Carol Mullen

Catalog Number: 2019.061.01

This 1920s era chocolate box would have impressed someone’s Jazz Age sweetheart. The 20 1/2 x 7 1/2 box with four separate boxes inside was designed to hold about two pounds of chocolates. A red and white script logo identified the box as coming from “Ambroz’s Chocolates, La Crosse, Wis.”

Candy maker Rudolph Ambroz was born in Bohemia in 1883. He and his wife Rose settled in La Crosse in 1910, with Rudolph working for Funke Candy Company. While Rudolph remained at Funke, his wife Rose and their daughter began an independent candy manufacturing business in 1919. They worked out of their home at 712 Cass Street, a building that stands today.

Rudolph Ambroz appears as the owner of a retail confectionery at 301 South 7th Street in 1922 and 1924 La Crosse City Directories, but the storefront was short-lived. By 1926 the Ambroz family had returned to a home-based candy manufacturing business, now called the Liberty Candy Company.

The Ambrozs continued to live on Cass Street, but by 1934 the business was listed as the Scherdin Candy Company. Arthur and Henry Scherdin were former Funke employees who later became affiliated with the Murphy Candy Company. Rudolph and Rose retired to San Diego, California in 1937, and Rudolph died there in 1945.

The candy box itself features a color drawing of a flapper girl in a smoke colored strapless dress with a feather fan. It is signed “Hamilton King, 1920”. Hamilton King (1871-1952) was an illustrator of the period famous for his portraits of beautiful women. His “Coca Cola girls” are among his best known images, but his art also graced magazine covers, cigarette cards, and sheet music. His postcards and candy boxes could be purchased commercially. Probably the Ambroz family bought Hamilton King boxes as a deluxe feature for their fine chocolates.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 11, 2020.

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