[Vwoolf] Chocolate Creams?

Stuart N. Clarke stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com
Fri Mar 31 07:14:51 EDT 2017


VW’s mother-in-law had a ‘passion for chocolate creams’ (L4 241). This passion was shared by VW (L2 62) and LW (L. Woolf “Beginning Again” 1964: 15), and in 1918 they bought three bars from a shop near Richmond Bridge run by a Belgian refugee: ‘The Great War was at last over’ (L. Woolf 1964: 257).

I didn’t realise that this was a problem!  As far as I’m concerned, I think of choc. creams as a small dark chocolate with inside a creamy white filling.  The OED gives:
2. An item or type of chocolate confectionery with a fondant centre. Freq. attrib., esp. in chocolate-cream bar.
1851  Daily National Intelligencer 18 Dec. (advt.)    The subscriber begs leave to state that he has received a great variety of imported and domestic Confectionary, viz. Fancy Boxes, Chocolate Cream, Gum Drops of superior flavors, [etc.].
1860  N.Y. Times 10 Apr. 3/4 (advt.)    Maillard's Chocolate... Chocolate Creams, Chocolate Caramels, [etc.].
1861  Illustr. London News 9 Feb. 124/2 (advt.)    Frys' Chocolate Creams.
1879  C. M. Yonge Magnum Bonum I. iv. 58   We'd got nothing to eat but chocolate creams.
1893  Proc. Ackworth Old Scholars' Assoc. 12 34   To one unaccustomed to boys and their ways, a jam tart, a bar of chocolate cream, a cocoanut, and a mixture known as turkish delight..would seem to break the elementary laws of health.
1906  Daily Chron. 25 July 6/4   A shop-worn chocolate-cream bar.
1917  McClure's Mag. Mar. 48/1   In the Lowney factories most chocolate cream centers are fashioned in molds.
1992  M. Baren How it all Began 25/1   The increased demand was at least partly due to the introduction of the now famous chocolate cream bar in 1866.
2012  Weekend Austral. (Nexis) 21 Apr. 17   This is a romantic comedy, after all—as sweet as a box of soft-centred chocolate creams.
1851—2012


However, on the TV yesterday on an antiques programme, an enamel advert from what I took to be 1910-26 of the famous Fry’s 5 boys made me look at the boy on the R more closely, and he seems to have a *bar* of chocolate in his mouth rather than a choc. with a fondant centre. This here is not the ad. I saw, but similar of course (it was clearer on the one I saw):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00158N5FI?psc=1

You can find lots of them here:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=expectation+fry%27s+five+boys&FORM=HDRSC2

This is the one I saw, but it was clearer on TV (& sold for at least £2000 at auction!):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Chocolate_Cream#/media/File:Fry%27s_Chocolate_advertisement.JPG

I thought that Fry’s choc. creams were always like this:
https://www.cadbury.ie/products/Chocolate-Cream-2454?p=2454

I think I may be wrong: look at “Beginning Again” p. 257 more carefully.  In summary, I think chocolate cream bars were either as described by the OED or were the equivalent of bars of milk chocolate (similar to what we get today).

If anyone gets any further with this, I should be pleased to hear -- to help me with “Jacob’s Room, of course.

Stuart




From: Byrne, Anne (Soc & Pol) 
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2017 11:29 AM
To: Woolf List 
Subject: [Vwoolf] Chocolate Creams?




Morning All- I have a research quest which you might be able to help me with? I am looking for an explanation of what 'chocolate creams' meant in post WW1 Britain. Why? I need an image of chocolate creams as recognised by Leonard and Virginia but as I don't know what the term means I am somewhat at a standstill. Are 'chocolate creams'  hand made (or not) confectionary (sweets in a box), biscuits (perhaps like bourbons or oreos today) or are they a chocolate bar (think Fry's) or some sort of desert made of chocolate and cream? My mind is frazzled by the puzzle  and I have to say looking at the pictures of chocolate does make me chocolate hungry. The plural seems to be important - any ideas? 




The context as you probably can guess is that Virginia and Leonard celebrated the end of the war together, sitting by the fire, 'sacramentally' eating 'chocolate creams', purchased from a Belgian confectioner on Richmond Hill (see Glendinning). The Bloomsbury Cookbook by Jans Ondaatje Rolls gives a recipe for same but according to a Guardian review this is more like a Swiss roll (Regretfully I don't have a copy of the book to check). Florinda in Jacob's Room is partial to chocolate creams and so might I if I knew what they were! 




Margaret Cole sends 'chocolate creams' to Leonard in 1967 after reading Beginning Again (Glendinning) and other readers reputedly wished they could. 




It's frivolous I know but sometimes....Looking forward to another great conference in Reading.




Warm wishes

Anne Byrne



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