By Ann Wagner

Abstaining from hot chocolate should never be a New Year’s resolution!

It’s a new year, and we are welcoming a new addition to our collection. Winterthur recently acquired a one-of-a-kind, gilded silver hot chocolate set with dainty poppy-shaped vessels, made in 1915. While this set does not represent how most consumers sipped hot cocoa in the early 1900s, and certainly not today, antique ceramic and silver chocolate pots remind us how internationally revered this beverage has been throughout its multi-century history.  Hot chocolate came to America in the 1600s, and when this set was new, tins or boxes holding cakes of powdered cacao were combined with hot milk and sweetened to taste with sugar. Yum!

This illustrated trade card for Wilbur’s Chocolate Company features Cupid sipping from a gilded white porcelain cup and saucer—likely enjoying the Breakfast Chocolate in the bright blue box behind his head. 

Porcelain cups and ceramic mugs are ideal for protecting the lips from that first scalding sip, but the chocolate set we acquired has six silver poppy cup frames with no liners. It is hard to imagine adults drinking from such tiny openings, which seem more to scale for the fairies inhabiting Winterthur’s Enchanted Woods. A porcelain liner creates a fluted opening more apropos for a human and adds another insulating layer to preserve the chocolate’s heat while shielding the lips. 

Cup frames of sterling silver, silver electroplated with gold, or silver-plated base metals were not uncommon products in the early 1900s. However, while Europeans drank their hot beverages from a clear glass placed in a metal frame, Americans drank theirs from white porcelain liners set in metal cup frames. This set’s maker, Gorham Manufacturing Company (headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island), worked with Trenton, New Jersey manufacturer Lenox Ceramic Art Company to craft a liner reflecting the American-style hot beverage drinking glass: gold-rimmed white porcelain liners fitted to their coffee, tea, and hot chocolate cup frames. 

Although our poppy cup frames no longer contain their original liners, Gorham’s early 1900s sales catalogues survive to help us imagine them. This page shows a chocolate cup and two teacups from the 1908 Catalogue Addenda and was shared by a silver scholar who sourced it in the Gorham Archives, John Hay Library, Brown University. 

Since the hot chocolate set we acquired was created as a special order for Anita Baldwin, owner of the historic estate, Anoakia, of Arcadia, California, it never appeared in the Gorham catalogues. Our chances of finding an antique liner with the cups’ exact dimensions were close to zero.

However, we wanted to display these poppy cup frames with a Lenox liner, so a near match was located with this narrow demitasse shape. It extends about one inch above the frame, and you can see how the liners visually complete the set’s overall design. We are delighted to welcome this lovely set into our ever-growing collection. As you gaze at each of its components, you realize that even in small doses the irresistible smell and taste of hot chocolate was a prized indulgence a century ago – just as it is today. 

Henry Francis du Pont was an avid collector of American art and antiques representing the finest craftsmanship and styles of early America, and we invite you to come to Winterthur and enjoy our vast collection of treasures like this elegant hot chocolate set. And, of course, to continue to enjoy hot chocolate the way you like it best! 

Transforming Natural Materials into Fashion Inspired by the Work of Ann Lowe

By Kim Collison

Shoes shaped from leaves and adorned with seed pod heels. A larger-than-life dress crafted from textiles and greenery and bursting with every floral shape. These Transformations works by local artists Lenny Wilson and Katya Roelse join staff-created trees and couture fashion designs for this year’s Yuletide display, inspired by our exhibition Ann Lowe: American Couturier. As part of Transformations: Contemporary Artists at Winterthur, they are the latest in a series of contemporary works reflecting artists’ connection to Winterthur’s collections. 

Vivid colors and creative patterns found both indoors and out throughout the Winterthur garden and the collection have inspired floral artists and creators for decades, so it comes as no surprise that the couture works by Ann Lowe in the Galleries have also brought fresh creative vision to many. Henry Francis du Pont said, “I have always loved flowers and had a garden as a child, and in almost every flowering plant there is order, proportion, color, detail and material, and if you have grown up with flowers and really seen them, you can’t help to have unconsciously absorbed an appreciation of [these things].” Surely Ann Lowe could relate to this sentiment, as  most of her work features colorful floral elements, including fabric-sculpted roses trailing the length of a dress, Bermuda lilies framing the neckline of a bridal gown, and delicately “fussy-cut” floral appliques hemming a 1930s dress.

No shoes appear with Lowe’s designs, but three pairs of nature-inspired shoes created by Delaware native Lenny Wilson are on view just outside the exhibition. Wilson learned to make shoes at a leather-trades college in London before beginning a career in public horticulture. His artwork combines shoemaking with horticulture, resulting in life-size shoes made from plant leaves and seed pods—a unique biographical expression.  

He says, “I believe shoes are a symbol of good luck. Archeologists have found shoes among the ruins of ancient homes that were placed in the walls by their inhabitants. Shoes have been tied to the back bumpers of cars of couples that were ‘just married.’ Dorothy’s ruby slippers protected her and transported her back to safety. Shoes reveal a lot about a person. To walk a mile in another’s shoes is to gain familiarity to that person’s experiences. Even though these shoes have never been worn, they assume a personality all their own.”

Like Wilson’s shoes, the vibrant dress outside the Galleries abounds with personality. A combination of greenery and fabric, it shares design elements with the bridal gown Ann Lowe created for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s wedding. Designed by Katya Roelse, who recreated Kennedy’s wedding dress on view in Ann Lowe: American Couturier, the 8-foot-tall dress incorporates the gown’s iconic fabric rosettes and features the many  floral creations, construction techniques, and decorative elements Lowe used in other gowns. Roelse, an instructor in the Fashion and Apparel Program at the University of Delaware, explains, “I wanted to create a dress that showcases what might have been Ann Lowe’s unbridled imagination and her favorite sources of inspiration. If you look closely enough, it drops clues about her work and the Kennedy gown. You see details about the Kennedy gown that you may not be able to see otherwise.”

On your Yuletide visit, come to the Galleries. Admire Roelse’s artistry in both gowns. Be enchanted by Wilson’s whimsical shoe creations. Explore the gardens and grounds of Winterthur and be inspired as well!