Victorian Chocolate Molds
March 11, 2011
There is always something magical about a piece of molded chocolate with the crisp lines, exquisite detail, and of course the sumptuous chocolate.
Amazingly, not all molded chocolates are shaped like truffles, hearts or squares... there are over 50,000 different designs for chocolate molds.
Diverse styles range from stern German Santa’s, elegantly dressed Easter Bunnies, Victorian children playing with toys, national monuments, household items, holiday themes, a zoo full of animals, and everything in between.
The Anton Reiche Company began manufacturing metal chocolate molds in Dresden, Germany during the 1870’s. Fewer than 20 companies followed suit - producing increasingly beautiful and always intricately designed molds. Very large “Show Case” molds were produced for chocolate shop windows and some of them stood more than three feet tall!
A whimsical and unique mold design I discovered the other day was a full size champagne bottle with a custom “label” soldered on to it for a Patisserie in Belgium. When the chocolate was taken out of the mold –Voilà- the label would be “embossed” on the bottle and would even be visible beneath the foil wrap.
Many candy shops and chocolatiers had custom molds manufactured by mold makers with their names or logos applied to the molds; Hershey’s Chocolate in Pennsylvania as well as Whitman’s had custom molds made for them by Anton Reiche in Germany.
The German Santa Antique Chocolate Mold in the photo is approximately 80 years old and still usable for molding. Please take off your glasses or stand back from your computer screen when viewing the molded chocolate in the photo – it will look much better...
Metal chocolate mold production in Europe all but ceased during WWII and plastic became the material of choice by the 1960’s. New York City had three companies manufacturing metal molds-two are still in business.
Currently, there is quite a diverse selection of plastic chocolate molds available, Tomric is a leading manufacturer, as they reproduce many antique chocolate mold designs in plastic.
The above photo shows a pair of German made “Bavarian Dressed” Bunnies ready for a romantic day in the country. You can see that no detail was forgotten on this gorgeous pair of antique chocolate molds!
The joy of giving or receiving a chocolate molded bunny at Easter brings back cherished childhood memories and is hard to compare to anything...
We are grateful to Wendy Mullen, of Victorian Chocolate Molds, who contributed this post.
- Victorian Chocolate Molds - March 11, 2011
We are looking for 5 feet Chocolate moulds of Santa, please let us know how can we get it.
i want this all molds in India so is your any branch in India.
please sand me add along with cont no.
Thank you