No place mentioned, no editor mentioned, no date (circa 1880).
Beautiful rectangular boxes (5.3 x 3.3 inches) in thin cardboard, decorated with a chromolithograph. Each box is filled with 12 individual smaller boxes (0.78 x 1.57 inches) also illustrated with a chromolithograph which were meant to protect a piece of chocolate.
The « Grand Concerts » box represents muscians with their instruments : violin, bassoon, drum, trombone, harp, oboe, flute, horn, cymbals, bass drum, piston and clarinet.
The Costumes and Games box represents children dressed up and playing : balloon, butterfly hunt, soap bubbles, hoop, cup and ball, puppet, shuttlecock, fan (to make a bubble fly), declamation with a flower, spinning plate, music (mandolin and violin).
The Circus and Animals box represents : dog, tiger, rhino, hippopotamus, camel, elephant, sheep, polar bear, wild boar, deer, wolf and ox.
The exceptional preservation and condition of the whole set can only be explained by their non-use (there is no confectioner’s label inside the lids). Therefore, the boxes probably never contained any chocolate treat, but they still are pretty advertising items almost 150 years old !
At the end of the 19th century, chocolate makers did not lack imagination to promote their products and chromolithography offered an excellent way to catch the eye of gourmands ! All they needed to do was ask a talented and creative printer to provide original containers. The style of these charming boxes echoes those of the publishers LB (Paris), J. Minot, F. Appel, Bognard or even Testu and Massin.
Very uncommon, we have not found any other identical ones.
Offered by Librairie L’Art et la Maniere
Price : $1,350 / €1,570
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