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Antique Vintage Creme De Cacao Belgian Label, St. Benoit 1920s - 1930s
3\" x 2 1/2\" ~
Imagine this antique advertising hanging on your wall as home decor in any room or giving it as a gift to someone!
đ Specifications
- Object: die-cut shield-shaped paper liqueur label, unused
- Printed: CREME DE CACAO / St.-BENOIT / ( Marque Déposée ) / R. C. Courtrai 23.473
- Colors: rust-orange border with dark outline and metallic gold scrolls, cream stippled center
- Place printed: Courtrai (Kortrijk), West Flanders, Belgium
- Era: 1920s-30s
- Size: 3 x 2 1/2 inches
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Condition
Unused new old stock, never applied to a bottle. Plain paper back with the front printing faintly showing through; no glue and no bottle stain.
đ The StoryMarque DĂ©posĂ©e and R. C. Courtrai
Marque Déposée means registered trademark. R.C. is the registre du commerce, the trade register, and the number beside it is the firm\'s register number, not a serial of the label. Courtrai is the French name of Kortrijk, Belgium. St. Benoit is its own mark, not Bénédictine of Fécamp.
CrĂšme de Cacao and the Alexander
CrĂšme de cacao is a cacao-bean liqueur, often with vanilla; the crĂšme means high sugar, not dairy. New York bartender Hugo Ensslin printed an Alexander of gin, white crĂšme de cacao and sweet cream in Recipes for Mixed Drinks (1916 and 1917 editions), and with brandy it became the Brandy Alexander.
Golden Spurs and the Golden River
In 1302 Flemish militias on foot beat the French knights outside Kortrijk, and about 500 pairs of their spurs went to the Church of Our Lady. Centuries later the town lived on flax retted in the river Leie, whose water legend said had special powers, hence the Golden River; the retting itself turned the water yellowish.
French in Flanders
Kortrijk speaks Dutch, yet the label is all French: nineteenth century Belgian authorities worked in French, Dutch became a co-equal official language in 1898, and the 1932 language laws made Dutch the language of administration in Flanders.
Why It Is Rare
Bottle labels went out with the empties. An unused St. Benoit Creme de Cacao label from Courtrai is a rare survivor.
đ Good For
- Belgian and European liqueur label collections
- Cocktail history and home bar displays
- Kortrijk and West Flanders family history
- A framed gift for a chocolate lover
