Chocolate pots hit the sweet spot with collectors

A mid-18th-century Belgian silver chocolate pot by Jacobus van de Vyvere brought $5,204 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2017. Image courtesy of Dreweatts Donnington Priory and LiveAuctioneers.
A mid-18th-century Belgian silver chocolate pot by Jacobus van de Vyvere brought $5,204 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2017. Image courtesy of Dreweatts Donnington Priory and LiveAuctioneers.
A mid-18th-century Belgian silver chocolate pot by Jacobus van de Vyvere brought $5,204 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2017. Image courtesy of Dreweatts Donnington Priory and LiveAuctioneers.

NEW YORK — Chocolate has been a delicacy for centuries, enjoyed around the world in a range of treats, from truffles to pudding to cookies and cakes. Its simplest and most enjoyable form is also its earliest: a hot drink. Fine dining demands all manner of specialized serving pieces, so, unsurprisingly, a canny silversmith designed the chocolate pot, a vessel exclusively for melting and serving chocolate.

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