Fruit Jar Rambles Extra By Tom Caniff — Photos by Deena Caniff
ROCKWOOD’S ACORN JAR We’ve had a picture of the jar in Photo 1 floating around here for years, just waiting to write it up, when an example showed up in Greg Spurgeon’s North American Glass auction in March of this year. This clear, fancily shaped, unlettered, ground-lip jar stands about 11” tall and sports a metal screw cap (Photo 2) that’s nicely embossed * ROCKWOOD & CO. * ACORN BRAND all around TRADE (acorn) MARK within a round roped frame. The jar has been described as an acorn-shaped jar, but you have to look at it upside down, and the similarity is still pretty vague to me. When we first saw one of these jars some years back, I had to do some looking to discover just who Rockwood & Co. was and what the relatively large product jar might have held. Well, then. In 1886, the firm of Rockwood & Co., chocolate and cocoa manufacturers, was formed, with a factory on Cherry Street, in Manhattan, New York City. William Rockwood and Wallace Thaxter Jones were equal partners. The business expanded and the firm moved its factory to Washington and Park Avenues, Brooklyn, in 1902, becoming incorporated at that time. Mr. Rockwood died in 1902 and Mr. Jones became president of the company, retaining that office until his death at age 72, all according to the April 8, 1922 BROOKLYN LIFE, of Brooklyn, N.Y., upon the occasion of Mr. Jones’ death. Rockwood & Co.’s Acorn Brand Chocolates were advertised as early as April 3, 1888, in the ALTON (Illinois) EVENING TELEGRAPH. “Rockwood & Co’s Acorn Brand (Absolutely Pure.) Each Chocolate
Cream is wrapped in wax paper bearing the trademark of the above concern –– a guarantee of fine quality and reliable goods. The quality is unsurpassed by any goods of the kind made, equaling those that are retailed at 80c to $1 a pound, while the popular price of these is 40c a pound...” Figure A shows a plug for the chocolates from THE MANSFIELD COOK BOOK that reads “Rockwood & Co’s Cocoas and Chocolates / We heartily recommend to our customers. W. H. Mansfield & Co. –– Try Acorn Brand Chocolate Creams.” And on December 4, 1897, ‘Acorn Brand Wrapped Chocolates’ were described in the SALINA (Kansas) DAILY REPUBLICAN JOURNAL, as being “absolutely pure, being made of the finest cocoa, sugar and fruit flavoring, with each piece separately wrapped and bearing the trademark of Rockwood & Co.” Is it possible that these Acorn chocolates might have been packed in our featured Acorn jar? Considering the apparent scarcity of the jars, a nine (or more) year run seems a long time. Aside from chocolates, Rockwood was also noted for its cocoa. The Dec. 10, 1909, HARTFORD (Connecticut) COURANT carried advertising stating that, “A cup of Rockwood’s Cocoa is as nourishing and strengthening as an average helping of meat - 10 Cups For 5 Cents. We now pack Rockwood’s Cocoa in convenient 5-cent cans. Note what this means to you: You get just as much for your money as you do in large-size cans. Each can makes ten cups.” Photo 3 shows Rockwood’s Rock-Co Brand Cocoa in a larger two-pound tin, of uncertain date. Rockwood & Co. was one of the most widely known candy and chocolate manufacturers in the United States.
PHOTO 1: Rockwood & Co. candy jar.
PHOTO 2: Rockwood metal screw cap.
July 2020
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