Food of the Gods: A Delicious History of Chocolate & Chocolate-Related Ceramics – Connecticut Ceramics Study Circle Lecture @ The Bruce Museum –

Food of the Gods: A Delicious History of Chocolate and Chocolate-Related Ceramics, a lecture by Amanda Lange, Curatorial Department Director and Curator of Historic Interiors, Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, Massachusetts.
Refreshments immediately following the lecture
Thomas Jefferson said, “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the preference over tea and coffee in America, which it has in Spain.” It was not until the 17th century that the exotic beverage of chocolate was introduced into England and her American colonies. While Jefferson’s prediction never came true, Americans have long been fascinated with the delicious phenomenon that we call chocolate, and this lecture will discuss how chocolate was produced in the 18th century, what kinds of tools and equipage were necessary to prepare the beverage, and the ceramic objects used to serve it from the courts of Europe to the tea tables of Newport, Rhode Island.
Amanda Lange, Curatorial Department Director and Curator of Historic Interiors at Historic Deerfield, received her undergraduate degree in art and art history from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and her master’s degree in early American culture from the University of Delaware/Winterthur Program.  She joined Winterthur’s curatorial staff as assistant curator of ceramics and glass and then joined Historic Deerfield’s staff in 1994. She was part of the team that developed the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, a 27,000 square-foot facility for exhibitions, visible storage, and work areas.  Amanda was responsible for opening the Museum’s Attic, a study gallery filled with over 3,000 decorative arts objects.
Exhibitions Amanda developed for Historic Deerfield include “Delicate Deception: Delftware at Historic Deerfield” and “The Canton Connection: The Art and Commerce of the China Trade,” both of which were accompanied by full-color catalogues of the museum’s collection. Amanda has been researching the history of chocolate in early America for the last decade and her article on this topic appears in vol. 17 of the American Ceramic Circle Journal.
Admission for non-members of the Connecticut Ceramics Study Circle is $25.
For additional information visit www.ctcsc.org.