Who can not be fascinated by French chocolate and the history of chocolatiers and confiseurs, the elaborate boxes made as presentations for their confections? I have long collected French confectioners boxes. They've ranged between something simple like this silk embroidered silk and passementerie larger ones, to c.1700s tiny ones, to elaborate and stunning works in tortoise shell - up into the $3k and higher ranges for some. Several of our Boissier Chocolatier boxes (one of the most famous of France and 200 years' history, still in production) have gone directly to the Boissier Museum in Paris. It's been fun. This one is also an antique box for a company still doing business in Paris - the French traditions are all tradition and excellence, after all. The company is named after a figure of history, "Marquise de Sevigne Chocolat de Royat". I've done a panel showing their c.1898 location and also one of their locations in Paris today. This larger box illustrates the history of chocolate becoming more readily available. The boxes from c.1700s are very small, exceptionally ornate keepsakes meant to extend the pleasure of the night or memory associated with what was then 'new', exotic - chocolate. This is a larger box, hand made, silk embroider on silk, beautifully crafted and even the company's embossed paper doily remains inside.
Very good to excellent condition throughout - kept as a souvenir for generations, one wonders what the initial event might have been. Perhaps the evening g-g-g-grandfather asked his future bride to marry him? It survives these 114 years fresh and treasured. Just imagine the joy of the chocolates that once filled this important box!
