In The Merchant’s Wife poem, I continue my poeticised response to “food-related” art, specifically in this painting as to what they may be having for breakfast or morning tea. If you’d like a close-up of the painting, click on “source” in the caption.
The pot at the centre of the table looks like it might be a chocolatière, rather than a coffee pot. It’s tall, like a coffee pot, but has a shorter spout. And while there’s one teacup, the other three cups (for the children?) are taller, which was also typical for drinking chocolate.
The western chocolate-drinking craze began in the 17th century and continued pretty much until the early 1900s. In 1690, England’s William III and Queen Mary II had their own chocolate kitchens at Hampton Court Palace. Marie Antoinette in 1770 appointed her own Chocolate Maker to the Queen.
While drinking hot chocolate started as a mark of royalty, it filtered down the classes, as chocolate in various forms became more accessible. But it was still very much an upper-middle class thing to do to have your warm chocolate drink for breakfast (warm because of the method required to make it).
Here’s an article on chocolate history that takes us back to central America. More on the recent chocolate drinking history, here. More pictures of chocolate pots here. I took liberties with this 1877 recipe here.
The Merchant’s Wife
If six lavish tablespoonsful
of rich chocolate, crumbled
into equal volumes
of water and cold creamy milk,
with added tablespoonsful of sugar,
boiled, but cooled long enough
to coat your languid lips,
served with sweet-smelling
just-baked apple streusel,
under sweet-smelling gardenias,
in an oasis of fronds and ferns,
to the sound of sparrows,
and your own children’s laughter
don’t put a smile on your face,
it’s time to move conservatories.
©elsp 2025
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