MARK OF ROBERT TIMBRELL, LONDON, 1698

CHOCOLATE AND EARLY CHOCOLATE POTS
Chocolate as a drink first became popular in Britain in the mid 17th century as recorded by the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) who drank it to cure a hangover incurred from celebrating the coronation of King Charles II in 1661. 'Waked in the morning with my head in a sad taking through the last night’s drink, which I am very sorry for; so rose and went out with Mr. Creed to drink our morning draft, which he did give me in chocolate to settle my stomach.'

Michael Clayton in The Collector's Dictionary of the Silver and Gold of Great Britain and North America, Woodbridge, 1971, p. 90, quotes an advertisement in the Publick Advertiser from 1657 which publicises 'In Bishopsgate Street, in Queen’s Head Alley, at a Frenchman’s House is an excellent West India drink called chocolate'.

An advertisement in The Intelligencer from 23 January 1665 boasts 'One Constantine a Grasign living in Threadneedle Street... being licensed to sell and retail Coffee, Chocolate, Cherbert [sic.], and Tea, desires to be noticed, that the right Turky [sic.] Coffee Berry or Chocolate may be as cheap and as good of him... as is anywhere to be had for mony [sic.] and that people may there be taught to prepare the said Liquore gratis.'

The drink was made from cocoa liquor using ground cocoa nibs and water, popularly served in equal measures of water and milk. It could be spiced with cinnamon, rosewater, jasmine and vanilla, even chilli or pepper. It was often sweetened with either sugar or honey. The forms of the earliest and rarest chocolate pots, of which this is one, are inspired by oriental vase forms, particularly Chinese ginger-jars, and have a detachable cover with a detachable finial to allow the chocolate to be stirred with a molinet. Later examples resembled the tapering coffee pots of the early 18th century, but retained the removable finial to allow the sediment in the drink to be agitated whilst the cover remained closed.

Other examples of this very rare form include a coffee-pot made by R. Williamson, Leeds, circa 1695 (M. Clayton, op. cit., fig. 124) and two made in Newcastle. One is by Eli Bilton, 1694 (M. Holland, Old Country Silver, Newton Abbott, 1971, p. 77) and the other by William Ramsay, circa 1695 and was formerly in the Hahn collection (sold Christie's New York, 25 October 2000, lot 279). A London made example, circa 1685, maker's mark IW a tun below, the mark now attributed to John Winterton, was in the Howard and May Joynt Collection (sold Christie's New York, 19 April 1990, lot 244).

ROBERT TIMBRELL
Timbrell was the son of a Gloucester yeoman Thomas Timbrell of 'Brouckington'. He was apprenticed to Augustin Dudley in 1678 and became free in 1785. Grimwade in his London Goldsmiths 1697-1837, Their Marks and Lives, 1990, p. 682 states that he entered his first recorded mark as a large worker, probably in 1697 when the new register was started. He later went into partnership with Joseph Bell in 1707 when they registered a joint mark. He also notes that he was operating as a goldsmith banker as early as 1693 as cited by Wilfred Samuel F.S.A. in his work on the Day Book of C. Peers, a London merchant operating in the years 1689-1695. An entry on the 5 December 1693 reads 'Charles Jones Jr. Richard Crossley's bill dated Bristol 2nd inst. at 10 days sight in favour of Jones on Robert Timbrell of London, Endorsed remitted £200 to C. Peers'. A second bill is recorded in July 1694. The goldsmith bankers of 17th century London created a market for loans and credit that helped establish London as a financial centre before the creation of the Bank of England in 1694.