NODEM 2014 Proceedings

Authenticity and Authorship: The Chocolate Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace
Figure 9. Recreated Chocolate Cup, Hstoric Royal Palaces
Earthenware ceramics were based on models actually used at Hampton Court. An archaeological excavation
of the moat surrounding the palace in 1910 removed large quantities of ceramic fragments, including a piece
of an early eighteenth century chocolate cup. We worked with a skilled potter who uses local English clay
and traditional glazes and techniques to make replica cups. In this instance he re-created a cup that we know
would have been used at Hampton Court.
The furniture, cupboard, chairs and table are antiques have no royal or situational provenance but are of the
right date and appropriate to the space. Again we were guided by inventories, in particular, the 1722 inventory
of the Earl of Tankerville, (Add Mss 40,377) of a chocolate kitchen in which all of the items were mentioned. We
could have had these made and perhaps it would have been more honest as an approach to do so, however,
the truth is that it is cheaper to buy old furniture than commission new re-creations.
We took huge amounts of care in re-creating the layout of the objects in the room. Curators and food archaeologists
worked in tandem using inventories and many seventeenth and eighteenth century images of kitchens
and by considering what would have been practical and useful to fill the Chocolate Room. This resulted in
a clean and organised space, suitable for storing precious gold and silver and serving expensive chocolate.
Questions Raised by Recreating the Chocolate Room
The research process has been guided by interpretative needs throughout. We chose not to fill the chocolate
kitchen with props because we wanted visitors to have the same experience we did when we found this remarkably
well preserved room that had been hidden behind storage racks for years. However, in the Chocolate
Room, where little survived, we wanted visitors to understand how Mr Tosier had used it, so we chose to populate
the space appropriately.
The act of re-creating the space and items within the Chocolate Room has been thorough and elaborate.
Although there have been guesses, they have been educated ones. The archival record is particularly rich because
of its royal nature. We have been able to expand and supplement this record through referring to real,
extant objects in other collections and HRP’s own archaeological collections and importantly the archaeological
surveys of the space.
NODEM 2014 Conference & Expo
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