[Sca-cooks] marzipan boxes

[Volker Bach]

Am Samstag, 10. September 2005 07:42 schrieb Stefan li Rous:
>   Johnnae mentioned:
> > I was doing an image search today and came
> > across this one
> > http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=45891+0+none
> >
> > It's too good to pass up and it's easy to get to since it's in the
> > National Gallery of Art. There are a number of detail images too.
> >
> > Still Life with Sweets and Pottery, 1627 by Juan van der Hamen
> >
> > Doughnuts anyone?
>
> The review of the painting mentioned marzipan boxes. Which ones are
> these? The round, very thin ones with tops? To me, those look very
> much like the boxes you can buy in the hobby stores made out of very
> thin wood. They look more like these in the painting are made of thin
> wood, not marzipan. Or by "marzipan boxes" is the reviewer talking
> about boxes made to hold marzipan items rather than that the boxes
> are made of marzipan?
>
> If the latter, what makes these particular boxes "marzipan boxes"? Do
> we have other period (or close to period) texts which mention
> "marzipan boxes"?

I don't know why they are called 'marzipan boxes' specifically in English, but 
they are a common feature of late period still lives and often hold sweets of 
various description. Even 'Confect', which, according to de Rontzier, is a 
kind of chunky, supersweet jam. I've used them for the purpose and it works, 
most of the time. 

German texts usually refer to them as 'Spanschachteln' (wood shavings boxes) 
for the material they are made of, or, if painted, 'Minnekästchen' (courtly 
love boxes) because they used to be used for holding love token gifts. 
Sometimes they are also called 'Konfektschachteln' (confit boxes). 

As an aside, today they are most familiar here because the better kind of 
Camembert comes in them. More than one person who got one from me reacted 
with a startled "But I don't like mouldy cheese" look.

Giano


	

	
		
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