Chocolate Jar with Iron-locked Lid 1725 - 1775

This is a chocolate jar with an iron-locked lid made by Talavera Poblana. The irony of something as delightful as chocolate being locked away speaks volumes. Talavera Poblana pottery is a Mexican and Spanish tradition. The blue and white colors root the jar in a colonial history of cultural exchange and domination. It speaks to the ways local craftsmanship was influenced, and sometimes subjugated, by European aesthetics. The locked lid adds another layer of complexity, alluding to control and restricted access. Chocolate, once a sacred and common drink in indigenous cultures, became a commodity under colonial rule. The jar, therefore, becomes a symbol of the transformation of cultural practices into economic transactions, suggesting a history of desire, trade, and power.