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Revealing Histories: Remembering Slavery

Bonbonniere - Sugar and luxury

This tiny, exquisite bonbonniere indicates the high value of sugar during the 1700s. Only large enough to hold the smallest amount of sugared sweets, it is highly decorative and would have been a clear indicator of the owner's wealth. It reveals the contrast between what sugar represented to the original owner of this status symbol, and the enslavement and maltreatment suffered by those who laboured to produce its contents.

bonbonniere, made in Staffordshire, around 1770, © Manchester City Galleries

bonbonniere