Glimpse of something shocking on vintage choc box

Yet when staff at Bettys unearthed this ornate model on top of a 90-year-old chocolate box buried deep in their Harrogate archives, their cheeks turned as red as the cherries on their famous cakes.

The racy image of the mystery muse has now been chosen by the Yorkshire tea rooms to appear on the boxes of their new range of vintage chocolates, released later this month.

But not before it was deemed necessary to make it slightly less risqu.

Buttons have been added to her clothes, her hair has been smoothed down, and a suggestively arched eyebrow has been lowered a little to make the boxes more appropriate to Bettys' wholesome reputation.

"We would certainly not like to be thought prudish," said Sarah Wells, who looks after the carefully preserved Bettys archives which date back to 1919.

"But as a family business we took the decision that an extra button or two on our new packaging would not go amiss.

"Our mystery model is absolutely beautiful and very seductive but she is leaving very little to the imagination.

"I am surprised at how daring the original chocolate box is for its time as there is quite a lot of flesh on display.

"I know there were flappers and jazz bands, but it is still not far from the Victorian period.

"The fact that it is still a bit risqu even nowadays, shows it must have caused quite a stir.

"We are really lucky to have the archives and to be able to draw on inspiration from some of the original pieces that have been kept over the years.

"But it is dear to our hearts that Bettys remains romantic rather than racy."

The box was discovered about 18 months ago among a carefully-preserved collection belonging to Swiss chocolatier Frederick Belmont, who founded Bettys Caf Tea Rooms in Harrogate in 1919.

While the identity of the woman who inspired the papier-mache model remains a mystery, it is known it was one of Mr Belmont's favourites and was kept alongside several other chocolate boxes and scraps of old adverts.

Mr Belmont, who was orphaned at a young age, travelled to England soon after the turn of the century to make his fortune.

After briefly working for Bonnet in Bradford, he moved to Harrogate in 1912 to work for Farrah's, the toffee producers.

He founded the original Bettys with a capital of about 5,000 and was soon dazzling customers with truffles, creams and liqueurs.

His creations were so admired that his Harrogate tea rooms quickly gained an enviable reputation, becoming a regular stop-off for members of European royal families.

The profits allowed him to set up a small artisan bakery on the outskirts of the spa town in 1922 before expanding his empire across Yorkshire.

Nowadays Bettys – which merged with the tea and coffee merchants Taylors of Harrogate in 1962 – employs more than 1,200 people across the region with branches also in York, Ilkley and Northallerton.

It also has two cafes in Harrogate where its bakery and headquarters are still situated, alongside a newly opened cookery school.

Over the years, the firm has become more famous for its ornate tea rooms and tempting cakes and pastries than its chocolates.

But following the discovery of the box, its current crop of chocolatiers have spent the past 18 months painstakingly working to recreate and modernise Mr Belmont's original recipes.

Claire Gallagher, executive chocolatier at Bettys who has helped develop the new range, said: "The original box was absolutely beautiful.

"Obviously it had to be slightly changed but it is wonderfully nostalgic and helped inspire the chocolates in it

"At that time Frederick Belmont was a true master of chocolate and we have been working hard to bring that back to life, travelling across Europe and picking up inspiration from the countries where he worked.

"We wanted to go back to our roots and have recreated the rose and violet creams, piedmont pralines, vanilla caramel hearts and truffles from that era.

"At that time these chocolates would have been unique. What Mr Belmont was doing was very new in Yorkshire and he was at the top of his field.

"There are a lot of old pictures around our bakery of the chocolates that he used to make and it is a privilege to be bringing some of them back to life."

The new vintage chocolate boxes are going on sale at all Bettys tea rooms from November 11, priced at 14.95.

Bitter truth on chocolate

Yorkshire has a long and proud chocolate-making history, but in recent decades, soaring sugar prices in

Britain and modern-day production techniques mean things have been a lot less sweet.

At one time York was known as one of the proudest chocolate making cities in Britain, boasting the confectionary giants Rowntree's and Terry's.

But Rowntree's was taken over by Nestle in 1988, and in 2006 it was announced 600 jobs would be lost at its York factory and production of brands including Smarties would move elsewhere.

The Terry's factory shut its doors in 2005 as production was moved abroad. The Thornton's empire has seen falling profits in its 600 stores.