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It is a story worthy of this court. A 120-year-old box of chocolates was found on the estate of Australian poet Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson, which the National Library of Australia recently acquired.
Inside a small tin that dates back to 1900 and still wrapped in straw and aluminum foil, the bar with six chocolate rectangles has stood the test of time and is surprisingly well preserved.
“The chocolate is in good shape,” Shirleene Robinson tells the BBC. “It is one of the best preserved chocolates from this era,” adds the Australian Library historian.
The Cadbury brand chocolate is part of an offer by Queen Victoria to British troops fighting in the Boer War, a conflict between the British Empire and the two Boer nations for dominance of South Africa. It was intended to give them some comfort at the turn of the __ century.
It was in South Africa that the poet Banjo Paterson had access to the box of chocolates with the phrases “South Africa 1900” and “I wish you a Happy New Year, Victoria RI.” The writer and journalist had been sent to that territory in October 1899 as a war correspondent for the Australian newspapers Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Boxes of chocolate were highly sought after on the war front and came to cost £ 20 each, speculating that this is how Banjo Paterson got to them, either by purchase or trade-in.
To the channel “ABC”, the British Cadbury explains how chocolates are preserved today. In Buckingham Palace’s initial order for 70,000 to 80,000 pounds of cans of cocoa for the soldiers, the cocoa was asked to be “made into a paste and sweetened, ready to be used in the harsh conditions of the battlefield.”
The cans were also requested to be specially made for the occasion and decorated, as an internal Cadbury memo attests. Subsequently, the order was changed from cocoa cans to chocolate bars.
The order, paid for out of the queen’s pocket, was initially rejected by the owners of Cadbury, who opposed the war and did not want to associate with it. However, the monarch insisted on the request, arguing that his troops deserved to receive “good quality” British chocolate and the company ended up giving in on the chocolate donation and charging only for the can.
The 1900 box of chocolate and newspaper clippings from Paterson’s time as a war correspondent were kept in the family until last year, when they were purchased by the National Library of Australia. The papers will be scanned. The chocolates will be stored in a cool and dry place.
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