It’s Time for: Antique Limoges Chocolate Pots
A highly desirable item of antique fine china right now is the Limoges chocolate set, or individual Limoges chocolate pots.

“During the Victorian era, it was customary to serve children hot chocolate as a breakfast or mid-morning drink,” says author Debby DuBay, an antique-Limoges dealer based in Andover, Massachusetts (www.limogesantiques.com). “A complete Limoges chocolate set included a chocolate pot, sugar and creamer, 6 or 8 cups with saucers, and a tray,” says DuBay.

The chocolate pot itself can be distinguished from a teapot or coffee pot by the size and location of the spout: a tiny, stubby spout high up on the body of the pot.

Limoges chocolate sets—so-called because they were made in the town of Limoges, France— feature either hand-painted or transferware decoration on a porcelain base, and were made between the 1860s and 1940s.

Today, individual antique Limoges chocolate pots range in price from $295 (for a transferware pot) to $1,000 (for a handpainted version). “Complete sets are quite rare, and run $2,500 to $3,500, when you can find them,” says DuBay, who has written three books about antique Limoges and has a price guide coming out in June 2007 called The Antique Trader Limoges Price Guide.

In the late 1800s, the technique for making hot chocolate typically involved placing shavings from a block of chocolate in the bottom of the chocolate pot, then adding boiling water (which would often have powdered sugar mixed with it). “Sometimes, cocoa beans were roasted and then ground into a paste and the paste was placed in the chocolate pot,” says DuBay, who adds that the modern-day method of using milk to make hot chocolate was not common until the 1950s or later.

Antique Limoges chocolate pots often featured cream-colored or pastel backgrounds with floral decorations. “I love the Limoges style with its gold trim, floral designs, and Roccoco flourishes,” says antique-china dealer Sharon Dickinson of Lancaster, Texas (www.efineantiques.com). To learn more about antique Limoges chocolate pots, check out these books: Antique Limoges at Home, by Debby DuBay (Schiffer, 2003); and Collectible Cups and Saucers: Identification and Values, Book 3 by Jim and Susan Harran (Collectors Books, 2003).