Lewes Historical Society Chocolate Demonstration and Antiques Sale set Feb. 13-14
The Lewes Historical Society Valentines Antiques & Collectibles Sale and Historic Chocolate Making Demonstration will be held Saturday, Feb. 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 14 from noon to 4 p.m.
The Antiques and Collectibles Sale will be held at the Rabbit’s Ferry House, 110 Shipcarpenter St., featuring a selection of small furniture, collectibles, dishware, jewelry and more.
In addition, stop in Midway School #178, also at the Historic Complex, for a sweet treat. Enjoy free historic chocolate-making demonstrations and samples given by a team of Mars Chocolate History Ambassadors and Lewes Historical Society volunteer interpreters in historic garb.
Experience an American Heritage Chocolate Demonstration and Tasting. Treat the taste buds to drinkable chocolate (better known today as hot chocolate) in a similar fashion to the Founding Fathers and Mothers. Become enamored with this taste of the past and take opportunity to purchase American Heritage Chocolate.
Learn how chocolate arrived in America during the Colonial Period. According to “A Cup of Hot Chocolate, S’good for What Ails Ya” by Mary Miley Theobald,CW Journal, 2012, “The largest area of trade, production, and sales would have been focused around port cities; Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.”
The most likely source of chocolate arriving in Lewes would come into port on route to/from Philadelphia. The Delaware Bay and River acted as a major trade route in the 18th century and continues to be a hub of activity to this day. Records show that from 1768 to 1773, 1,3000 pounds of chocolate were imported and passed through Lewes.
Hear about a local Lewes connection to colonial era chocolate. In 1798 The English sloop De Braak boarded and captured a Spanish ship, which contained “a cargo of cocoa beans.” This incident was referenced in Donald Shomette’s 2007 book, "Shipwrecks, Sea Raiders, and Maritime Disasters Along the Delmarva Coast: 1632-2004." The DeBraak later sank in a squall off Lewes’s coast, the crew perhaps never having had a chance to enjoy their acquired chocolate.
The proceeds of chocolate, antiques, and collectibles, being sold will benefit The Lewes Historical Society. For more information on The Lewes Historical Society’s Valentines Weekend Antiques & Collectibles Sale or Historic Chocolate Demonstration, call 302-645-7670 or go to www.HistoricLewes.org.
