Chocolate Mould (?)
circa 1890 to early
twentieth century
(aluminium)
If you can, imagine yourself as a person
in the late nineteenth century. You are in fin-de-siècle Vienna, or in a modest
town or a mountain village and winter is near. The leaves of autumn are
scattered and pasted on the pavements you walk along every day to and from your
university or work, or anything. For some reason, whether out of habit or for
an occasion, you choose to step into Charlie of Willy Wonka's very own shoes
(though Roald Dahl's story has yet to be published nearly seventy years on) and
buy yourself a bar of chocolate.
The kiosk from which you buy it, the very
same from which you sometimes buy le
Figaro or a pack of Samum's Zigarettenpapier, momentarily fades into
the background as you slowly peel back the wrapping paper. You feel its waxy
texture, smell its first hint of bitterness - you lose yourself entirely in
this small slab. Its face is a vignette of current life as you know it, held in
your palm, showing the recent invention of automobiles, the evolving fashions
for both men and women and the new luxury (only for those who are rich, though)
of being able to visit the country-side at ease without the hassel of public
transport. Its process of creation is also a testimony to the recent discovery
of aluminium in the 1830s and, most important of all, the bar of chocolate
(which was probably wrapped individually rather than in a set) serves as the
earliest form of a cheap, accessible-to-all advertisment for the progress of
human-kind. It emulates the dawn of the coming industial revolution. Mass
production will fade the details and originality will be lost (though not for
long) to a prevailing need of quantity over quality. One mould, hundreds of
chocolate faces.
