This Magic Bon Bon Box was patented by J.M. Hartz in 1872. It was a cardboard candy box with two lids, and two compartments. In one, you would put loose candies (bon bons) and in the other, the same number of candies pasted down. Once you had all this set up you could do various magic tricks, looking as if you were making the candies appear and disappear at will. You could, of course, make some of them disappear by eating them, but it would not have the same effect!Bon bons were often candy-coated almonds, but they could also be any number of candies with either a fondant center, dipped in chocolate (i.e. chocolate creams) or else candied fruit or another sweet filling coated with crystallized sugar or hardened sugar syrup.
The Larousse Gastronomique (1961 edition, p. 152) states that bon bons are simply candies in general and that they come in four classifications:-dragées (sugar-coated almonds)
-bonbons fondants (fondant = filling made of sugar, water and cream of tartar cooked until soft but pliable)
-boiled sweets (hard candy)
-pastilles (fruit jellies)
The Larousse is very detailed, and also rather pompous and old-fashioned - in a strangely enjoyable way. It goes on to talk about other candies such as caramels, but the above four would be the basics to place in your Magic Bon Bon Box. I'm not quite sure how you would paste down the fruit jellies. Caramels might work better, actually.
The bon bon advertisement is from the same decade as the Magic Box. Patent image and advertisement (from Puck magazine, 1879) are from Google Patents and Google Books.
6 comments:
Great, now I'm having a screaming craving for Turkish paste...and there's a candy shop on the same block as me. Evil woman!
Interesting. As usual.
Joseph Hartz was an inventor of several magic trick devices, according to google. His short bio is quite interesting.
The Ebon Swan - Oh dear, now I am also thinking of Turkish delight (reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe also brings this malady on)...Sorry about that!
Max - Thank you, I will go have a look at that. I might have to revisit him (hurrah, more draft posts in the chute!)
Max again - Just read it, yes, definitely will have to post about him some more, thank you again!
I must forward your post to my brother, who was quite the serious magician in his late teens. His repertoire was sadly lacking a bon bon box.
Phyl - I am getting quite interested in doing more posts on magic, and looking forward to teaching myself about it (I know virtually nothing aside from having read a bio of Houdini).
Bon bon boxes are always a plus, magic or not - especially when they are full of bon bons.
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