Like fortune cookies, "mottos" would be included with each bonbon. Confectioneries made large amounts of bonbons, particularly the wholesalers on Lombard St. One story below relates how the children hung their stockings and shoes to be filled with bonbons... or birch rods.
More details in the following excerpts from 1804-1861, most from the 1820s & 1830s --
Unusual containers for bonbons, cornets, poet's mottos
As early in the morning as people can possibly dress themselves in
proper attire, they set out on a round of visits to relations and friends, to
wish them a happy new year and to present them with bonbons. The relations are
first visited, beginning with those nearest in affinity, then those that are
further removed, and lastly come the friends and acquaintances. It is a contest
of politeness on this occasion who shall start first, and anticipate the call
of a relation or friend.
The shops of the confectioners are dressed up on the day before with
looking-glasses, intermixed with festoons of silk or muslin, and bunches of
ribands or flowers. The counters are covered with clean table-cloths, and set
out with cakes, sweetmeats, dried fruits, and bonbons, constructed into
pyramids, castles, columns, or any form which the taste of the decorator may
suggest; and in the evening the shops are illuminated for the reception of
company, who come to buy bon-bons for the next day. Endless are the devices for
things in which they are to be enclosed; there are little boxes or baskets made
of satin ornamented with gold, silver, or foil; balloons, books, fruit, such as
apples, pears, oranges; or vegetables, such as a cauliflower, a root of celery,
an onion; any thing, in short, which can be made of confectionary, with a
hollow within, to hold the bon-bons. The most prevailing device is called a
cornet, which is a small cone ornamented in different ways with a bag, to draw
over and close the large end. In these contrivances, the prices of which vary
from one livre to fifty, the bon-bons are presented by those who choose to be
at the expense of them; by those who do not they are only wrapped in a piece of
paper; but it is indispensable that bon-bons in some way or other be presented.
In the visits to friends, and in gossiping at the confectioners' shops,
which are the great lounge for the occasion, the morning of New-year's day is
passed. A dinner is given by some member of the family to all the rest, and the
evening concludes with cards, dancing, or any other amusement that may be
preferred.
The decorations of the confectioners' shops remain till twelfth-day ;
when there is a ceremony of drawing twelfth-cake, differing from the mode in
England. The cake is very plain in its composition, being not better than a
common bun, but large, so as to cut into slices. In one part a bean is
introduced; and the person who draws the slice with the bean is king or queen,
according to the sex of the drawer. Every one then drinks to the health of the
new sovereign, who receives the general homage of the company for the evening.
The rest of the company have no name or title of distinction.
Two remarkable lawsuits between a confectioner and a poet arose out of
the celebration of New-year's Day. The poet had been employed by the
confectioner to write some mottoes in verse for his New-year's Day bon-bons;
and the agreement was, that he was to have six livres for five hundred
couplets. The poet delivered his couplets in manuscript, according to the
agreement as he understood it; to this the confectioner objected, because he
understood they were to be printed, and ready for enclosing within his
bon-bons. The poet answered that not a word had passed on the subject of
printing, and that he should not have agreed to furnish the mottoes at so low a
price if he had understood the printing was to be included. Thereupon the
parties joined issue, and a verdict was found for the poet; because, as no
mention of printing was made, the confectioner had no claim to expect it; and
because six livres was as little as could possibly be given for such a number
of lines in manuscript. After this action against the confectioner was settled,
the man of bon-bons brought an action against the son of Apollo, for that the
poet had sold a copy of the same mottoes to another confectioner, whereas the
plaintiff had understood that they were to be exclusively his. The defendant
answered that not a word had passed indicating a transfer of exclusive right;
and he maintained that he was at liberty to sell a copy to as many
confectioners as chose to purchase one.
Issue hereupon was again joined, and another verdict in favor of the
poet established his right of selling and reselling his mottoes for bon-bons to
all the confectioners in the universe.
Hone, William. The Year Book, of Daily Recreation & Information. London: 1832
Mottos and predictions
On … new-year's day above all, the relations, friends, men of all ages,
but chiefly young ones…distribute with profusion to the ladies bonbons of all
colours and of all kinds. Each of these bonbons is commonly accompanied by a
motto, a couplet, plet, or a prediction.
For a length of time, a man furnished them by contract to all the
confectioners of Paris, at so much per thousand, and he had acquired a certain
celebrity in this kind of silly composition. …people accept these sugar-plumbs,
read these mottos, laugh at their flatness, burn them, or throw them away.
A good chance for the lackies when these mottos escape the flames; they
pick them up carefully, preserve them, and when they have a certain number,
they sell them for a trifle to those fortune-tellers, whose tripods are established
on the quays. The latter sell them again, in their turn, to servant-maids, to
country girls just come to town, to the wives of petty tradesmen …but go home
fully persuaded that they carry with them the decree of their future destiny.
Letters of a mameluke…from the French of Joseph Lavalle. London: 1804
Bonbons enclosed in 'toys' shaped as lobsters, wood, cauliflowers...
The last day of the old year in Paris, and the first of the new one are
always kept with great festivity. The shops at this season are beautifully
decorated, and all the choicest goods are preserved for this display. There is
no end to the curious novelties that are exhibited; the ingenuity in trifling
articles, for which the French are famed, seems to be inexhaustible. It is the
custom on the new years day for every person to make some sort of present. Bon
bons are enclosed in toys made to represent lobsters, pieces of wood, fish,
birds, cauliflowers, and a thousand other devices; and as these are amongst the
chief articles of exchange, the shops are so crowded all day that it is
difficult to find an entrance. The waiter who brings our dinner from the restaurateur's,
presented his boite of bon bons, and from the highest to the lowest this
appears an established practice.
Johnson, John Willes. The
Traveller's Guide Through France, Italy, and Switzerland, Etc. London: 1828
Ingenious deceptions
On new-years-day, it is the custom (although I believe the same is
common to most parts of the continent) to call on all friends, and present the
ladies with fruits, toys, trinkets, or bon-bons, under some ingenious
deceptions, and which it is generally expected, will be accompanied by a
salute; therefore if you have an extensive acquaintance, it is indispensable to
set out, at an early hour, loaded with smiles, compliments, and presents.
Holman, James. The narrative of
a journey, undertaken in ... 1819, 1820 & 1821… London: 1834
Huge amounts of sweets
At all times of the year are the shops of the marchands de bon-bons, in
this modern Athens (as the Parisians call Paris), amply stocked, and constant
is the demand for their luscious contents; but now the superb magazins in the
Rue Vivienne, the splendid boutiques on the Boulevards, the magnificent dépôts
in the Palais Royal, are rich in sweets beyond even that sugary conception, a
child's paradise, and they are literally crowded from morning till night by
persons of all ages, men, women, and children. Vast and various is the
invention of the fabricants of this important necessary of life; and sugar is formed into tasteful imitations of
carrots, cupids, ends of candle, roses, sausages, soap, bead-necklaces—all
that is nice or nasty in nature and art.
Ounce weights are thrown aside, and nothing under dozens of pounds is to be seen on the groaning counters; the wearied venders forget to number by units, and fly to scores, hundreds, and thousands. But brilliant as are the exhibitions of sugar-work in this gay quarter of the town, they must yield for quantity to the astounding masses of the Rue des Lombards. That is the place resorted to by great purchasers, by such as require, not pounds, but hundred weights for distribution. There reside all the mighty compounders, the venders at first hand; and sugar-plum makers are as numerous in the Parisian Lombard-street…The visiting lists are prepared, the presents arranged, the cards are placed in due order of delivery. Vehicles of all descriptions are already crossing and jostling in every quarter of the city.
Ounce weights are thrown aside, and nothing under dozens of pounds is to be seen on the groaning counters; the wearied venders forget to number by units, and fly to scores, hundreds, and thousands. But brilliant as are the exhibitions of sugar-work in this gay quarter of the town, they must yield for quantity to the astounding masses of the Rue des Lombards. That is the place resorted to by great purchasers, by such as require, not pounds, but hundred weights for distribution. There reside all the mighty compounders, the venders at first hand; and sugar-plum makers are as numerous in the Parisian Lombard-street…The visiting lists are prepared, the presents arranged, the cards are placed in due order of delivery. Vehicles of all descriptions are already crossing and jostling in every quarter of the city.
The London Magazine. 1823
Wholesale confectioners on Lombard Street
On New Year's day, which is called Le Jour d’Etrennes, parents bestow
portions to their children, brothers to their sisters, and husbands make
presents to their wives. Carriages may be seen rolling through the streets with
cargoes of bon-bons, souvenirs, and the variety of et ceteras with which little
children and grown-up children imbribed into good humour; and here and there
pastry cooks are to be met with, carrying upon boards, enormous temples,
pagodas, churches, and playhouses, made of fine flour and sugar, and the
embellishments which make French pastry so inviting. But there is one street in Paris to which a New Year's Day is a whole
year's fortune—this is Rue des Lombards, where the wholesale confectioners
reside; for in Paris every trade and profession has its peculiar quarter. For
several days preceding the 1st of January, this street is completely blocked up
by carts and wagons, laden with cases of sweetmeats for the provinces. These
are of every form and description which the most singular fancy could imagine
—bunches of carrots, green peas, boots and shoes, lobsters and crabs, bats,
books, musical instruments, gridirons, frying pans and saucepans —all made of
sugar, coloured to imitate reality. It
would not, perhaps, be an exaggeration to state that the amount expended for
presents on New-Year's Day in Paris, for sweetmeats alone, exceeds 500,000
francs, or 20,000 sterling. Jewellery is also sold to a very large amount, and the
fancy articles exported in the first week of the year to England and other
countries, is computed at one fourth of the sale during the 12 months. In Paris
it is by no means uncommon for a man of 8000 or 10,000 francs a year to make
presents on New Year's Day which cost him a fifteenth part of his income. No
person able to give must on this day pay a visit empty-handed. Every body
accepts, and every man gives according to the means which he possesses.
Females alone are exempted from the charge of giving. A pretty woman,
respectably connected, may reckon her new year's presents at something
considerable. Gowns, jewellery, gloves, stockings and artificial flowers, fill
her drawingroom ; for in Paris it is a custom to display all the gifts in
order to excite emulation, and obtain as much as possible.
The Album and Ladies’ Weekly Gazette.
Philadelphia: July 19, 1826
New-Year’s Day costly sweet gifts
To the credit of the kindly and amiable feelings of the French, they
bear the palm from all other nations in the extent and costliness of their New
Years' Gifts. It has been estimated that the amount expended upon bon-bons and
sweetmeats alone, for presents on New Year's Day in Paris, exceeds £20,000
sterling; while the sale of jewellery and fancy articles in the first week in
the year is computed at one fourth of the sale during the twelve months. It is
by no means uncommon for a Parisian of 8,000 or 10,000 fra. a year to make
presents on New Year's Day which cost him a fifteenth part of his income.
At an
early hour of the morning this interchange of visits and bon-bons is already in
full activity, the nearest relations being first visited, until the furthest in
blood and their friends and acquaintance have all had their calls. A dinner is
given by some member of the family to all the rest, and the evening concludes,
like Christmas Day, with cards, dancing, or other amusements. In London, New
Year's Day is not observed by any public festivity; the only open demonstration
of joy is the ringing of merry peals from the belfries of the numerous steeples
late on the eve of the old year, until after the chimes of the clock have
sounded its last hour.
Godey’s Magazine, 1831
Filling stockings and shoes
How busy are French children on this new year's eve. With what
palpitating hearts and joyously trembling hands are they tying up their socks
and stockings, and spreading forth their shoes near the chimney. Ay, all, from
the little wearers of coarse sabots (wooden shoes) to the velvet-slippered
denizens of the château, are convinced that good St. Nicholas, the patron of
children, will not forget them, he never does; already twice this winter on St.
Nicholas' eve, three weeks before Christmas, and on Christmas eve, he has
favoured them. This is his last visit for the season, and the most important
too of all. They are persuaded that he comes mysteriously down the chimney to
fill their chausseurs with his shower of sweetmeats. Then what opening of eyes
in the morning ! what bounding forth from little beds, what running and
rushing, what gleeful clapping of hands, when the well-replenished shoe and
bulged-out stocking twisted with the gay comet of bonbons, show the estimation
of kind St. Nicholas for the youthful owners. I should say Sweet St. Nicholas,
for his idea must be a very concentration of sugar-plums in the mind of every
French child. But, oh, what sorrow and consternation when a birchen rod or a
horrid fool's cap protrudes its abominable unsightly form from out the dangling
unfilled stocking, warning the disobedient and careless child that the patron
of good children and prince of bonbons has no reward in store for them. And now
what visits to pay with papa and mamma, what bouquets of winter flowers, or
bottles of scent, or comets of bonbons, to take to grandmamma and grandpapa or
uncle 1 it is so pleasant to be first. It is an earnest of kindliness for all
the coming year ! And thus in pleasant fashion are spent the social hours of
the year's first day.
National Magazine. London: 1861
Stalls of bon-bons - Charles Dickens
All Paris is out of doors. Along the line of the Boulevards runs a
double row of stalls, like the stalls at a English fair…Paris is out of doors
in its newest and brightest clothes. Paris will eat more bon-bons this day,
than in the whole bon-bon eating year. Paris will dine out this day, more than
ever. In homage to the day, the peculiar glory of the always-glorious
plate-glass windows of the Restorers in the Palais Royal, where rare
summer-vegetables from Algiers contend with wonderful great pears from the
richest soils of France, and with little plump birds of exquisite plumage,
direct from the skies. In homage to the day, the glittering brilliancy of the
sweet-shops, teeming with beautiful arrangement of colours, and with beautiful
tact and taste in trifles.
Household words, a weekly journal conducted by Charles Dickens. Jan. 1, 1859
Comparing French gifts to British "compliments"
This is the time for the renewal of friendship and the confirmation of
acquaintance. The first is marked by gifts, the second by compliment. In this
country "the giving vein" is fast subsiding, and the complimentary
one dwells only on the lips. In France, they order these matters differently;
young and old, rich and poor, make ready their etrennes for the new year, and
ruin themselves in purse or constitution, by bestowing or devouring sweetmeats;
and as to compliment, every one there contrives on New Year's Day to remember
that he has acquaintance enough to devote at least one pack of the
visiting-cards to their service. Here we are more chary of our pasteboard, and
more liberal with our mahogany; we offer suppers instead of sugar-plums, and
brawn and barrelled oysters in lieu of bouquets and bon-bons. The heartiness of
the season is more observed in England, its gaiety more developed in France.
The national characteristic speaks for each country in every thing that belongs
to them.
The New Monthly Magazine.
London: 1846
Image: Le marchand de bonbons et pavés rafraîchissants à la vanille de
la place Maubert. Jan. 8, 1855. Illustration, Journal Universel from
the Brown University Library.
©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Researching Food History HOME
©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Researching Food History HOME
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