chocolate was a key part of the daily morning ritual for French nobility in the 18th century. This sweet and rich beverage would be served in tiny porcelain teacups during the toilette as well as in public cafés and formal gatherings (Figures 1 and 2). The exotic drink provided a way to display wealth for those who could afford it as well as elegance and style through the ware of porcelain and the delicate art of sipping hot chocolate.
The process of making chocolate began from the cocoa seeds, which originated in Central America (Figure 3). The seeds were discovered by the Spaniards, who learned how to create this
Figure 3. Engraving of cocoa plant, pod, and seed from Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedia.
Figure 4. Engraving of workers making chocolate. Figures 1 within the diagram shows a worker roasting the chocolate in a iron boiler on the stove and figure 4 shows a worker grinding the chocolate on a heated stone.
beverage made from roasted cocoa nuts and warm water in clay pots from the native Americans. However, according to the article, CHOCOLATE in the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d’Alembert, the Spanish and Portuguese, supposed founders of cocoa, were thought to have kept the food a secret as “an unspoken practice for which they clearly have good reasons and one for which they have undergone the cruelest torments rather than break”. Through the transplantation of cocoa trees from their original source to other Spanish as well as French colonies, these orchards called “cocoa patches” were where the African slaves brought to the Americas would harvest the cocoa seeds. The seeds were then brought to French markets and bought by chefs who fermented, roasted, husked, and grounded them, creating a hardened paste (Figure 4). The French also learned from the Spaniards, to add sugar to correct the taste of the chocolate, which is still a practice in the manufacture of chocolate today.
Figure 5. (Boucher, 1739) Male servant serving chocolate to two ladies and a child.
Exotic products such as chocolate, as well as sugar, vanilla, and coffee, intrigued the French, who not only viewed them as a food, but also as medicine. The Spaniards were the first to recommend that chocolate was nourishing, easily digestible, and a cure for depression and fatigue. The French looked upon the sweet drink as the “Milk of the old people”: a nutritious tonic that controlled the stomach. This oily and buttery ingredient would soothe nutrition woes and mood imbalance while the additives of sugar, egg, or milk made the elixir even more nourishing and spices such as vanilla and cinnamon aroused the appetite and strengthened the stomach. However, these same spices also had the potency to overheat the blood and disrupt the humeral balance of the delicate and fragile bodies of the nobles. The drink could in turn pose a risk for people corrupted by sexual excess, as chocolate was also thought to be an aphrodisiac as well to have restorative powers.
Figure 6. (1789) The making of chocolate as an habitual exercise during the lever.
Figure 7. (1789) Chocolate used as a prop in the midst of conversation at the beginning of the day.
Two scenes from Le Jeune’s Monument du Costume show how the French nobility would utilize the exotic concoction as restoratives at the beginning of the day. In Le lever, a male servant stirs the drink while his master is being dressed while in J’en accepte l’heureux présage, no one is serving the noble couple; the lady of the house absent-mindedly stirs her own cup as she participates in a conversation with her husband (Figures 6 and 7). The way that both people stir the drink without their full attention, which is also demonstrated in the artist François Boucher’s painting, Le Déjeneur, reflects how habitual drinking chocolate has become in this time period (Figure 5).
Figure 8. A silver-gilt chocolatière and réchaud by Henri-Nicolas Cousinet (1729), from Marie Leczinska’s nécessaire, Paris. The arms were removed at the revolution.
In the home of the French elite, chocolate was prepared in its own container: the chocolate pot (Figure 8). This pot has a large handle for gripping and is held up by three thin feet which differentiate it from tea kettles and coffee pots. The chocolate beverage would be poured out, served in small porcelain cups, and consumed slowly in small sips from teaspoons. As can be seen in the images from the Monument du Costume as well as Boucher’s painting, chocolate-drinking is an activity that was used as a prop for people to appear elegant and refined while enjoying this palatable luxury.
Bibliography:
DeJean, Joan. The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. Free Press: New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, 2005.
Hellman, Mimi. « Of Water and Chocolate. » Gastronomica : The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 4 (Fall 2004) : 9-11.
Marie Antoinette, exhibition catalog for exhibit in Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2008.
Whitehead, John. The French Interior in the Eighteenth Century. Dutton Studio Books, 1993.
Paris: Life and Luxury in the Eighteenth Century. Bremer-David, Charissa, Ed. Catalog of exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2011.
The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, CHOCOLATE. vol. 3 (1753), quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/. November 2, 2012.
The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, COCOA OR COCOA TREE. vol. 2 (1752), quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/. November 2, 2012.
The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, NEGROES. vol. 11 (1765), quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/. November 2, 2012.
The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, VANILLA. vol. 16 (1765), quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/. November 2, 2012.
Images:
Figure 1. Igonet, Sebastien. Lebrun, Antoine. Loir, Alexis. Pollet, Etienne. Toilet Service. 1738-9. Whitehead, John. The French Interior in the Eighteenth Century. Dutton Studio Books, 1993.
Figure 2. DeJean, Joan. The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour.Free Press: New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, 2005.
Figure 3. The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, NATURAL HISTORY – VEGETABLE KINGDOM, Plate CI. vol. 6 (1768), quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/. November 2, 2012.
Figure 4. The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project, CONFECTIONER, Plate V. vol. 3 (1763), quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/. November 2, 2012
Figure 5. Boucher, François. Le Déjeuner. 1739. Luna Insight. Smith College Library Database. November 2, 2012.
Figure 6. Moreau (Le Jeune), Jean-Michel. Monument du costume physique et morale de la fin du dix-huitième siècle. 1789. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA.
Figure 7. Moreau (Le Jeune), Jean-Michel. Monument du costume physique et morale de la fin du dix-huitième siècle. 1789. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA.
Figure 8. Cousinet, Henri-Nicolas. Silver-gilt chocolatière and réchaud. 1729. Whitehead, John. The French Interior in the Eighteenth Century. Dutton Studio Books, 1993.
Ji Park
I find it interesting that chocolate became somewhat of a global phenomenon, as different cultures (Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Native American) added their own practices to it according to what was available to them. Also, it’s interesting to compare chocolate’s functions in the 18th ce to present day because we see it as a hot drink that is available to everyone, but in the 18th century, it was a nutritious beverage, owned mainly by the elite. Great job researching the topic!
I thought you picked an excellent quote to open with! It had me instantly interested because I never would have thought that chocolate played the role of molding “social personas”. I also did not know that chocolate was believed to be medicinal, and I think that is a good example of the thought in 18th century France. The fact that people were making quality connections between symptoms and treatments shows the effects of the Enlightenment and that there was more of an effort to be learned. This was a nice topic to choose and was well done.