Accession Number

2024.007.002

Description

One small late 19th Century single-serve silver-plated chocolate pot with an ebony handle and finial knob, the pot marked “M&S” for Joshua Maxfield & Sons Ltd. of Sheffield and London. The ebony finial knob is showing some dryness in comparison to the handle.

Narrative

This chocolate pot has a long history of use by the descendants of Robert and Joan Olive Dunsmuir.
 

History of Use

This late 19th Century chocolate pot is believed by the donor to have been used by her great-grandfather, John Cowper Bryden (1848-1915) on Vancouver Island in Wellington, and later in his residence called Dalzellowlie in Esquimalt, B.C. She remembers that her grandfather John William Bryden (1869-1953), known to his family as “Poppy”, used it at his Gartley Beach house near Royston, Vancouver Island (near Cumberland and Courtenay). It was next inherited by the donor’s father, Gerald Robert Bryden (1913-1992), and then by his daughter, from whom it was acquired by The Castle Society.
 

Dimensions

14.8 x 7 cm
14.8c high to top of finial on lid X 7cmW at base X 9cmL handle from base of handle affixed to vessel

Material

Metal, alloy; Metal, silver; Wood, ebony

Technique

Tooled; Electroplated; Cut

Country of Origin

England