A Confectionary Affection

by

Lauren Roberts

Chocolate is the subject of a lot of bookmarks. In my collection, it is the single largest category I have, totaling thirty-two different chocolate bookmarks. One of the most attractive is from the New England Confectionary Company (NECCO), the oldest candy company in the United States.

NECCO is known less for its chocolates than for its famous sugar wafers, but as this bookmark shows the company branched out from its early success. NECCO, the company, actually began with Oliver R. Chase, a young English immigrant, and his brother Silas Edwin in 1847. Chase had invented a lozenge-cutting machine that, he discovered, was also good for cutting wafers of crunchy candy made with sugar, gelatin and various flavorings. He used this machine, considered the first American candy machine, to set up a small factory, Chase and Company, in Boston manufacturing “Chase Lozenges.” In 1876, Chase was one of only twenty firms exhibiting its machines powered by steam, a revolutionary improvement, at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

The brothers continued to design and create machinery that made assortments of candy. The one for which the company became famous and which is still an important foundation for the current corporation, were NECCO Wafers.  These candy wafers were about the size of a quarter, and offered in rolls wrapped in glassine paper. These were the first candies ever sold in multi-piece rolls, and they were an instant hit. What made them perfect, in the pre-refrigeration age, was their immunity to warm weather, which destroyed chocolates, and their hardness, which allowed them to be transported over long distances without having their flavor or texture altered.

Chase built his company solely on these wafers. So popular were they that throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s the manufacture and shipment of the candy exceeded millions of wafers. The wafers were fat-free and offered in eight flavors, though the chocolate was a particular favorite, even developing somewhat of a cult following in the 1900s. Two tons of them went to the South Pole in the 1930s with Admiral Bird, nearly a pound a week for each of his men during their two-year stay. During World War II, the U.S. government took over a portion of their plant for the manufacture of war materials and also requisitioned NECCO’s entire output for its soldiers. On VE-Day, when the blackout and curfew requirements were lifted from Times Square after three years NECCO’s Sky Bar sign was one of only six ready for operation. More than a quarter million New Yorkers thronged to welcome the lights.

Two other confectionary companies launched shortly after Chase—Ball and Forbes, founded in 1848, and Bird, Wright and Company (later called Wright and Moody), which was started in 1856—eventually joined forces with Chase in 1901, the combined company becoming the original NECCO family. The new company moved to Boston one year later and became the largest manufacturing business devoted entirely to confectionary production in the U. S.

Beginning in the late 1800s, the company began to branch out into different types of candy. One of them is instantly recognizable—the Valentine’s Day hearts. These were initially invented by Daniel Chase in the 1860s. After a short stint working with hand tools, he devised a machine with a felt roller pad moistened with vegetable coloring, usually red, which pressed against the die. The die then imprinted the words on the lozenge paste before the paste was cut and dried to its proper consistency. At the time, in addition to hearts, they also produced shapes such as postcards, baseballs, horseshoes, and watches. NECCO introduced these to the public in 1902. The sayings were sweet and included ones still used today such as “Be Mine” and “Kiss Me.”

Despite their popularity, NECCO discontinued them in the 1950s and 1960s. It was an odd business decision and one that was reversed after four years of work, but they now produce about eight billion hearts a year. Today there are thirty-two different heart messages and some of them have been in use for more than 100 years. To meet the demand, NECCO produces them from late February though mid-January of the next year. That entire production of about 100,000 pounds per day sells out in six weeks! And their assorted wafers, the original candy in the original flavors of orange, lemon, lime, clove, chocolate, cinnamon, licorice, and wintergreen, are still among the top ten sellers of non-chocolate candy in the U.S. with more than four billion wafers produced every year. 

For nearly a century NECCO profited from their wafers, hearts and a few other core candies. They acquired other confectioners including, in 1933, Lovell & Covel Company, a small manufacturer of packaged chocolate goods—and I believe, but am not certain, that the bookmark comes from this era even though the design more of a late nineteenth century one.

Around the middle of the twentieth century, however, changes in the confectionary business began to take a toll on the firm’s revenues. By the early 1960s, NECCO was stagnating. It was relying on existing products  and its aging production facilities which were wearing out as it teetered toward bankruptcy. Then a man named Harry Lebensfeld stepped in, purchased the company, and installed a new management team. Among the usual changes—the elimination of unprofitable brands, the increasing of prices, the installation of new machinery—some interesting decisions were made. Though the old leather conveyer belts and wooden troughs were jettisoned, the giant cooking kettles and cast iron wafer-stamping equipment were kept (though updated with electronic controls and other modern accessories). 

NECCO continues to be the oldest operating candy company in the United States, having celebrated its sesquicentennial (150-year) anniversary in 1997. More than 500 different confectionery items are produced at their facility in Revere, Massachusetts. But it is still the wafers and the hearts that define this company rather than the chocolate advertised on this bookmark. 

Bookmark specifications: NECCO Chocolates
Dimensions: 3" x 2 1/4"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: New England Confectionary Company
Date: circa 1900-1910
Acquired: eBay
 

Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, nearly 1,300 bookmarks and approximately 1,200 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.